Real-Time Allocation of Volatile Energy Related Emissions in Manufacturing

Abstract

International agreements target a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. A major contributor to these greenhouse gas emissions is the generation and consumption of energy. By a varying supply and demand of different energy sources including renewables a varying energy mix results. A difficulty poses the determination of CO2 equivalent emissions for volatile energy types, because different energy sources have type-specific emission amounts. Within the manufacturing environment, the challenge is to allocate the resulting energy flows, respectively emission flows through the existing hierarchical structure. State of the art provides methods for the calculation of embodied energy. Life cycle assessment methods can be used to determine environmental impact, but are carried out mostly as static analysis. Within this publication an approach to determine the embodied emissions with the consideration of volatile CO2 emissions is presented. The goal of the approach is to provide a path to map the resulting CO2 equivalent emissions to produced goods in a manufacturing context. Used methods include the analysis of existing methods for energy allocation in products and life cycle assessment methods. An analysis of the electricity grid has been conducted and a mathematical model for the calculation of inherent CO2 equivalent emissions has been formulated. The paper provides a conceptual approach to map volatile equivalent CO2 emissions to produced goods and can be used to minimize embodied energy in further applications.