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MECEEO System
Hydraulic Book

Environmental Impact Assessment:

The exchanges (shown in table (3.10), with the environment (expressed in grams and kg for resource, emission, and waste) through the life cycle of the hydraulic product system hold a potential for impacts, including resource consumption and impacts on the environment.

The significant environmental impact potentials and resource consumptions in the entire lifespan of the hydraulic motor OMV/W-800 are qualitatively described on the basis of the EDIP method’s normalization and weighting criteria.                             The potential impacts, including resource consumptions and impacts on the environment are                                 assessed in two ways in the product system:

¨            The potential impacts on the stages of the hydraulic motor OMV/W-800, where the life span of the hydraulic motor is divided into four main stages e.g. raw material + semi-product stage, manufacturing stage, use stage and disposal stage and 

¨            on the entire lifespan of the hydraulic motor OMV/W-800.

The qualitative descriptions on the stages in the entire lifespan of the hydraulic motor OMV/W-800 are reported:

¨            Raw material + semi-products, appendix A, chapter 5,

¨            Manufacturing stage, appendix B, chapter 5,

¨            Use stage, Appendix C, chapter 7

¨            Disposal stage, Appendix D, chapter 2 respectively.

The qualitative description on the entire lifespan of the hydraulic motor OMV/W-800 is reported below:

0.1.1          Environmental Impact potentials  

This section describes the environmental impact potentials of each of the processes, ancillary substances, and transportation and energy consumption in an entire lifespan of the hydraulic motor OMV/W-800. The EDIP PC-tool is used to summarize the environmental impact potential categories. As much of the input data to the computer tool is based on literature, assumptions and discussion with externally involved companies, LCI experts, and the qualitative description of the environmental impacts potentials are made.

The exchanges with the environment all represent a potential for environmental impacts and are converted to environmental impact potentials on the basis of the method described in Part II and IV in the EDIP book, volume 1, (Michael and Henrik, 1997a). All of the emissions, which arise from the hydraulic motor OMV/W-800 throughout its lifespan and have potential impacts on the environment, are included. These emissions and waste from the entire lifespan of the hydraulic motor are summarized into the number of environmental impact potentials given in table (3.11).

The table shows emissions from the hydraulic motor OMV/W-800 converted to global, regional and local impact potential categories. The impacts are not ranked in relation to some order of magnitude, and the potentials for environmental impacts are not weighted according to how critical they are. The table therefore exclusively shows each individual contribution to the environment.

As shown in table (3.11), emissions from the hydraulic motor create large amounts of global warming, human toxicity (water), eco-toxicity (all), photochemical ozone creation and acidification and nutrient enrichment impact categories. Global warming is due to the raw materials processes, energy consumption in the use stage and hydraulic oil incineration processes in the disposal stage of the hydraulic product system. The regional human toxicity mainly derives from the raw material + semi product stage (see table (A5.1) in appendix A) and local human toxicity is the cause of oil combustion in the use stage of the hydraulic product system. The eco-toxicity occurs in the raw materials production processes in the raw material + semi-products stage and by ancillary substances used in the manufacturing stage through wastewater. The acidification impact potential is the cause of large amounts of energy consumption in the use stage and the raw materials processes outputs. In the event of photochemical ozone creation and nutrient enrichment impact potentials, the use stage is a significant stage of the hydraulic motor.          

The waste is classified into four categories, and the produced amount of waste is summarized in different categories and illustrated in the table above. It should be noted that the impact potentials on the environment (such as e.g. pollution of groundwater, pollution of drinking water or consumption of land) from waste are not converted, because it has as yet not been possible to include the dumping of waste in landfills as a process and to predict the relationship between quantity of waste and environmental impacts. The quantities of waste are used as indicators of the environmental impact potentials to which they can lead. The raw materials processes in the raw materials + semi-products stage produce large amounts of bulk waste and hazardous waste, and slag and ashes waste is generated in the incineration processes in the disposal stage and energy generation processes in the use stage.     

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Last modified: October 13, 2001