Environmental impacts of producing and recycling the global passenger vehicle fleet. Integrated scenario analysis with Dynamic Stock models and the Waste-Input-Output model

Abstract

Abstract The last decades humans observe changes that are happening in the climate system. The climate system is warming and only in the last 60 years there have been observed many changes on Earth that they have not been there over decades to millennia. Higher temperatures are recorded in the ocean and atmosphere, ice and snow are melting, sea level is rising and more greenhouse gases are concentrated in the atmosphere. Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is significant in order to achieve climate mitigation goals. In 2007, 26% of carbon emissions related with energy were caused by the transportation sector. Passenger vehicles have an important role to play to climate mitigation. In addition, automobile industry is considered to be one of the most important consumers of materials. Treatment of EOL vehicles can reduce primary material consumption, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. A dynamic lifecycle assessment for the production and recycling of the global vehicle fleet has not been conducted yet. The combination of dynamic modeling approaches with input output analysis is becoming more popular resent years. In particular, a combination of a dynamic stock model and the waste input output model for the production and recycling of the global vehicle fleet is going to be presented in this master thesis. More specifically, the global waste input output model will be hybridized in order to include end of life vehicle treatment sector. A dynamic stock modeling for the global vehicle fleet until 2050 will be performed. Then, the two models the dynamic stock model and the waste input output model will be linked together. The carbon footprint for the production and recycling of the global vehicle fleet and the steel, aluminum and copper scrap recovered from recycling will be calculated and presented. The results of the model for the carbon footprint and the metal recovery from production and recycling of the global vehicle fleet will be presented and they can be considered as a gigaton solution to climate change mitigation.