End-of-Life of Heavy Duty Vehicles

Sammanfattning: There are limited studies which focus on the End of Life (EOL) of Heavy-Duty Vehicles (HDV). Also, there is no legislation which deals in the collection and recycling of the EOL of HDV inthe EU. This has necessitated the need of EOL study of HDV in the EU. The overarching objective of this study is to evaluate the environmental performance of the EOL of HDV using a lifecycle approach. The study is carried out in the four steps: (a) Defining HDV and their EOL (b) mapping of the material flows which cover dismantling and recycling market HDVs systemsin the EU; (c) examining the environmental impacts of the EOL of HDV; (d) identifying the methodological issues related to allocation methods and shortlisting coherent methods to implement for HDV.A case study in Scania HDV in Sweden is developed. In order to map the EOL ecosystem of HDV, interviews and meetings are conducted with stakeholders, along with the number balance calculation using Eurostat and European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) databases. The LCA is undertaken in the three EOL- HDV scenarios, i.e. baseline, recycling and reuse. Additionally, twelve EOL recycling allocation methodologies are evaluated. EOL allocation methodologies are significant because they define how virgin, recycling, and disposal environmental burdens are allocated. Results calculated, as a part of this thesis, from European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) and Eurostat databases, have shown that 72% of HDV which come to EOL in EU are dismantled. This percentage indicates the presence of a big market for EOL dismantling of HDV in Europe. Results from the environmental assessments of HDV focus on the midpoint Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) categories of climate change, fine particle formation, fossil resource use, freshwater and marine eutrophication, ozone formation (human health and ecosystems), and terrestrial acidification. In this thesis, climate change impact has been given special attention. LCA results indicate that the truck EOL share of cradle to grave climate change impact is 0.78%. Aluminium, plastic, rubber, glass, and lubricant have their EOL share of cradle to grave climate change impact as 0.04%, 0.04%, 0.04%, 0.0005%, and 0.05%, respectively. Six EOL recycling allocation methodologies are implemented on eight material flows. Steel had the highest climate change impact amongst all material flows in all methodologies. Total truck allocation methodology results, having only recycling and disposal burdens, for the climate change impacts as a percentage of cradle to grave impacts are 0.24%for cut off, 0.55% for cut off with credit, 0.78% for allocation to material losses, 0.28% for allocation to virgin material use, 0.53% for 50/50 and 0.67% for circular footprint formula. Allocation to material losses was chosen as the methodology most representative of the EOL environmental burdens.