Base-case Environmental Impact Assessment

This section presents the results of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis for all the base cases identified above, using the EcoReport Tool²⁹². In this analysis, all life cycle stages of a pump unit are considered, these include:

• Production

o Material production o Product manufacturing

• Distribution

• Use over product service life (10 years)

• End-of-life o Disposal o Recycling o Incineration o Stock

The results of the analysis serve as reference to compare the total environmental impacts of the different base cases.

The results are presented per base case (per pump unit) throughout their product service life which in all base cases is 10 years, and as annual environmental impacts calculated for 2014 as the reference year considering stock of that year. For calculating the environmental impacts, the mass of materials in product and in stock is considered, and also the fractions of the product sent to end-of-life disposal, incineration, recycling and stock. Stock is the surplus (or deficit) of mass in stock (in use or stored with consumer) due to growth (or decline) of the unit sales or the share of the materials fraction over a period that equals the product life.

The environmental impact categories are split into three main categories

• Resources and waste

o Total Energy (Gross Energy Requirement - GER) o Electricity (in primary MJ)

o Water (process) o Water (cooling)

o Waste, non-hazardous/landfill o Waste, hazardous/incinerated

• Emissions (air)

o Greenhouse gases in GWP100 o Acidification, emissions

o Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) o Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) o Heavy Metals

o PAHs

o Particulate Matter (PM dust)

• Emissions (water) o Heavy Metals o Eutrophication

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Overall the largest environmental impact of the products is from the use phase followed by the production phase. Recycling credits are achieved by the products due to the recycling of disposed materials such as metals.

Four of the environmental impact categories are presented in the next four sections (total energy, Global Warming Potential, Acidification and Non-hazardous waste) for all the base cases, and the remaining impact results are presented in Annex 7.

10.2.1 Total energy (Gross energy requirement-GER)

The total energy for each life cycle stage for each base case is presented in Table 40. It is evident that the use phase is the dominant stage for all base cases with some base cases having a use phase impact almost 1000 times greater than the production stage.

The base case 18 (vertical multistage pumps in variable flow applications with a max.

design pressure of 25 to 40 bar) has the highest total energy, whilst base case 24 (domestic swimming pool pump units) has the lowest. This is not only due to the lower use of energy during the use phase, but due to the lower gross energy requirement from the production in spite of the higher credits from recycling (which comes mainly from recycling the metals).

For most of the clean water pump units, the total energy demand is greater when used in variable flow applications, except for the borehole multistage submersible pump units (base cases 13 & 14). This is mainly due to the lower gross energy requirement at the use phase. The reason why all the clean water end suction pump units for variable flow applications present higher total energy is because they consume more electricity as they have lower efficiencies (see Table 38). This is because these pump units operate at lower levels from their BEP compared to pump units for constant flow applications.

For wastewater pump units, the total energy demand is lower when used in variable flow applications. This is because of their lower total energy during use phase.

10.2.2 Greenhouse gas emissions

Table 41 presents the greenhouse gas emissions for each life cycle stage for each base.

The same picture is observed, where the use phase is the major source of greenhouse gases presenting much higher levels of emissions than the production stage which is the second highest.

The base case 18 (vertical multistage pumps in variable flow applications with a max.

design pressure of 25 to 40 bar) has also the highest greenhouse gas emissions, whilst the base case 24 (Swimming pool pumps) has the lowest. The trend in greenhouse gas emissions is the same as for total energy, which is the use of total energy in the use phase and gross energy requirements from the production stage.

The greenhouse gas emissions have the same trend as observed for total energy between variable and constant flow applications.

10.2.3 Acidification, emissions

The acidification emissions for each life cycle stage for each base case is presented in Table 42. The same trend as for total energy and greenhouse gas emissions is observed, where the use phase is dominant followed, to a much lower extent, by the production stage.

The same base cases present the highest (base case 18) and the lowest (base case 24) source of acidifying emissions. This is due to the consumption of fossil fuels in electricity

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production during the use phase. In addition, base case 18 presents a high source of acidifying emissions in comparison to the other base cases in the production stage due to the materials used and their manufacturing processes (mainly from metals melting and casting).

The same trend for acidification is observed between variable and constant flow applications as for total energy and Greenhouse gases.

10.2.4 Waste, non-hazardous

Table 43 presents the non-hazardous waste for each life cycle stage for each base case.

The same trend is observed as for the other impact categories where the use phase is dominant, although in some cases the contribution of non-hazardous waste from the production stage is proportionally larger (e.g. 15% for domestic swimming pool pump units and 10-36% for wastewater pumps, even when considering the credit for recycling).

The same base cases show the highest and the lowest amount of non-hazardous waste generation (base case 18 and base case 24), due to the high and low amount of non-hazardous waste generated during the use phase from fossil fuel extraction for electricity production plants.

The same trend for waste is observed between variable and constant flow applications as for total energy, Greenhouse gases and Acidifying emissions.

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Table 40. Total energy (Gross energy requirement-GER) for each life cycle stage for each base case in MJ.

Life Cycle phases PRODUCTION