The 6th International Conference on Life Cycle Management in Gothenburg 2013 INFLUENCE OF REMANUFACTURING ON LIFE CYCLE STEPS: AIR COMPRESSOR STUDY CASE IN BRAZIL

Remanufacturing is a key scenario in end-of-life (EOL) management. From Life Cycle Assessment’s (LCA) point of view, means more elementary processes after the product’s use phase. However, this choice affects the early steps of its life cycle, usually by decreasing demand on acquisition of raw-materials, lower need of manufacturing processes, and an adition of life time. This paper aimed to discuss the influences of the Remanufacturing Scenario on early steps of its life cycle. The methodology used was the LCA based on LCA standards. We used as study case an air compressor and compared the Remanufacturing Scenario with a Reference Scenario where the final disposal was set the equipment to a landfill. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment was performed with the software SimaPro®7.3 and CML2000 method for Abiotic Depletion and Global Warming, and Total Acumulative Energy Demand (single issue). The case study showed that the Remanufacturing as EOL Scenario is able to decrease until 47 % of the impacts compared to the Reference Scenario. However, this improvement can not always represents a better environmental performance when considered a numerical balance of the impacts inside each phase