HBRF Megamax – Emax2 Air Circuit Breaker ABB

Boundaries in the life cycle

As indicated in the PCR capital goods such as buildings, machinery, tools and infrastructure, the packaging for internal transport which cannot be allocated directly to the production of the reference product, may be excluded from the system boundary. Infrastructures, when present, such as processes deriving from the ecoinvent [6] database have not been excluded.

Data quality

In this LCA, both primary and secondary data are used. Site specific foreground data have been provided by ABB. Main data sources are the bill of materials & drawings which are available on the ERP (SAP) & Windchill. For all processes for which primary are not available, generic data originating from the ecoinvent database [6], allocation cut-off by classification, are used. The ecoinvent database available in the SimaPro software [7] is used for the calculations.

The data quality characterized by quantitative and qualitative aspects, is presented in Appen- dix 1. Each data quality parameter has been rated according to DQR tables from Chapter 7.19.2.2 of the Product Environmental Footprint Guide v.6.3 to give an indication of geography, technology and temporal representativeness.

Environmental impact indicators

The information obtained from the inventory analysis is aggregated according to the effects related to the various environmental issues. According to “PCR-ed4-EN-2021 09 06” and EN 50693 [3] the environmental impact indicators must be determined using the characterization factors and impact assessment methods specified in EN 15804:2012+A2:2019 [8].

PCR-ed4-EN-2021 09 06 and the EN 50693:2019 [3] standard establish four indicators for cli- mate change: Climate change (total) which includes all greenhouse gases; Climate change (fos- sil fuels); Climate change (biogenic) which includes the emissions and absorption of biogenic carbon dioxide and biogenic carbon stored in the product; Climate change (land use) - land use and land use transformation. Other indicators as per the PCR [1].

Allocation rules

Allocation coefficients are based on the Emax 2 line’s occupancy area for electricity, methane and water consumption as well as the total amount of waste generated by the production line. All these flows have been allocated and divided by the total number of HBRF Megamax - Emax 2 circuit breakers produced in 2023.

Limitations and simplifications

Raw materials life cycle stage includes the extraction of raw materials as well as the transport distances to the manufacturing suppliers. These distances are assumed to be 1000 km as per the PCR [1]. This distance has been added to the one already included in the market processes used for the model, because of a conservative choice made by the LCA operators.

Application of grease lubricant on the circuit breakers operating mechanism has been ex- cluded since it is negligible. Surface treatments like galvanizing, tin and silver plating as well as their related transport processes (back and forth from the finishing suppliers) have been con- sidered in the LCA model. The RAL paints/color coatings used on the components are excluded from modelling. Specific phosphate surface treatment, Stearate coating have been excluded by operational choice (mass of the components involved < 0.9% of the final product, thus neg- ligible). For some components with no equivalent on ecoinvent database [6], the dataset “Elec- tronic component, passive, unspecified {GLO}| market for | Cut-off, S” was used.

Inventory analysis

In this LCA, both primary and secondary data are used. Site specific foreground data have been provided by ABB. For data collection, Bills of Material (BOM) extracted from ABB's internal SAP software were used. They are a list of all the components and assemblies that constitute the finished product, organized by level. Each item is matched with its code, quantity, weight and supplier. The BOMs were then processed, adding material, surface area and other weight data, taken from technical drawings. Finally, the manufacturing process and surface treatment were assigned, according to information provided by R&D personnel. Road distances between the suppliers and ABB were calculated using google maps, and marine distances using distances & time (Searates).