Master's thesis in Industrial Asset ManagementThe transportation sector is responsible for the second largest ratio of the greenhouse gas emissions that can cause severe effects on human health and the environment. On the other hand, this sector is important by providing human beings with access to education, health care, employment opportunities, etc. and also leads to economic growth. As a result, sustainability is vital for this sector. Many initiatives have been introduced to lead to sustainability for this sector such as electric cars, e-scooters, car-sharing business models, etc. Recent studies have proved that among the current available means of urban transportation, electric cars, conventional bicycles and electric bicycles have the lowest level of environmental and human health impacts. However, the damages associated with the production phase, and energy consumption during the use phase of the electric cars are still too high. Also, lack of safety and comfort of the bicycles can decrease their uptake among the public. Hence, a state-of-the-art concept of velomobile is developed to bridge the gap between the cars and bicycles.
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the undesirable environmental and human health impacts caused by the use of the velomobile. Therefore, in this research, a systematic, comprehensive, and scientific approach is proposed in order to measure and document the sustainability of the velomobile with respect to the environmental and human health footprints, this approach is called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) or Cradle-to-Grave Analysis. Meanwhile, this methodology can enable the stakeholders of the asset to identify the points with the highest contribution to the environmental and human health damages, and accordingly improve the environmental and human health footprints performance of the velomobile. Also, the study can provide a practical application of the LCA study for four-wheeled pedelecs with electric assist.
Based on the application of the study, the EndPoint LCA was selected to be implemented. The LCA framework is developed for the asset in compliance with two main international standards, ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.
The results and analysis have shown that if the velomobile is ridden using renewable energy, the environmental and human health impacts of the vehicle can be half, and the damages can be mainly attributable to the manufacturing phase of the product, otherwise, the impacts can mainly come from the use phase of the velomobile. Also, the results have demonstrated that the electrical system and rolling chassis assemblies are primarily accountable for the impacts caused during the production phase. Moreover, aluminium components, batteries, electric motors and electronics for control units have the highest environmental and human health impacts potential. In the meantime, the maintenance of the product during the lifetime of the velomobile can lead to the second largest proportion of the damages due to the battery replacement times over the lifetime of the vehicle.
The study concluded that recycling development, technical improvements of the battery packs, aluminium components and electric motors, involvement of the stakeholders in the improvement processes, and continuous follow-up on the environmental and human health footprints performance improvement of the product using the developed mind map can bring about a significant reduction of the impacts
