Eco-Effectiveness of Modular Products and Fleets within the Automotive Industry

228 Pages·2023·4.717 MB·English

by  Chris David Gabrisch

AutoUni – Schriftenreihe
Chris David Gabrisch
Eco-Effectiveness
of Modular Products
and Fleets within
the Automotive
Industry
AutoUni – Schriftenreihe
Volume 164
Reiheherausgegebenvon
VolkswagenAktiengesellschaft,VolkswagenGroupAcademy,Volkswagen
Aktiengesellschaft,Wolfsburg,Germany
Chris David Gabrisch
Eco-Effectiveness
of Modular Products
and Fleets
within the Automotive
Industry
ChrisDavidGabrisch
Salzgitter,Germany
AdmitteddissertationoftheTechnicalUniversityCarolo-WilhelminazuBraunschweig,
2022.
The results, opinions and conclusions of the AutoUni publication series published
doctoralthesesareonlythoseofthedoctoralcandidate.
ISSN1867-3635 ISSN2512-1154 (electronic)
AutoUni–Schriftenreihe
ISBN978-3-658-40593-9 ISBN978-3-658-40594-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40594-6
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Disclaimer
Ergebnisse, Meinungen und Schlüsse dieser Dissertation/Veröffentlichung sind
nicht notwendigerweise die der Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft.
The results, opinions and conclusions expressed in this thesis are not
necessarily those of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft.
v
Abstract
The automotive industry is facing the challenge of reducing its environmen-
tal impact to comply with stricter fleet emission regulations across all relevant
markets.Thus,newtechnologies,e.g.lightweightmaterials,oranelectrifiedpow-
ertrainneedtobeintegratedintothenewproductstoreachthereducedemission
limits for the products. Many innovations that reduce emissions during the use
stageofavehicleoftencomewithhigherburdensduringtheproductionstageor
at the end of life stage. However, both these stages are currently not regulated.
Thecurrentemissiontargetsaresetforfleetaveragesintheusestageonly.Thus,
the OEMs need to find the ideal product configuration based on new technolo-
giesanddesigntheidealfleetcompositiontoreachthistargetwiththeleastcost
effort. Still, an OEM’s contribution to the targets of the Paris Agreement must
consider the entire life cycle of a vehicle, surpassing the targets of the current
legislations which focusses on the use stage only.
This work presents a concept that identifies the ideal configuration of a mod-
ular product system like a vehicle to meet a limited environmental impact at the
lowestlifecyclecostsalongtheentirelifecycle.Thisoptimizationisbasedonthe
idealcombinationofmodularproductcomponentswhichareselectedbyanalgo-
rithmbasedongraphtheory.Amodifiedshortestpathalgorithmisusedtodefine
the flow through a network of available components with individual weights for
costs and emission on every arc. Expanded to a minimum-cost flow problem,
multipleagents,e.g.representingafleetofvehicles,aresentthroughthenetwork
with the target to identify the ideal fleet configuration. Herein lies the challenge
of handling limited availabilities of certain options (e.g. scarce green electric-
ity for the use stage of electric vehicles). The presented methodology includes a
mechanism that assigns such limited options to those individual vehicles within
a fleet that profit the most from that specific option.
vii
viii Abstract
TheapplicationtoacasestudybasedonaVolkswagenGolfVIImodelandan
exemplary fleet of 100,000 vehicles of this type of vehicle shows the advantages
of the developed concept. Four different emission limitation scenarios, ranging
from 35t CO eq. to 21t CO eq. over the entire life cycle, have been assessed
2 2
for both the single vehicle and the vehicle fleet. The results show that for fleet
targets within the defined assumptions and scenarios, a fleet-based optimization
for 100,000 vehicles is more efficient compared to a single vehicle optimization
whichisthenrolledoutto100,000vehicles.Forrelativelysimpleemissionstan-
dards, the fleet is ideally based on combustion engines with optimized driving
resistances, e.g. by using lightweight materials. For stricter standards, electrifi-
cation is indispensable. Given the defined assumptions and scenarios, a tipping
point is reached at an emission limitation of 28t CO eq. per vehicles life time.
2
Starting from this emission limit, the algorithm stops using gasoline powered
vehicles and starts to incorporate electric vehicles into the fleet composition.
Keywords Life cycle assessment · Life cycle costing · Graph theory · Eco-
effectiveness·Fleetemissionreduction
Contents
1 Introduction .................................................. 1
1.1 Present Situation and Problem Statement .................... 1
1.2 Research Objective and Structure of Thesis .................. 5
2 TheoreticalBackgroundandTechnicalOverview ................ 9
2.1 Modularity of Product Systems and Product System Fleets ..... 9
2.1.1 Modular Product System Architectures ................ 9
2.1.2 Multiple Product Systems and Population Fleets ........ 18
2.2 Life Cycle Thinking ....................................... 20
2.2.1 Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ................ 22
2.2.2 Life Cycle Costing ................................. 28
2.3 Sustainable Development and Corresponding Legislation ....... 33
2.3.1 Environmental Impacts and Impact Assessment ........ 33
2.3.2 Sustainability and Sustainable Development ........... 36
2.3.3 General Environmental Legislation ................... 41
2.3.4 Environmental Regulations for
the Automotive Industry ............................. 43
2.4 Life Cycle Engineering and Mathematical Optimization ....... 51
2.4.1 Life Cycle Engineering .............................. 51
2.4.2 Optimization Approaches for Decision Support ........ 57
2.5 Conclusions Regarding the Theoretical Background ........... 60
3 StateofResearchandIdentificationoftheResearchGap ......... 63
3.1 Criteria and Requirements for Optimizing
the Eco-effectiveness of Product Systems .................... 63
3.1.1 Criteria to Handle Product System Modularity ......... 64
3.1.2 Criteria to Handle Use Case Specific Requirements ..... 65
ix
x Contents
3.1.3 Criteria for Optimization Approach ................... 66
3.1.4 Additional Requirements to Obtain Useful Results ...... 67
3.2 Current Approaches and State of Research ................... 68
3.2.1 Product Modularity ................................. 70
3.2.2 Modular Life Cycle Assessments ..................... 72
3.2.3 Optimization of LCA and LCC ...................... 75
3.3 Identification of the Research Gap .......................... 83
4 ConceptfortheOptimizationofEco-effectivenessofProduct
Systems ...................................................... 91
4.1 Concept Requirements ..................................... 91
4.2 Framework for the Optimization Concept .................... 93
4.2.1 General Framework ................................. 93
4.2.2 Selection of Graph Theory as Optimization Approach ... 96
4.3 Modelling the Product System’s Structure in a Network ....... 103
4.3.1 Transformation of Modular Product Systems
into Networks ...................................... 103
4.3.2 Product System Networks Including
Interdependencies .................................. 106
4.3.3 Network Reduction Strategies for Interdependency
Modelling ......................................... 110
4.3.4 Strategy Adaption to Reduce the Data Demand
of LCA Values and LCC Values ...................... 115
4.4 Data Management of the Input Data ......................... 122
4.5 Adaption of Shortest Path Algorithms to the Problem
Statement ................................................ 124
4.6 Visualization and Interpretation of Results ................... 132
5 Prototypical Implementation and Application of the
Methodology .................................................. 137
5.1 Prototypical Implementation of the Optimization Approach .... 137
5.2 Exemplary Application Cycle of the Optimization Approach ... 141
6 ApplicationoftheOptimizationApproachtoaCaseStudy
oftheAutomotiveIndustry ..................................... 145
6.1 Life Cycle Perspectives of a Vehicle ........................ 146
6.1.1 Product Life Cycle of a Vehicle ...................... 146
6.1.2 Environmental Assessment of a Vehicle’s Life Cycle .... 148
6.1.3 Total Cost of Ownership along a Vehicle’s Life
Cycle ............................................. 151
Contents xi
6.2 Selection of Measures for the Reduction of Greenhouse
Gas Emissions ............................................ 155
6.2.1 Selection of Measures and Module Alternatives ........ 156
6.2.2 Measure Analysis Regarding LCA, LCC and
Availability ........................................ 161
6.3 Data Input for the Vehicle and Fleet Optimization ............ 168
6.4 Results of Optimization for Different Scenarios ............... 171
6.4.1 Analysis of the Results for a Single Vehicle
Optimization ....................................... 174
6.4.2 Analysis of Results for Vehicle Fleet Optimization ..... 177
6.4.3 Sensitivity Analysis of Results ....................... 184
6.5 Findings for Further Vehicle Development and Fleet
Planning ................................................. 187
7 Summary,CriticalAppraisalandOutlook ....................... 193
7.1 Summary ................................................ 193
7.2 Critical Appraisal ......................................... 195
7.3 Outlook .................................................. 196
Appendix ........................................................ 199
Literature ....................................................... 203