Exercises Unit6EcoPropertiesandEcoAuditTool MA UOC en

Exercises With Worked Solutions
Unit 6: Eco Properties and the Eco Audit Tool
Professor Mike Ashby

Department of Engineering
University of Cambridge
M. F. Ashby, 2011
For reproduction guidance see back page
This exercise unit is part of a set based on Mike Ashbys books to help introduce students to materials, processes and rational
selection.
The Teaching Resources website aims to support teaching of materials-related courses in Design, Engineering and Science.
Resources come in various formats and are aimed primarily at undergraduate education.
www.grantadesign.com/education/resources
M.F. Ashby 2010
Exercises With Worked Solutions Unit 6: Eco Properties and the Eco Audit Tool
Exercises with Worked Solutions

This collection of exercises and solutions has been put together to help you as an
instructor choose or develop your own exercises for your students. You may simply
want to browse through them for inspiration, or you may use them with your class.
We are providing these in Word format so that you may pick and choose the
questions you find suitable for your course this year. We have also included
variations on a theme so that you can set different questions for different classes.
Most of the questions come from or are inspired by the exercises in the following
books by Professor Mike Ashby of the University of Cambridge Engineering
Department, co-founder of Granta Design.
Materials Selection for Mechanical Design by Michael F. Ashby (ISBN-13:

978-0750661683)
Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing and Design by Michael F.
Ashby, Hugh Shercliff, and David Cebon (ISBN-13: 978-1856178952)
Materials and the Environment by Michael F. Ashby (ISBN-13: 9781856176088)
(Reproduction and copyright information can be found on the last page. Please make
sure to credit Professor Mike Ashby and Granta Design if you use these questions.)
Most of the questions require the use of CES EduPack. However where a topic, such
as understanding how to translate design requirements into specific criteria for
selection, is important on courses that traditionally use CES EduPack, we have
included exercises on these topics too, even though they dont directly use CES
EduPack. (CES EduPack is a materials teaching resource used at 700+ Universities
and Colleges world wide. You can find out all about it here:
www.grantadesign.com/education .)
Topics on which there are Exercises with Worked Solutions are:
Title
Unit 1: Materials classification and properties
Unit 2: Manufacturing Processes classification and properties
Unit 3: Design translating requirements into constraints and objectives
Unit 4: Elements
Unit 5: Selecting Materials
You can find the other units here: www.grantadesign.com/education/resources
If there are other topics upon which it would be good to have a collection of
questions, or if you have questions that you have used successfully with your
students that you would like to donate to the Materials Education Community,
attributed to you, then please contact Grantas Materials Education Coordinator at
teachingresources@grantadesign.com.
M.F. Ashby 2011
Eco Data in the CES EduPack............................................................................................ 3

Finding the Data................................................................................................................ 3
Finding Definitions and Background Information .............................................................. 5
Data Sources and Accuracy ............................................................................................. 6
The Case for Eco-design Consumption, Production and Resources......................... 8
Resource life, reserves and the prices of materials ...................................................... 16
Energy and CO2 Life Cycle Assessment......................................................................... 23
End-of-Life Treatment ....................................................................................................... 31
Eco Properties in CES EduPack ...................................................................................... 38
Eco-informed Material Selection ..................................................................................... 48
Eco Audits - Product Case Studies ................................................................................. 61
Longer Summary Questions ............................................................................................ 76
Please note: Most of the questions in this unit are based on questions in the books mentioned
on the previous page, but whereas the books generally do not require the use of the CES
EduPack these have been adapted to fully take advantage of the features the software
provides and so that you do not need the books. If you would like to see questions on this
topic that dont need the CES Edupack, but may need the books, please download the
solution manuals to the books that are also available in Grantas Teaching Resource Website.
Eco Data in the CES EduPack

Finding the Data
1. Open up the CES EduPack and click on the Help menu. Watch the video tutorial called
Browse Levels 1&2. Pay attention to the material record section and particularly around
the 3 minute mark where it is shown how to set the sub-set to Edu Level 2 with Eco
Properties. Open up the record for Age-hardening Wrought AL-Alloys (Metals and Alloys
> Non-ferrous > Aluminum and Alloys >). Make sure the subset and layout are set to Edu
Level 2 with Eco Properties.
What are the 5 categories of Eco-related data, starting with Geo-economic data,
available?
M.F. Ashby 2011
Answer.
(a) Geo-economic data for principal component
(b) Primary material production: energy, CO2 and water
(c) Material processing: energy
(d) Material processing: CO2 footprint
(e) Material recycling: energy, CO2 and recycle fraction
2. A company wishes to enhance its image by replacing oil-based plastics in its products by
polymers based on natural materials. Use the Search facility in CES to find biopolymers.
There is a video tutorial on this if you need it. List the materials you find.
Search Results:
Natural rubber
Polylactide
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA, PHB)
Starch-based thermoplastics (TPS)
Cellulose polymers (CA)
3. Are the embodied energies and CO2 footprints of Biopolymers less than those of
conventional plastics? Watch the video tutorial on plotting charts and make bar charts of
embodied energy and CO2 footprint to find out. Which polymers are Biopolymers can be
found by searching on that term.
Answer.
A search on Biopolymer delivers the 5 materials listed below. The plot of embodied
energies for polymers shows that the first four have lower embodied energies than any
other polymer or elastomers. The equivalent chart of carbon footprint, below, reveals that
CO2 release associated with their production is at the lower end of that for polymers it
is about the same as that polyethylene or PVC on a per Kg basis.
Selected Materials:
Natural rubber
Polylactide
Starch-based thermoplastics (TPS)
Cellulose polymers (CA)

M.F. Ashby 2011
Finding Definitions and Background Information

4. Click on the property heading Embodied Energy, Primary Production. What is the
definition of this property?
Answer.
The embodied energy is the energy other than that from bio-fuels that is committed in
making a unit weight of material from its ores and feedstock.
5. Click on the Help Menu and choose CES Help. In a tab labeled search on the left search
for the term Carbon Footprint. What is the Definition of Carbon Footprint, Primary
Production?
Answer.
CO2 footprint, primary production =
The mass of carbon dioxide (CO2), in kg, produced and released into the atmosphere, as
a consequence of the production of one kg of the material.
M.F. Ashby 2011
6. Click on the Help Menu and choose CES Help. Click on Glossary of Terms, choose
your language and click on Carbon Footprint, recycling. What does recycle fraction
mean?
Answer.
The recycle fraction is the fraction of current supply that derives from recycling
Data Sources and Accuracy

7. Where does the data on the embodied energy of a material come from?
In the Help menu of CES EduPack click CES Help. In the search function on the left-hand
side type Eco Audit Tool Sources of Environmental Data. List the top 3 references
under the heading Material production: embodied energy and CO2, engineering
materials.
Answer.
Aggregain,
(2007),
The
Waste
and
Resources
Action
Program
(WRAP),
www.wrap.org.UK. ISBN 1-84405-268-0. (Data and an Excel-based tool to calculate

energy and carbon footprint of recycled road-bed materials.)
AMC, (2006) Australian Magnesium Corporation
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/environ/greenhse/gasrpt/Sub65-dk.pdf
APME, (1997 ,1998, 1999, 2000) Association of plastics manufacturers in Europe "Eco
profiles of the European plastics industry" Brussels, Belgium. (www.lca.apme.org )
8. How precise is the embodied energy data
Find the notes on this topic by searching for Eco Audit Tool Precision of environmental
data in the CES Help Menu. Review the graph of reported values of embodied energy for
Aluminum.
By approximately how many MJ/Kg did the extreme values of reported embodied energy
differ by in 2000?
Answer.
Approximately 150 MJ/Kg difference in 2000.
M.F. Ashby 2011
9. What are the main sources of uncertainty in the data?

Go back to the definition of Embodied Energy by clicking on the heading in the Aluminum
record. Scroll down the science note to the point where it says It is important to
recognize that values for embodied energy, CO2 footprint, and the other emissions are, at
best, approximate, for a number of reasons.
Answer.
Material production plants differ in scale, equipment, and practice. The values
usually quoted are those for an industry-average but the variation is large: typically
20%.
Quantifying the inputs is not straightforward, particularly in regard to the system

boundary. The energy-accounting includes transport, but should it also include the
energy required to build the ship, truck or plane? And what about the energy to make
the equipment that made the ship..? That line of reasoning could go on forever and
leads nowhere, so the system boundary is usually set at the first remove only: the
energy to mine and transport the ores and feedstocks, for example, but not that to
build the equipment to do it. Even so, system boundaries are a source of uncertainty.
The practice of eco-accounting is relatively new. A full input-output analysis,

including emissions inventory, is expensive and time-consuming, and has been
carried out, at this point in time, for relatively few materials.
10. Can we make decisions with uncertain data?

a. Material 1 has an embodied energy of 70 MJ/Kg and Material 2 has an embodied
energy of 55 MJ/Kg. Both values are known to within 20%.
Can you say for certain which material has the higher embodied energy?
M.F. Ashby 2011
b. Material A has an embodied energy of 100 MJ/Kg and Material B has an embodied
energy of 60 MJ/kg. These values are known to within 20%.
Can you say which has the highest embodied energy?
Answer.
(a) 20% of 70 = 14. 70 14 = 56. 56 MJ/Kg is the lowest possible value for Material 1.
20% of 55 = 11, 55 + 11 = 66 MJ/Kg is the highest possible value for Material 2.
Therefore it is not possible to say with complete certainty that Material 1 has a higher
Embodied Energy (MJ/Kg)
embodied energy than Material 2.
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
20
20
Material 1
Material 2
(b) Yes.
The Case for Eco-design Consumption, Production and

Resources
11. There is international agreement that it is desirable (essential, in the view of some) to
reduce global energy consumption. Producing materials from ores and feedstocks
requires energy (its embodied energy). The CES Edupack Level 2 with Eco Properties
contains data on the Embodied Energies, Primary production of materials in MJ/kg and
Annual World Production in Metric tones per year. (1 Metric Tonne = 1000kg.) (You can
change the units used in CES Edupack in the options menu).
Using Edu Level 2 with Eco Properties plot a bar chart with Embodied Energy * Annual
World Production * 1000 on the Y-Axis. (The Video Tutorial Plotting Charts has a section
M.F. Ashby 2011
on Plotting functions that explains how to do this. You will find it in the Help Menu.) This is
the annual energy commitment in MJ/year.
Label Medium Carbon Steel, Age Hardened Al-Alloys, Polyethylene, Concrete and
Silicon.
If consumption of each could be reduced by 10%, which material offers the greatest
global energy saving? Which the least?
Answer.
This chart shows the annual energy commitment associated with the production of each
material (MJ/Yr). Reducing consumption of steel and of concrete by more efficient
design of structures perhaps have by far the greatest potential for global energy saving.
Doing the same for device grade silicon has the least, by a large factor (note this chart
has a log scale). Although the embodied energies of materials differ considerably, it is the
much greater differences in annual consumption that dominate the total energy
commitment and the carbon burden they generate. This is one reason that focus has to
be placed on the materials used in the greatest quantities.
12. The ultimate limits of most resources are difficult to assess precisely, although estimates
can be made. One resource, however, has a well-defined limit: that of usable land area.
The surface area of the globe is 511 million square km, or 5.11 x 1010 hectares (a
hectare is 0.01 sq. km.) Only a fraction of this is land, and only part of that land is useful
M.F. Ashby 2011
the best estimate is that 1.1 x 1010 hectares of the earths surface is biologically
productive. Industrial countries require 6 hectares of biologically productive land per head
of population to support current levels of consumption. The current (2008) global
population is close to 6.7 billion (6.7 x 109). What conclusions can you draw from these
facts?
Answer.
The current biologically productive area per person is 1.1 x 1010 / 6.7 x 109 = 1.64
hectares/person, less than 1/3 of that currently needed to support a person in a
developed country. Thus a large fraction of the worlds population can never reach the
same level of consumption currently enjoyed by developed countries unless the global
population declines, or new forms of intensive agriculture, perhaps based on genetically
modified crops and animals, enable a dramatic increase (factor 3) in the productivity of
the areas of the earths surface that are biologically productive.
13. The world consumption rate of CFRP is rising at 8 % per year. How long does it take to
double?
Answer.
The doubling time tD can be expressed as
tD
100
70
log e (2)
r
r
where r is the percentage fractional rate of growth per year. Thus a growth rate of 8%
means that consumption doubles every 8.75 years.
14. Derive the dynamic index
t ex ,d
rR
100
log e (
1)
r
100 Po
The dynamic index is the time it will take for the reserves R of a resource to be exhausted
given a growth rate in production of r% each year where Po is the production rate at time
t=to.
Answer.
If the production rate is P tonnes a year and this increases by r% every year,
dP
r
P
dt 100
Integrating over time t gives
M.F. Ashby 2011
10
r (t t o )
P Po exp
100
Integrating this over time to give the cumulative production Qt* up to time t = t* and
equating the result to the reserve R gives
t*
Qt*
Pdt
toO
100 Po
r (t * t o )
exp
1 R
r
100
Solving for the time interval (t*to) gives the desired result.
15. A total of 5 million cars were sold in China in 2007; in 2008 the sale was 6.6 million. What
is the annual growth rate of car sales, expressed as % per year? If there were 15 million
cars already on Chinese roads by the end of 2007 and this growth rate continues, how
many cars will there be in 2020, assuming that the number that are removed from the
roads in this time interval can be neglected?
Answer.
Starting with the equation
r (t t o )
P Po exp
100
we enter P = 6.6 x106 and Po = 5 X 106 and the time interval (t-to) = 1 year, and solve for
r. The result is r = 27.8% per year.
The cumulative number of cars entering use in the subsequent 13 years is found from the
integral of this equation over time
t*
Qt*
Pdt
toO
100 Po
r (t * t o )
exp
1 R
r
100
Entering Po = 5 X 106 (the number in 2007), r = 27.8% per year and (t-to) = 13 years gives
the additional number of cars by 2020 at Qt* = 650 X 106. To do this (if we are picky) we
must add the number already there in 2007, giving a final total of 655x106, larger than the
M.F. Ashby 2011
11
number in 2007 by a factor of 100. (This colossal number is still only equivalent to 1 car
per 3-person family, less than the current car ownership per family in the US.)
16. Prove the statement made in the text that, at a global growth rate of just 3% per year we
will mine, process and dispose of more stuff in the next 25 years than in the entire 300
years since the start of the industrial revolution.
Answer.
Exponential growth has a number of alarming features, among them, the doubling time
both of consumption and of the total quantity consumed. The consumption rate C of a
resource grows by follows the law
C C o exp r (t t o ) (1)
here C0 is the consumption rate when t = t0. The doubling time for the consumption rate is
tDC, meaning that the rate will have doubled to 2C0 in the time tD = t t0. It is calculated by
equating C in equation 1 to 2C0
2C o C o exp(rt D )
giving
1
t D ln 2
r
the quantity ln 2 = 0.69, so that, at a growth rate of 3% per year ( r = 0.03 ) , consumption
doubles in 23 years.
We are interested here not in the consumption rate but in the total quantity, Q, consumed
since consumption began, which we are setting to 300 years ago, roughly the start of the
Industrial revolution. It is the integral of C over time.
t
Q Cd C o exp r ( t o )d
giving
Co
expr t t o exp(rt o ) (2)
r
Q0 is the total amount consumed prior to the present day (when t = t0), thus,
Qo
Co
1 exp(rt o ) (3)
r
We want the time tQ (the time to double the total quantity consumed) where tQ = t t0 is
the time from the present day that Q = 2 Q0, i.e. when (from equations 2 and 3)
Co
exp(rtQ ) exp(rt o ) 2Co 1 exp(rt o )
r
r
M.F. Ashby 2011
12
solving for tQ gives
exp(rt Q ) 2 exp(rt o )
Now note that if t0 = 100 years (meaning that consumption started 100 years ago) and r =
3% per year (0.03), then exp (-rt0) = 0.05. If t0 = 1000 years, it is roughly 10-13.
Compared with 2 both numbers are negligible. Thus, the result for the doubling time of
consumption is the same as that for consumption rate, namely.
1
t Q ln 2
r
(The underlying reason both tD and tQ are the same is simply that
dx e x )
That means that the total quantity of a given resource that will be consumed in the next
23 years (given the modest rate of growth of consumption of 3%/year) is equal to the total
quantity consumed over the history of industrial development. Not a happy thought.
17. Global water consumption has tripled in the last 50 years. What is the growth rate, r %, in
consumption assuming exponential growth? By what factor will water consumption
increase between now (2008) and 2050?
Answer.
Write consumption as
r (t t o )
C C o exp
100
which on inversion gives
C
100
ln
(t t o ) C o
The ratio C / Co = 3 for the time interval (t-to ) = 50 years, giving r = 2.2% / year . If this
growth rate continues, the consumption of water will increase over the next 42 years by
the factor
r (t t o )
C C o exp
= 2.52
100
that is, it will more than double. Water supply in many parts of the world is already barely
able to meet demand. It is not clear how this need will be met.
18. In the CES EduPack use Edu Level 2 with Eco Properties to create a bar chart of Annual
world production. Label Medium Carbon Steel, Polyethylene, Softwood: Pine, along the
grain and Concrete. (Watch the video tutorial in the help menu called Plotting Charts if
you have forgotten how to do this.) Annual World Production is displayed in tonnes per
M.F. Ashby 2011
13
year when the CES EduPack is set to using metric values. There are 1000 Kg in a metric
Tonne. (You can change units in the options menu.)
Now create a new chart showing Annual World Production in terms of volume. On the yaxis plot Annual World Production / Density * 1000. This now shows annual world
production measured in m3/year. How does the ranking change?
Answer.
Concrete and steel dominated production when measured in tonnes per year. But for at
least two of these materials softwood and concrete it is the volume that is used that is
M.F. Ashby 2011
14
important, not the weight. By this measure wood is second only to concrete in the quantity
used. Wood remains one of the central materials of structural engineering.
19. Water usage in production of materials varies widely. Plot a chart of Water Usage using
CES EduPack Level 2 with Eco Properties. Which material has the highest value?
Click on the bar to go to the record and scroll down to Water Usage in the Primary
Material Production section. Click on the title Water Usage and read the science note.
What is commercial water usage and how does that affect the value of water usage for
leather?
Answer.
Leather
In considering the water consumption for natural materials, the distinction of whether or
not they are irrigated is a useful one. Trees and plants that are the source of materials
such as wood, bamboo, cork and paper will not, as a general rule, be irrigated while
plants
used
in
the
production
of
some
thermoplastics
(cellulose
polymers,
polyhydroxyalkanoates, polylactides, starch-based thermoplastics) and for cattle

feedstock (for leather) are generally grown under irrigated conditions. For this reason it is
usual to split the water usage into two parts: commercial water usage and total water
usage. For the vast majority of materials these two values are the same, but whereas the
total water usage in the growing of trees and plants includes non-irrigation water, the
M.F. Ashby 2011
15
commercial water usage include only that used for irrigation. The data in the datasheets
are for commercial water usage.
The plants in feedstocks for cattle (and hence for leather) are usually irrigated and so this
counts as commercial water usage.
Resource life, reserves and the prices of materials

20. Explain the distinction between reserves and the resource base. (Hint: the property
Reserves in the CES Edupack Level 2 with Eco Properties has a science note if you click
on the heading.)
Answer.
A mineral reserve is defined as that part of a known mineral deposit that can be extracted
legally and economically at the time it is determined. Reserves are an economic
construct, which grow and shrink under varying economic, technical and legal conditions.
Improved extraction technology can enlarge it, but environmental legislation or changing
political climate may make it shrink. Demand stimulates prospecting, with the
consequence that reserves tend to grow in line with consumption.
The resource base (or just resource) of a mineral is the real total, and it is much larger
than the reserve but much less certain. It includes not only the current reserves but also
all usable deposits that might be revealed by future prospecting and that, by various
extrapolation techniques, can be estimated. It includes, too, known and unknown deposits
that cannot be mined profitably now but which due to higher prices, better technology or
improved transportation may become available in the future.
21. Understanding reserves: copper. The table lists the world production and reported
reserves of copper from 1995 to 2006.
Year
Price (US$/kg)
World production (X106
Reserves (X106
tonnes/year)
tonnes)
1995
2.93
9.8
310
1996
2.25
10.7
310
1997
2.27
11.3
320
1998
1.65
12.2
340
1999
1.56
12.6
340
2000
1.81
13.2
340
M.F. Ashby 2011
16
2001
1.67
13.7
340
2002
1.59
13.4
440
2003
1.78
13.9
470
2004
2.86
14.6
470
2005
3.7
14.9
470
2006
6.81
15.3
480
Examine trends (plot price, production and reserves against time) what do you
conclude?
Tabulate the Reserves / World production to give the static index of exhaustion. What
does the result suggest about reserves?
Answer.
The table and graph show the data. The rates of growth of production are listed in the last
column of the table above: world production and reserves have increased steadily over
the 12 year period 1995 - 2006. The ratio of reserves to production (second last column
of the table) is steady at around 30 years. All this suggests a well-balanced market, with
no indicators of supply problems. Only the price, which was steady or falling up to 2003
shows a sudden increase in 2005 / 2006 because of a surge in demand from China. All
the other indicators suggest that the supply chain is capable of adapting to meet it.
Year
Price
(US$/kg)
World production
(X10
Reserves
(X10
tonnes/year)
tonnes)
Reserves/World
Growth Rate
production (yrs)
(%/year)
1995
2.93
9.8
310
31.6
1996
2.25
10.7
310
29.0
8.8
1997
2.27
11.3
320
28.3
5.5
1998
1.65
12.2
340
27.9
7.7
1999
1.56
12.6
340
27.0
3.2
2000
1.81
13.2
340
25.8
4.7
2001
1.67
13.7
340
24.8
3.7
2002
1.59
13.4
440
32.8
-2.2
M.F. Ashby 2011
17
2003
1.78
13.9
470
33.8
3.7
2004
2.86
14.6
470
32.2
4.9
2005
3.7
14.9
470
31.5
2.0
2006
6.81
15.3
480
31.4
2.6
22. The table shows the production rate and the reserves of 5 metals over a period of 10
years. What has been the growth rate of production? What is that of the reserves? What
can you conclusions can you draw about the criticality of the material?
Metal
Platinum
Nickel
Lead
Copper
Cobalt
Year
2005
1995
2005
1995
2005
1995
2005
1995
2005
1995
Production Rates
(tonnes/year)
217
145
1.49 X 106
1.04 X 106
3.27 X 106
2.71 X 106
15.0 X 106
10.0 X 106
57.5 X 106
22.1 X 106
Reserves (tonnes)
M.F. Ashby 2011
71 X 103
56 X 103
64 X 106
47 X 106
67 X 106
69 X 106
480 X 106
310 X 106
7 X 106
4 X 106
18
Answer.
The last 2 columns of the table below show the growth rates, calculated from the equation
r (t t o )
P Po exp
100
which on inversion gives
P
100
ln
(t t o ) Po
Inserting the 2005 values of production or reserves for P, the 1995 values for Po and (t-to)
= 10 years gives the average growth rate over the 10 year interval.
Metal
Platinum
Nickel
Lead
Copper
Cobalt
Year
Production Rates
Reserves
Growth rate of
Growth rate
(tonnes/year)
(tonnes)
production (%
of reserves
per year)
(% per year)
4.03
2.37
3.6
3.09
1.88
1.97
4.05
4.37
9.56
5.60
217
71 X 103
1995
145
56 X 10
2005
1.49 X 106
64 X 106
1995
1.04 X 10
2005
3.27 X 106
67 X 106
1995
2.71 X 10
2005
15.0 X 106
480 X 106
1995
10.0 X 10
2005
57.5 X 106
7 X 106
1995
2005
22.1 X 10
47 X 10
69 X 10
310 X 10
4 X 10
For two of the metals lead and copper the rate of

growth of reserves is more or less in balance with the
growth in production. For nickel, reserves lag behind
production but not by much. The two metals that are
cause for concern are platinum and cobalt. Both are
used for critical functions for which there is no other
easy substitute: platinum for catalysts and cobalt for
high temperature alloys. For both the growth of
reserves meaning the rate at which new, exploitable
ore bodies are proven lags well behind the rate of production.
23. The price of cobalt, copper and nickel have fluctuated wildly in the past decade. Those of
aluminum, magnesium and iron have remained much more stable. Why? Research this
by examining uses (which metal are used in high value-added products?) and the
M.F. Ashby 2011
19
localization of the producing mines. The USGS web site listed under Further Reading is a
good starting point.
Answer.
Take cobalt as an example. A web search (and a search of CES EduPack) gives the
following information.
World production of cobalt has increased steadily year-on-year, and has almost trebled
from around 20,000 tonnes in 1995 to 54,000 tonnes in 2005, an average rate of growth
at times exceeding 12% per year, far higher than that of most materials. The ores of
cobalt are localized in relatively few countries. Since 2002, the strongest growth in
production of cobalt has come in China, where output grew at over 60% per year in 2005
as a result of expansion by domestic producers. Other recent increases have come from
new projects including Voisey's Bay in Canada (Inco), Coral Bay in the Philippines
(Sumitomo) and Sally Malay in Australia (Sally Malay and Sumitomo).
Cobalt costs about $30/kg far more than common structural materials. It is used for
catalysts; medical implants, cermets (tungsten carbide cobalt) cutting tools, alloying of
steels, high temperature cobalt based superalloys, alloys for high field magnets, and as a
pigment in glass and paints. These are high value-added applications, as you might
anticipate from the high price of the metal.
When the supply chain for metals with unique applications, like cobalt, is unable to meet
demand, the price rises steeply because there are no substitutes. When, by contrast,
substitutes are readily available (plastics substituting for steel or aluminum in many
applications, the existence and availability of the substituted dampens price fluctuations.
24. The production of zinc over the period 1992 2006 increased more or less steadily at a
rate of 3.1 % per year. The reserves, over the same period, increased by 3.5%. What
conclusions can you draw from this about the criticality of zinc supply?
M.F. Ashby 2011
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Answer.
The symptoms of criticality are
The rate of growth of discovery falls below the rate of growth of production.
The production rate curve peaks and starts to decline
The minimum economic ore grade falls
The price starts to rise unsustainably.
25. The production of platinum, vital for catalysts and catalytic converters, has risen from 145
to 217 tonnes per year over the last 10 years. The ores are highly localized in South
Africa, Russia and Canada. The reserves have risen from 56,000 to 71,000 tonnes in the
same time interval. Would you classify platinum as a critical material? Base your
judgment on the these facts, making use of the relative growth rates of production and
reserves and on the dynamic index calculated using 2005 data.
Answer.
Platinum has applications for which there is no present substitute. The growth rates of
production and of reserves, are listed in the table below. The dynamic index of
exploitation, calculated from these data, is 20.9 years.
Metal
Platinum
Year
Production Rates
Reserves
Growth rate of
Growth rate
(tonnes/year)
(tonnes)
production (%
of reserves
per year)
(% per year)
4.03
2.37
2005
1995
217
71 X 103
145
56 X 10
Those are the facts. What deductions? There are many danger signs here. Sources are
localized and only one is in a country with a long history of economic and political
stability. The growth rate of reserves has, over a 10 year period, lagged behind that of
exploitation. The dynamic index not a reliable measure, but another indicator none the
less is low when compared with those of most other metals.
26. Use CES Edu Level 2 with Eco Properties to plot the Annual world production of
materials against their Price. What trend is visible?
Answer.
The figure shows the plot. There is a correlation the lower the price, the larger is the
annual production. The contours have a slope -2, which, with log scales (as here) means
that, very approximately,
M.F. Ashby 2011
21
Annual world production
1
Pr ice 2
It is no surprise that production falls as price rises, but the origin of the power of -2 is
obscure.
27. Make a plot of the static index of exhaustion for metals (the reserves in tonnes divided by
the annual production rate in tonnes per year). You can plot only the metals and alloys by
either using a custom subset or by having a limit stage. Both of these are described in the
video tutorials in the help menu. Here you will also find out how to plot functions using the
Advanced facility in CES EduPack to plot the ratio.
Which metals have the longest apparent resource life? Why is this index not a reliable
measure of the true resource life of the metal?
Answer.
The figure shows the plot of the static index, created with the CES Eco Level 2 with Eco
properties. The ores of magnesium, aluminum and titanium are plentiful and very widely
distributed; for these there is no concern about depletion. Those of nickel, copper, zinc
and lead are more localized and already significantly depleted, with the result that the ore
grade currently mined is much leaner than it was 25 years ago.
The static index, however, is not a true indicator of resource life. This is because the
reserves are an economic construct, which grow and shrink under varying economic,
technical and legal conditions. Improved extraction technology can enlarge it, but
environmental legislation or changing political climate may make it shrink. Demand
M.F. Ashby 2011
22
stimulates prospecting, with the consequence that reserves tend to grow in line with
consumption. The figure shows that the reserves of the more critical metals are typically
between 20 to 50 times the annual production. This is a comfort zone. If the reserves fall
below this zone, there is growing incentive to prospect for and develop new mines; if they
rise above it, there is little incentive to do so.
Energy and CO2 Life Cycle Assessment
28.
M.F. Ashby 2011
23
The Diagram shows four phases of life of a product. At each stage it requires resources
(including energy) and emits pollution (including CO2). Which phase of life would you
expect to be the most energy intensive (in the sense of consuming fossil fuel) for the
following products?
Product
Toaster
Two car garage
Bicycle
Motorbike
Refrigerator
Coffee maker
LPG fired patio heater
Pick one and list the resources and emissions associated with each phase of its life along
the lines of the diagram.
Answer.
At this stage we can only guess at the energy-intensive phase later, when we get to
eco-audits, the question can be answered properly. As a general rule, if a product
requires energy to perform the use-phase of its life, then it is the cumulative energy of use
that dominates. When the product does not use energy, it is the material production
phase that dominates.
Product
Toaster
Two car garage
Bicycle
Motorbike
Refrigerator
Coffee maker
Energy intensive life phase

Probably the use phase
The material production phase if garage is unheated; if
heated, then the use phase
The material production phase of life
The use phase
The use phase
Perhaps material production if the coffee maker is rarely
used, otherwise use
No need to ask
M.F. Ashby 2011
24
Take the coffee maker as an example.
29. Products perform a function. How much use we get out of a product for every unit of
energy it consumes is a measure of its efficiency. But to compare products of the same
type we need to agree on a functional unit. Think of the basic need the product provides
it is this that determines use and list what you would choose as the functional unit for
the following products, thinking of all from an environmental standpoint.
Product
Washing machines
Functional unit
E.g. Energy (kW.hr or MJ) or liters of water per kg of
clothes washed
Refrigerators
Home heating systems
Air conditioners
Lighting
Home coffee maker
Public transport
Hand-held hair dryers
M.F. Ashby 2011
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Answer.
The table lists the suggested functional units.
Product
Functional unit
Washing machines
Energy (kW.hr or MJ) or liters of water per kg of clothes

washed
Refrigerators
Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per m3 of cooled space per year
Home heating systems
Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per unit volume of heated space per

unit time (per m3 per year)
Air conditioners
Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per unit volume of cooled space per

unit time (per m3 per year)
Lighting
Power (Watts) per lumen (the measure of light intensity)
Home coffee maker
Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per cup of coffee
Public transport
Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per passenger mile
Hand-held hair dryers
Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per drying episode (difficult: long hair

takes longer than short)
30. Many human activities incur costs, some obvious, some hidden. Industrial emissions, in
particular, incur costs though damage to health and property via air and water pollution,
acid rain, ozone layer depletion and climate change. When the damage is local and the
creator of the emissions accepts the responsibility and the cost for containing and
remediating it, the environmental cost is said to be internalized. When the damage not
attributable, and particularly when it is global in impact, it is much more difficult to
establish creator-responsibility. In these circumstances the environmental cost becomes
a burden on society as a whole and is said to be externalized. Much current negotiation
and legislation aims to internalize environmental costs that, at present, are externalized.
Now a moment of introspection. List three internalized costs associated with your lifestyle. Now list three that are externalized. If your life is so pure that you have less than
three, then list some of other people you know.
Answer.
Example:
Internalized
Cost of mobile phone (assuming microwave radiation is harmless)
Cost of use of personal computer
M.F. Ashby 2011
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Cost of broadband connection

Cost of private health care
Cost of home ownership
Externalized
Dropping cigarette butts, gum, hamburger wrappers in the street
Disposing of television sets or personal computers by dumping
Travel by plane (the traveller does not yet pay for the whole eco-damage of the
emissions)
Dumping, rather than recycling, nickel-cadmium batteries
31. To assess the energy demand, carbon footprint and emissions-profile of a product it is
necessary to sum the contributions it makes to each of these over its entire life cycle.
Deciding what to include and what to exclude in the life-cycle (the system), however, is
not simple. The first step in life cycle assessment (LCA) is to decide on the system
boundary. The boundary should normally enclose all four phases of life: material
production, product manufacture, product use and product disposal. For the LCA to meet
ISO standards, the LCA expert must define and state what aspects of each phase of life
are included within the system boundary and which aspects remain outside it.
It is sometimes desirable to conduct a partial LCA, setting the system boundary around
only one phase of life. Thus the embodied energy and carbon footprint of a material is
found by enclosing only the material production within the system boundary.
Disagreements over the proper place to set these boundaries contributes to the varied
nature of the values for environmental data. Imagine you are about to have a hot bath. If
you wanted to analyse your environmental impact for this activity, where would you set
the boundary? List things that you have decided to include in the boundary and those you
have excluded and why. There is no correct answer here.
Answer.
There is no right answer, however you could list some or all or more of the following:
Included:
The bath / divided over the number of baths likely to be taken in the bath.
The water
Any soap or shampoo or bubble bath
The heat for the water
M.F. Ashby 2011
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Could be included:
You cant get the hot water without some kind of heater.
The water heater / divided by the amount of heat it generates over its lifetime.
It would be a cold and breezy bath without a roof over your head and walls.
The bathroom / divide by a measure of all the other things you do in there.
Bathrooms are not usually stand alone structures
22. The four steps in conducting an LCA, elaborated in the ISO 14040 set of standards, are:
Setting goals and scope. Why do the assessment? What is the subject and which
bit(s) of its life are to be assessed (setting system
boundaries)?
Inventory compilation: what resources are consumed, what

emissions excreted?
Impact assessment: what do these do to the environment

particularly, what bad things?
Interpretation: what do the results mean and how are they to be used?
An electric kettle; how many components approximately do you think it contains?

List 3 resources consumed and 3 emissions excreted during the manufacturing phase of
a kettle.
Answer.
Ten + components including Body, lid, heating element, cable, cable core, plug, plug pins,
on/off switch, packaging, instruction leaflet
Resources: e.g. Brass for plug pins, energy to run the injection molding machine,
cardboard for the packaging.
Emissions: e.g. CO2 from creating the energy to run the injection molding machine. NOx
and particulates from the fuel consumed by the fork lift truck in the warehouse.
32. What are the difficulties with a full LCA? Why would a simpler, if approximate, technique
be helpful?
Answer.
A full LCA is a time-consuming task requiring days or weeks of experts time, and
thus is expensive.
M.F. Ashby 2011
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Despite the formalism that attaches to LCA methods, the results are subject to
considerable uncertainty.
The output of an LCA that meets the ISO 14040 Standard is complex and detailed it
is of little help for design
A simpler, approximate approach would, by reducing the cost and speeding the process,
allow much wider application
33. Pick two of the products listed below and, using your judgment, attempt to fill out the
simplified streamlined LCA matrix below to give an environmentally responsible product
rating. Make your own assumptions (and report them) about where the product was made
and thus how far it has to be transported, and whether it will be recycled. Assign an
integer between 0 (highest impact) and 4 (least impact) to each box and then sum to give
an environmental rating, providing a comparison. Try the protocol
Material: is it energy-intensive? Does it create excessive emissions? Is it difficult or

impossible to recycle? Is the material toxic? If the answer to these questions is yes,
score 4. If the reverse, score 0. Use the intermediate integers for other combinations.
Manufacture: is the process one that uses much energy? Is it wasteful (meaning cutoffs and rejects are high)? Does it produce toxic or hazardous waste? Does make
use of volatile organic solvents? If yes, score 4. If no, score 0, etc.
Transport: is the product manufactured far from its ultimate market? Is it shipped by
air freight? If yes, score 4. If no, score 0.
Use: does the product use energy during its life? Is the energy derived from fossil
fuels? Are any emissions toxic? Is it possible to provide the use-function in a less
energy intensive way? Scoring as above.
Disposal: Will the product be sent to land-fill at end of life? Does disposal involve
toxic or long-lived residues? Scoring as above.
What difficulties did you have? Do you feel confident that the results are meaningful?
Product
Toaster
Two car garage
Bicycle
Motorbike
Refrigerator
Coffee maker
M.F. Ashby 2011
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Material
Manufacture
Transport
Use
Disposal
Materials
resources
(high use =0,
none =4)
Energy Use
(high use =0,
none =4)
Global
Warming
(much CO2 = 0
, no CO2 = 4)
Human
Health (Toxic
emissions or
waste?)
Column
Totals
Total across columns=
Answer.
Example: the toaster.
A toaster uses about 1 kg of materials, largely metals. Manufacture, almost certainly in
South Asia, requires only simple processes, though chromium plating is a particularly
toxic process. Most toasters used in the US and Europe are made in South-east Asia, so
considerable transport is involved. A toaster consumes electrical energy during use,
most of which at present derives from fossil fuels, with associated emissions. The toaster
itself produces no emissions (unless you burn the toast) and is simple to recycle at end of
life. The figure shows an attempt to fill out the matrix, based on this information.
M.F. Ashby 2011
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It is not at all easy to fill out the matrix with confidence unless you have considerable
experience of assessing products in this way the rankings chosen here are, quite
frankly, guesses. This is just one example of the matrix approach there are many
variants of the row and column categories. Some are better adapted for particular
products than others, but it is evident that any one of them requires a degree of
experience. The present attempt (correctly) identifies the use and the transport phase
(assuming the product is shipped over large distances) as the most damaging . The final
total, 34 out of a possible maximum of 80 suggests the product is not a particularly
harmful one.
End-of-Life Treatment
34. Many products are thrown away and enter the waste stream even though they still work.
What are the reasons for this?
Answer.
A product reaches the end of its life when its no longer valued, even though it may still
work well. The life expectancy is the least of
The physical life, meaning the time in which the product breaks down beyond
economic repair;
The functional life, meaning the time when the need for it ceases to exist;
The technical life, meaning the time at which advances in technology have made the
product unacceptably obsolete;
The economical life, meaning the time at which advances in design and technology
offer the same functionality at significantly lower operating cost;
The legal life the time at which new standards, directives, legislation or restrictions
make the use of the product illegal
And finally the loss of desirability the time at which changes in taste, fashion, or
aesthetic preference render the product unattractive.
35. Do you think manufacture without waste is possible? Waste, here, includes waste (i.e.
low-grade) heat, emissions and solid and liquid residues that cannot be put to a useful
purpose. If not, why not?
M.F. Ashby 2011
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Answer.
All manufacture involves conversion: conversion of ores and feedstock into raw materials,
conversion of raw materials into products, the use of the products and their ultimate
disposal. All of these steps involve energy, sometimes in its primary form as oil or gas,
but more usually in a converted form as electricity or mechanical power.
All conversions involve conversion efficiencies. Some conversion efficiencies are high
conversion of electric to mechanical power, for instance, can be achieved with an
efficiency of 90%. Others, for fundamental thermodynamic reasons, are not the
conversion of fossil fuels to electric power is, at best, only 45% efficient. The losses, small
or large, constitute one sort of waste waste heat and, if fossil fuels are involved,
another: waste emissions.
Just as there are conversion efficiencies for energy, there are conversion efficiencies for
the transformation of materials during manufacture, and for the recovery of materials at
end of life. Some are economic in origin salvaging and sorting 100% of the scrap
produced during manufacture is not economic, though salvaging 90% might be.
Recovering materials at end of life has lower efficiencies because the dispersion of
materials in products makes full recovery uneconomic, and because contamination of one
material by another cannot, in some products, be prevented. All these factors combine to
make some waste unavoidable.
36. In a CES EduPack Edu Level 2 with Eco Property material record click on the material
property Recycle and read the Science Note. What options are available for coping with
the waste-stream generated by modern industrial society?
Answer.
Materials have a life-cycle. They are extracted and refined, manufactured into products,
used, and at end of first life, rejected as waste. But what is waste to some markets is a
resource to others, creating a number of alternative channels down which the materials
continue to flow. The sketch in the science note introduced the options: commit to landfill,
combust for heat recovery, recycle (or downcycle), re-engineer (refurbish or recondition)
and reuse.
37. In a CES EduPack Edu Level 2 with Eco Property material record click on
the material property Recycle and read the Science Note. Recycling has
the attraction of returning materials into the use-stream. What are the
obstacles to recycling?
M.F. Ashby 2011
32
Answer.
The recycling market is like any other, with prices that fluctuate according to the balance
of supply and demand. In a free market the materials that are recycled are those from
which a profit can be made. Recycling requires energy, and this energy carries its burden
of emissions. The recycle energy is generally small compared to the initial embodied
energy, making recycling when it is possible at all an energy-efficient propositions.
But there are difficulties.
Recycling may not be cost-efficient; that depends on the degree to which the material
has become dispersed. In-house scrap, generated at the point of production or
manufacture is localized and is already recycled efficiently (near 100% recovery).
Widely distributed scrap material contained in discarded products is a much
more expensive proposition to collect, separate and clean.
Many materials cannot recycled, although they may still be reused in a lower-grade
activity;
continuous-fiber
composites,
for
instance,
cannot
be
re-separated
economically into fiber and polymer in order to reuse them, though they can be
chopped and used as fillers.
Most materials require an input of virgin material to avoid build-up of uncontrollable

impurities. Thus the fraction of a material production that can ultimately re-enter the
use stream depends on the material itself, on the product into which has been
incorporated and on the price of virgin material with which the recycled material must
compete.
38. Car tyres create a major waste problem. Use the internet to research
ways in which the materials contained in car tyres can be used,
either in the form of the tyre or in some decomposition of it.
Answer.
The following sites are among many that provide information about used tyres.
www.ct.gov/dep/
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/tyres.htm
www.ni-environment.gov.uk/usedtyresleaflet.pdf
www.tyredisposal.co.uk/cms/index.php
The first describes regulations about disposal of tyres, the second lists ways to use them,
and the third provides statistics for collection, reuse and disposal. From them we learn
M.F. Ashby 2011
33
that 3.9 million tons of used tyres are produced in the US every year, of which 18.7% are
recycled.
Tyres do not compost. The main channels for reusing used tyres are:
Retreading almost doubles the life of tyres. Most can only be retreaded once,
however.
Rubber crumb is made by shredding tyres. It is used for playground and sports track
surfaces
Whole or part tyres can be used in wall structures for earth retention.
Sea defences can be constructed using floating arrays of tyres
Fuel: used tyres are burnt for heat, particularly in cement making.
39. List three functions of packaging.

Answer.
Packaging performs at least 5 functions:
Protection: packaging extends product life by protecting foodstuffs and controlling the
atmosphere that surrounds them
Security: tamper-proof packaging protects the consumer.
Information: pack information identifies the product, its sell-by date (if it has one) and
gives instructions for use.
Affiliation: brands are defined by their packaging.
Presentation: packaging presents the product in much the same way that clothing
presents the wearer.
40. As a member of a brain-storming group you are asked to devise ways of reusing
polystyrene foam packaging the sort that encases TV sets, computers, appliances and
much else when transported most of which at present is sent to landfill. Use free
thinking: no suggestion is too ridiculous.
Answer.
The idea here is to encourage free thinking. Here are just a few possible uses:
Break up for bean bags
Drainage for patio garden pots
Flotation for fish farm enclosures

M.F. Ashby 2011
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Shred to make artificial snow for theatre productions
Send to Art schools as raw material for hot-wire sculptures
Pack in the attic to improve the thermal insulation of your home/garage/outhouse
41. Open the record for the polymer PET at Edu Level 2 with Eco Properties. Click on the
recycle mark science note.
You are employed to recycle German washing machines, separating the materials for
recycling. You encounter components with the following recycle marks:
With the help of CES EduPack and the internet., how do you interpret them?
Answer.
(a) Polypropylene. (b) Polyamide 6 (Nylon 6) with 10% glass fiber. (c) Polypropylene with
20% talc. (d) Polystyrene with 15% glass fines (powdered glass).
42. A material M is imported into a country principally to manufacture one family of products
with an average life of 5 years and a growth rate of rc % per year.
C C o exp c t This equation describes the consumption of the product family

100
over time. t = life span. C0 = consumption at time = 0.
The material is not at present recycled at end of life but it could be. The government is
concerned that imports should not grow. What level of recycling is necessary to make this
possible?
Answer.
Consumption C is growing at a rate rc % per year . Over the life of the product, t , it
grows from Co to
C C o exp c t
100
an increase of
M.F. Ashby 2011
35
C C o exp c t C o
100
For zero growth in imports recycling must feed back into the Material phase of life a
quantity of material equal to the growth in consumption over the product life time. This
requires a recycle fraction fcrit where
f crit C o C C o exp c t C o
100
Thus
f crit exp c t 1
100
Clearly fcrit cannot be greater than 1. Thus the scheme will only work if
exp c t 2
100
or
100
ln 2
rc
43. The table shows the mass of material it takes to produce various types of containers
possible for holding a drink. Which material consumes the least embodied energy per litre
or drink? Use the embodied energy values in CES Edupack.
Container type
Material
Mass
(grams)
PET 400ml bottle
PET
25
PE 1 liter milk bottle
PE
38
Glass 750ml bottle
Soda-lime glass
325
Al 440ml can
Non-age hardening
20
wrought AL-Alloys
Steel 440ml can
Medium carbon steel
45
How does the ranking change if the contribution of recycling is included? To do so,
multiply the energy per liter you just calculated, by the factor
M.F. Ashby 2011
36
H
1 f rc 1 rc
Hm
where f rc is the recycle fraction in current supply, Hm is the embodied energy for primary
material production and Hrc is that for recycling of the material. You will find data for all
three attributes in CES EduPack.
Answer.
The first table below lists the materials of the drink containers and the embodied
energies, energies to recycle and typical recycled fraction in current supply. The second
table show the table above with three additional columns added. The first is the embodied
energy of the container per liter calculated using the mass of material needed and the
volume of the container, the second lists the correction factor taking recycling into
account, and the third lists the energy per liter multiplied by the correction factor.
The inclusion of recycled material significantly reduces all the energies. Steel emerges as
the best choice, but aluminium remains the most energy-intensive.
Material
Embodied
Energy
(MJ/kg)
Recycle
Energy
(MJ/kg)
Recycle fr. in
current supply
PET
83.7
35.2
0.21
PE
80.8
34.0
0.084
Soda-lime glass
15.4
6.8
0.24
Al 440ml can
Non-age hardening
wrought AL-Alloys
207
18.7
0.11
Steel 440ml
can
Medium carbon steel
31.9
8.9
0.42
Container type
PET 400ml
bottle
PE 1 liter milk
bottle
Glass 750ml
bottle
Container type
Material
Mass
(grams)
Energy/liter
(MJ/liter)
Correction
factor
Corrected
Energy
(MJ/liter)
PET 400ml
bottle
PET
25
5.2
0.88
4.6
PE 1 liter milk
bottle
High Density
PE
38
3.1
0.95
2.9
Glass 750ml
bottle
Soda glass
325
6.7
0.87
5.8
Al 440ml can
5000 series
Al alloys
20
9.4
0.90
8.5
Steel 440ml can
Plain carbon
steel
45
3.3
0.70
2.3
M.F. Ashby 2011
37
44. Derive the correction factor to allow for recycle content cited in the previous exercise.
Answer.
If the drink containers are made of virgin material, each
carries an embodied energy of Hm per kg. If instead they are
made of material containing a fraction frc of recycled material
that had required the recycle energy Hrc to produce it, the
energy per kg falls to (1 frc ) Hm + frc Hrc. The factor we seek
is the ratio of these two:
1 f rc H m
f rc H rc
Hm
H
1 f rc 1 rc
Hm
45. Why is the recycling of metals more successful than that of polymers? (Hint: This is
discussed in the Recycling Science Note in the CES Edupack.)
Answer.
The answer is an economic one. Many metals (lead, iron, copper, aluminum) are
relatively easy to collect, clean and remelt because they are used in large products and
many of the contaminants are burnt off during remelting. The recycled metal (particularly
lead and copper) commands a high price, making the process economic. Polymers are
used in smaller products (making collection more labor-intensive), almost always in
combination with other polymers, paper, inks and other contaminants that must be
removed before recycling is possible. The recycled material is less good than the virgin
material, and therefore commands a lower price making the economics of polymer
recycling unattractive.
Eco Properties in CES EduPack

Remember:
Use CES EduPack Level 2 with Eco properties unless otherwise directed.
the science notes contain the definitions of properties and that they can be found
by clicking on material property headings or by searching for the term in the CES
Help Menu.
you can display mean values for the properties on the charts and in the records
by clicking the tick box in the numbers tab of the options menu.
to remind yourself how to plot functions watch the plotting charts video tutorial,
found in the help menu.
to remind yourself how to create tree and limit stages watch their video tutorials.
M.F. Ashby 2011
38
46. What is meant by embodied energy per kilogram of a metal? Why does it differ from the
free energy of formation of the oxide, carbonate or sulfide from which it was extracted?
Answer.
The embodied energy of a metal is the output of an energy audit of the resources and
processes need to extract, refine or synthesize it. Energy is consumed in mining or
extracting the ores and feedstock, concentrating the ore and reducing it to metal, all with
energy losses. To convert an oxide, sulfide, or carbonate ore to metal, the free energy of
formation of those compounds must, of course, be provided. The embodied energy
includes this, but it also includes the energy to mine, transport and concentrate the ore,
and the energy loss that results from the inefficiencies of the processes.
47. What is meant by the process energy per kilogram for

casting a metal? Why does it differ from the latent heat of
melting of the metal?
Answer.
In order to cast a metal, energy must be provided to heat
the metal to its melting point, to melt it (requiring the latent
heat of melting) and to raise the temperature of the liquid a little higher to ensure that,
when cast, it does not solidify before it has filled the mold. The kiln itself has to be heated
to the same temperature, requiring additional energy. The heat itself is provided by the
combustion of fossil fuel (efficiency about 70%) or by electric heating (oil-equivalent
efficiency about 40%). The thermal energy of both kiln and metal is lost as low-grade heat
when the casting cools to room temperature. The casting energy is the sum of all the
energies involved.
48. Make a bar chart of CO2 footprint, primary production divided by Embodied energy,
primary production using data from CES EduPack. Which material has the highest ratio?
Why?
Answer.
The Figure shows the important features. For most materials the ratio is about 0.04 0.06. For cement and concrete it is far higher. This is because making cement (a
component of concrete) involves calcining calcium carbonate, driving off carbon dioxide
to leave lime. This CO2 contribution adds to that derived from the fuel that is used to heat
the kiln to give the high total.
M.F. Ashby 2011
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49. Iron is made by the reduction of iron oxide, Fe2O3, with carbon, aluminum by the electrochemical reduction of Bauxite, basically Al2O3. The enthalpy of oxidation of iron is 5.5
MJ/kg; that of aluminum to its oxide is 20.5 MJ/kg. Compare these with the embodied
energies of cast iron and of aluminum alloys (which is similar to aluminum), retrieved from
CES EduPack (use mean values of the ranges given there). What conclusions do you
draw?
Answer.
The table shows the data. The embodied energies are larger, by a factor of 3 to 10, than
the enthalpy of oxidation. This is because of the inherent irreversibility of the reduction
process, heat and other energy losses, and the energy required for mining transporting
and concentrating the ores before reduction.
Material
Enthalpy of oxidation
Embodied energy (MJ/kg)
(MJ/kg)
Cast iron
5.5
17.3
Aluminum alloys
20.5
218
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50. Estimate the energy to mold PET by assuming it to be equal to the energy required to
heat PET from room temperature to its melting temperature, Tm. Compare this with the
actual molding energy. You will find the molding energy, the specific heat and the melting
temperature in the data sheet for PET in CES EduPack (use means of the ranges). What
conclusions do you draw?
Answer.
PET melts at about 238oC, about 200oC above
room temperature. Its specific heat is 1445
J/kg.K, so the energy to raise one kg of PET
from room temperature (20oC) to the melting
point is about 0.31 MJ/kg. The extrusion
energy is 3.8 MJ/kg, the molding energy 9.6
MJ/kg. Both are more than ten times greater
than the estimate based simply on heating the
polymer.
Where does the extra energy go? Part in the
relatively low conversion efficiency of fossil-fuel energy to electric power (about 38%),
part in heating the extrusion or molding press, in power dissipated by the mechanism of
the press, and as incidentals the general energy overhead of the plant.
51. Use CES EduPack to make a plot for the carbon footprint per m3 of material. Use the
Advanced facility in the axis selection window to make kg CO2/m3 by multiplying kg
CO2/kg by the density in kg/m3.
Answer.
The chart is shown below. Not surprisingly, it looks very like the embodied energy per m3,
if you plot that too and compare. (The Metals, Polymers, Ceramics and Hybrids are
segregated to separate columns by selecting them for the x-axis using the Trees option
in the Advanced facility.)
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52. Compare the eco-indicator values of materials with their embodied energy. To do so,
make a chart with (Embodied energy x Density) on the x-axis and Eco-indicator value on
the y-axis. (Ignore the data for foams since these have an artificially-inflated volume). Is
there a correlation between the two? Is it linear? Given that the precision of both could be
in error by 10 % are they significantly different measures? Does this give a way of
estimating, approximately, eco-indicator values where none are available?
Answer.
The plot of eco-indicator values against embodied energy is shown below. There is a
clear correlation, but with some scatter. Is the scatter significant? Think about the
inherent uncertainty in determining embodied energy and in the arbitrary nature of the
weight factors used to calculate eco-indictors. Given these, you would expect some
scatter. We conclude the embodied energy is an approximate but still useful proxy for the
eco-indicator.
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53. Use a Limit stage to find materials with modulus E > 180 GPa and embodied energy Hm
< 30 MJ/kg.
Answer.
Apply the two constraints using a Limit stage in CES Edu Level 2 with Eco. Four
materials meet them. They are Cast iron, ductile (nodular), High carbon steel, Medium
carbon steel, and Low carbon steel.
54. Use a Limit stage to find materials with yield strength y > 100 MPa and carbon footprint
CO2 < 1 kg/kg.
Answer.
Two materials meet the constraints. They are Cast iron, ductile (nodular) and Cast iron,
gray.
55. Create a chart of E Vs Hm* to find the polymer with a modulus E greater than 1 GPa and
the lowest embodied energy per unit volume.
Answer.
The construction is shown below. Grayed out materials are those in which some part of
the bubble falls below the 1GPa line. Youll see that by these criteria Polylactide wins.
M.F. Ashby 2011
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However some startch based thermoplastics have a stiffness greater than 1GPa. It would
therefore make sense in a real situation to look more closely at the values of real
materials rather than ranges for a generic material as you find in Level 2 of CES
EduPack.
56. Create a chart to find the metal with a modulus E greater than 100 GPa and the lowest
embodied energy per unit volume.
Answer.
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The construction is shown above. The metal with a modulus greater than 100 GPa and
the lowest embodied energy per unit volume is cast iron. Grey bubbles are ruled out as
they are not metals or their average stiffness is less than 100GPa.
57. Make a bar chart of embodied energy, Hm. Add a Tree stage to limit the selection to
polymers alone. Which polymers have the lowest embodied energy?
Answer.
The figure below shows the bar-chart created by CES EduPack. It was made using a
Graph stage with Embodied energy plotted on the y-axis. The selection was limited to
Polymers and elastomers by selecting, for the x-axis, this subset using the Tree option
found under Advanced in the axis choice dialog box. The four polymers with the lowest
embodied energy are listed below. They are all bio-polymers polymers made from
natural feedstock, not oil.
Natural rubber
Polylactide (PLA)
Starch-based Thermoplastics (TPS)
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58. Plot a bar chart for the embodied energies of metals and compare it with one for
polymers, on a per unit yield strength basis. You will need to use the Advanced facility
in the axis selection window to make the function
Hm
, where Hm is the embodied energy per kg, is the density and y is the yield
strength. Do this by using the Advanced facility in the Axis selection box to form
(Embodied energy * Density) / Yield strength (elastic limit)
Which materials are attractive by this measure?
Answer.
The figure shows the CES EduPack output. (The Metals and Polymers are segregated to
separate columns by selecting them for the x-axis using the Trees option in the
Advanced facility.) Carbon steels and cast irons have a lower embodied energy per unit
of strength than any other metal or any polymer.
59. Rank the three common commodity materials Low carbon steel, Age hardened wrought
Aluminum alloy and Polyethylene by embodied energy/ kg, Hm by creating a bart chart.
Rank by mean values. Now rank the materials by embodied energy/m3, Hm , where
is the density. Finally rank them by embodied energy per unit stiffness (measured by Hm
/ E where E is Youngs modulus). Note the inclusion of in the ratio so that top and
bottom are both in the same units.
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Answer. Steel has the lowest embodied energy/ kg. Polyethylene has by far the lowest
embodied energy per unit volume Hm . Steel is the lowest, and by a large margin, for
embodied energy per unit stiffness. If you want a material that is stiff and has low
embodied energy, steel is the best bet. To compare materials properly, the measure of
comparison has to be the appropriate one embodied energy per unit function.
60. A maker of polypropylene (PP) garden furniture is concerned that the competition is
stealing part of his market by claiming that the traditional material for garden furniture,
cast iron, is much less energy and CO2 intensive than the PP. A typical PP chair weighs
1.6 kg; one made of cast iron weighs 11 kg. Use the CES EduPack data sheets for these
two materials to find out who is right are the differences significant?
If the PP chair lasts 5 years and the cast iron chair lasts 25 years, does the conclusion
change?
Answer.
The table lists mean values of embodied energy and carbon footprint, per kg, for the two
materials. The last two columns show the values per chair. If the difference in lifetime is
ignored, the two chairs do not differ significantly in embodied energy, but they do in
carbon release with the Polypropylene chair winning here. If the longer life of the cast iron
chair is recognized by dividing the values by the life in years (to give energy and carbon
per chair.year) the cast iron chair wins easily.
Material
Embodied
CO2
Embodied
CO2
energy
footprint
energy
footprint,
(MJ/kg)
(kg/kg)
(MJ/chair)
(kg/chair)
17.3
1.02
190.3 38
11.222
94.5
2.7
151.230
4.320.8
Cast iron,
ductile
PP
61. Identical casings for a power tool could be die-cast in aluminum or molded in ABS or
polyester GFRP. Use an embodied-energy per unit volume bar-chart to decide which
choice minimizes the material embodied energy, assuming the same volume of material
is used for each casing.
M.F. Ashby 2011
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Answer.
The embodied energy /m3, Hp , (where Hp is the energy per kg and the density) shows
that ABS has the lower embodied energy per unit volume. For a casing using the same
volume of material, ABS requires only one fifth of the energy of aluminum.
Material
Embodied Energy/m3, Hp (MJ/m3)
ABS
1.07 X 105
GFRP
2.09 x 105
Aluminum
5.92 x 105
Eco-informed Material Selection

62. In the CES Help Menu search for 2.1 Function, Objectives and Constraints and read the
short note.
63. What is meant by an objective and what by a constraint in the requirements for a design?
How do they differ?
Answer.
A constraint is an essential condition that must be met, usually expressed as an upper or
lower limit on a material property. An objective is a quantity for which an extreme value (a
maximum or minimum) is sought, frequently the minimization of cost, mass, volume or
of particular relevance here environmental impact. The distinction is brought out by
comparing common constraints and objectives, as in the table below. A constraint is a
Go / No go criterion if the constraint is not met, the material is rejected. An objective
allows the materials that meet all the constraints to be ranked: the one that minimizes the
objective is the best choice.
Common constraints
Common objectives
Must meet a target value of:
Minimize
Stiffness
1. Cost
Strength
2. Mass
Fracture toughness
3. Volume
Thermal conductivity
4. Energy consumption
Service temperature
5. Carbon emissions
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64. A material is required for disposable forks for a fast-food chain. List the objective and the
constraints that you would see as important in this application.
Answer.
The primary considerations in choosing materials for disposable applications are health,
cost and the environmental damage that disposal might cause. The table lists the
resulting constraints and objectives.
Constraints: the material must be
Objectives: minimize
Non toxic
6. Embodied energy
Cheap
7. Carbon footprint
Cheap to mold/shape
Low embodied energy
Easily (and profitably) recyclable
65. In the CES Help Menu search for 2.3 Material Indices and read the short note.
66. What is meant by a material index?
Answer.
The performance of a component or product is limited by the properties of the materials of
which it is made. Sometimes it is limited by a single property, sometimes by a
combination of them. The property or property-group that limits performance for a given
design is called its material index. Performance is maximized by seeking the materials
with the most extreme (biggest or smallest) value of the index, usually the smallest.
67. Make a chart with Log (Youngs modulus E) on the y-axis and Log (density ) on the xaxis. (Log plots are default in CES EduPack.). Apply a selection line corresponding to the
index E/ . What gradient does this line need to be at?
(Remember if Log Y = Log X + C then Log Y Log X =
C and Log (Y/X) = C and Log (X/Y) = -C). Positioning
the line such that six materials are left above it. What
families do they belong to?
Answer.
The chart generated by CES EduPack is shown below
with a selection line of slope 1 positioned to leave six
materials above the line. These are the materials with
M.F. Ashby 2011
49
the lowest values of the index. They are listed below. Five are ceramics, one is a
composite.
Alumina
Aluminum nitride
Boron carbide
CFRP, epoxy matrix (isotropic)
Silicon carbide
Silicon nitride
68. Make a chart with Log (Youngs modulus E) on the y-axis and Log (density ) on the xaxis. (Log plots are default in CES EduPack.). Apply a selection line corresponding to the
index E1/3/ . What gradient does this line need to be at? (Remember Log (Ya) = aLogY).
Positioning the line such that six materials are left above it. What families do they belong
to?
Answer.
The chart generated by CES EduPack is shown below with a selection line of slope 3
positioned to leave six materials above the line. These are the materials with the lowest
values of the index. They are woods and foams.
69. A material is required for a tensile tie to link the front and back walls of a barn to stabilize
both. It must meet a constraint on strength and have as low an embodied energy as
M.F. Ashby 2011 H m
50
possible. To be safe the material of the tie must have fracture toughness K1c > 18
MPa.m1/2. The relevant index is
Construct a chart of y plotted against Hm. Add the constraint of adequate fracture
toughness, meaning K1c > 18 MPa.m1/2, using a Limit stage. Then plot an appropriate
selection line on the chart and report the three materials that are the best choices for the
tie.
Answer.
The chart is shown below with a selection line leaving just three materials exposed. They
are listed below.
Cast iron, ductile (nodular)
High carbon steel
Low alloy steel
70. The objective in selecting a material for a panel of given in-plane dimensions for the lidcasing of an ultra-thin portable computer is that of minimizing the panel thickness h while
M.F. Ashby 2011
51
meeting a constraint on bending stiffness, S* to prevent damage to the screen. This

means that the stiffness is limiting the choice and the volume (related to h) is being
minimized. Look up the appropriate material index in the table of material indices in the
help menu of CES EduPack. (See note 1. to minimize by volume.)?
Answer.
The index for a stiffness limited panel of minimum volume: minimize 1 / E1/ 3 , where E is
Youngs modulus (or, more strictly, the flexural modulus, equal to E for isotropic materials
but not for those, like fiber composites, that are not isotropic).
71. Material indices can be derived if you know the function for the objective and a function
for each constraint. Show that the index for selecting materials for a strong panel with the
dimensions shown in the figure, loaded in bending, with minimum embodied energy
content is that with the smallest value of
H m
y1/ 2
where Hm is the embodied energy of the material, its density and y its yield strength.
Proceed as follows:
a) What function describes the amount of embodied energy in the panel? (You have
information on embodied energy per unit mass and you have the density of the panel
and you know its volume.)
b) We need a strong panel. What function describes the bending moment applied by the
force F in the centre of the panel? (Bending moment = Force x distance from pivot.
Remember that the force is supported at two opposite edges.)
c) What function describes the Maximum Stress the panel can take? (Stress =
Force/Area. Second moment of area for a panel and useful equations for Moments of
Sections can be found in the CES Help Menu in the section called solutions to
standard engineering problems.
d) Therefore what is the least possible value of the Failure Load.
e) Take L and b as fixed and h as variable. Reducing h can reduce the volume of
material used and therefore the embodied energy of the panel. But you can only
M.F. Ashby 2011
52
reduce h so much before the panel will not be strong enough. Rearrange the equation
you just derived to find the smallest value of h that doesnt fail.
f) Use this value of h in the equation you generated in part (a) for the embodied energy
of the panel. Separate the equation into material properties and fixed values.
Answer.
The objective function for the embodied energy of the panel, Hp, is the volume Lbh times
the embodied energy of the material per unit volume, Hm.
H p LbhH m
Bending moment M at centre due to load F =(F/2)(L/2) = FL/4
The maximum stress in the panel caused by moment M is
max
h
2
M
I
Putting these equations together, the failure load F must be at least F*, where
F C2
I y
hL
F*
Here C2 is a constant that depends only on the distribution of the loads and I is the
second moment of area, which, for a rectangular section, is
bh 3
I
12
We can reduce the energy Hp by reducing h, but only so far that the stiffness constraint is
still met. Combining the last two equations and solving for h gives
1/ 2
12 F * L
h
C b
y
2
Using this to eliminate h in the objective function gives
12 F * L3 b
H p
C2
1/ 2
H m
y1/ 2
The quantities F*, L, b and C2 are all specified; the only freedom of choice left is that of
the material. The best materials for a strong panel with the lowest embodied energy are
those with the smallest values of
M.F. Ashby 2011
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H m
y1/ 2
72.
73. Disposable knives and forks are ordered by an environmentally-conscious pizza-house.
The shape of each (and thus the length, width and profile) are fixed, but the thickness is
free: it is chosen to give enough bending-stiffness to cut and impale the pizza without
excessive flexure. The pizzeria-proprietor wishes to enhance the greenness of his image
by minimizing the energy-content of his throw-away tableware, which could be molded
from polystyrene (PS) or stamped from aluminum sheet.
Establish an appropriate material index for selecting materials for energy-economic forks.
Model the eating implement as a beam of fixed length L and width w, but with a thickness
t that is free, loaded in bending, as in the figure.
Stiff beam of length L width w and variable thickness t

Load F
L
a) What is the objective-function? (You have information on embodied energy per unit
mass He and you have the density of the panel and you know its volume.)
b) The limit on flexure imposes a stiffness constraint. Stiffness of a beam is a function of
its Youngs Modulus and its shape. (Stiffness of beams in bending is discussed in the
section called Solutions to Standard Engineering Problems and also in the case
study on Materials for Oars which can both be found in the CES EduPack Help
Menu.) What is the equation for the stiffness of the beam you are modeling?
c) What is the equation for the second moment of area, I for the beam you are modeling,
in terms of w and t?
d) Substitute your equation for I into your stiffness equation and rearrange it to find the
minimum t for a specified stffness.
e) Use this value for t in your objective-function. Separate out material properties from
fixed values. What is your material property index?
Flexure, in cutlery, is an inconvenience. Failure whether by plastic deformation or by
fracture is more serious: it causes loss-of-function; it might even cause hunger, or the
impaling of ones finger instead of the Pizza.
M.F. Ashby 2011
54
f)
Repeat the analysis, deriving an index when a required strength is the constraint.
g) Plot your two material indices on two axes of a chart in CES EduPack. Which is better
Polystyrene or Aluminium (use Age Hardening Wrought AL-Alloys) for each index?
h) Which material performs best on both indices? Think of 3 criteria you havent yet
accounted for in your selection that would rule out this as the choice of material.
Answer.
There are two alternative constraints, first, that the fork should not flex too much, second,
that it should not fail.
Function
Environmentally friendly disposable forks
Constraints
Length L specified
Width b specified
Stiffness S specified, or
Failure load F is specified
Objective
Minimize the material energy-content
Free
Shaft thickness t
variables
Choice of material
The resulting indices are
M1
E1 / 3
Hm
and
M2
y1 / 2
Hm
Aluminum performs better for M1 and Polystyrene performs better for M2.
Limestone comes out on top for both criteria. So far we havent yet considered the
following objectives; mass and cost, and the following constraints; hygienic, fits in the
hand, customer acceptance, fracture toughness.
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74. Panels are needed to board-up the windows of an unused building. The panels should
have the lowest possible embodied energy but be strong enough to deter an intruder
who, in attempting to break in, will load the panels in bending. Which index would you
choose to guide choice?
Plot the index on a chart, either as a formula on a bar chart or as a line on a bubble
chart., Find the best choices, excluding ceramics because of their brittleness. What
material classes do they belong to?
Answer.
The index for a strength limited panel of minimum embodied energy is
Hm
y1/ 2
, where Hm
is the embodied energy of the material, its density and y its yield strength. The index is
plotted on the Strength Embodied energy, per unit volume chart, reading the slope from
the appropriate guide line in the lower right of the chart. It is positioned to leave a few
materials to its left, as shown. Ignoring ceramics because of brittleness, the best choices
are
Woods
Cast iron
Carbon steels
Three density-grades of rigid polymer foams
M.F. Ashby 2011
56
Polymer foams are unsuitable for other reasons (too easily cut, and too thick) leaving the
others as the most environmentally friendly choices
75. The makers of a small electric car wish to make bumpers out of a molded thermoplastic.
Which index is the one to guide this selection if the aim is to maximize the range for a
given battery storage capacity? Plot it on the appropriate chart and make a selection. You
can use two tree stages to only include polymers that can be injection molded and are
thermoplastics.
Answer.
The use-energy of any vehicle, be it gasoline or electric powered, increases with the
mass of the vehicle. The bumper contributes to this mass. Maximizing range for a given
battery capacity means minimizing mass. The function of the bumper is to sustain
bending loads. Modelling the bumper as a beam with fixed length and rectangular crosssection but variable cross-sectional area, the required index to be minimized is
y2 / 3
This is plotted on the strength density chart below, using the slope of 1.5. The selection
line is positioned such that a few polymers remain above it they are the best choice.
M.F. Ashby 2011
57
They are:
Polycarbonate (PC)
Polyamide (nylon, PA) and
Polyethretherketone (PEEK)
In practice bumpers are made of blends of Polycarbonate with other polymers such as
Polypropylene or Polyamide, or of fiber reinforced thermosets such as Polyester. PEEK is
too expensive for applications such as this.
1000
Yield strength (elastic limit) (MPa)
Polyetheretherketone (PEEK)
Polyamides (Nylons, PA)
100
Polycarbonate (PC)
10
0.1
0.01
100
1000
10000
Density (kg/m^3)
76. The previous question created a performance index for an energy-efficient, mobile safety
barrier (modelled as a strength-limited beam loaded centrally under bending with fixed
length and a rectangular cross-section, but a variable cross-sectional area). For a static
crash barrier at the side of the road, modelled in the same way, a different performance
index would be required to minimise embodied energy. This would be M 1
H p
y2/3
Create charts for Strength Vs Density and strength vs embodied energy per unit volume
to plot lines to represent the two performance indices to select materials for each of the
barriers. Position your selection line to include one metal for each. Reject ceramics and
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58
glass on the grounds of brittleness. List what you find for each barrier.
Answer.
The figure below shows the two charts with the indices
M1
H p
2/3
and
M2
y2/3
marked. Each is positioned to leave one class of metal exposed. For the mobile barrier
minimizing mass is the objective. The best choice is CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced
polymers); among metals, magnesium alloys offer the lightest solution. The lower
selection is that for the static barrier with minimizing embodied energy as the objective.
The selection is wood; among metals cast irons offer the solution with lowest embodied
energy.
The exercise brings out how strongly the selection to minimize environmental burden
depends on the application.
Selected materials: mobile barrier
Selected materials: static barrier
Carbon-fiber reinforced polymers
Wood
Magnesium alloys
Cast irons
(Aluminum alloys)
(Carbon steels)
(Wood)
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M.F. Ashby 2011
60
Eco Audits - Product Case Studies

The following questions use the Eco Audit Tool which can be found in the tools menu of the
Eco Audit Tool.
77. Watch the video tutorial in the help menu of CES EduPack Eco Audit.
78. Open the CES EduPack at Level 2 and click on the Tools menu and choose Eco
Audit. Click on Open on the right-had side of the area that just opened up. You
should be able to see a list of .prd files. If not, then your installation is not standard and
we have to go and find them. They should be in the following folder on your computer:
Program Files > CES EduPack 2010 > Samples > Eco Audit > en > Level 1. Program files
are usually on your C drive. Once you have found the list of .prd files, open the one called
Bottled Mineral Water.prd.
The first tab Product Definition is a model for a product in this case 100 bottles of
mineral water. The top section is a bill of materials and covers the components the
product consists of what they are made of, how they are processed, their weight and what
happens to them at the end of their lives. Sections below cover how the product is
transported and used. Each section heading in blue can be clicked on to get a thorough
explanation of the data and equations behind the Eco Audit Tool. Review the Eco Audit
File you just opened.
a) What is the mass of each bottle including cap and the water contained in it?
b) What are the caps made of?
c) How will the bottles be processed?
d) What will happen to the caps at the end of their lives? What
other options are there for PP? (Use the drop down menu to list
them.)
e) By what method of transportation will the bottle get to their point
of use?
f)
Click on the help icon next to transport. How will the Transport
Energy be calculated?
g) The use phase is trying to represent the refrigeration of the 100 bottles after they
have been delivered but before the water is drunk. How long are the bottles in the
refrigerator?
h) What is the power rating of the refrigerator? Look in the notes section, what is this
power rating for?
M.F. Ashby 2011
61
i)
We need to have a measure of how efficient the refrigerator is at converting electricity

to function. What is in the Energy Input and Output field?
j)
Lastly, we need to know where the electricity is coming from as electricity can be
produced in different ways that create more or less CO2.Click on the Use phase help
icon. How many Mega Joules of Fossil fuel energy is needed to make 1 Mega Joule
of electricity in the UK?
k) OK so now lets look at the report. Click on the button marked View Report or click
on the second tab. What two environmental measures are charted?
l)
Note that they are broken up by phase of life. Which phase of life of the bottles
creates the most CO 2?
m) Why does one phase of life have a negative number? What does this mean?
(Remember the help menu has explanations.)
n) What are the total Energy and total Carbon Footprint for the 100 bottles in this
scenario?
o) Scroll further down or click on the blue arrows towards the top to go to page 2 and 3
of the report. Here you will find all the numbers used in the calculations broken down.
How many Mega Joules does the Eco Audit Tool think it takes to transport 1 tonne 1
Kilometer by 14 tonne truck?
Export the Report and save it somewhere so that you can refer back to it later. (You can
use the disk symbol towards the top.)
Answer.
a) 1.041Kg
b) Polypropylene
c) Blow Moulded
d) Combusted. Other options: Recycle, Landfill, Reuse, Downcycle, Re-engineer.
e) 14 tonne truck.
f)
Transport Energy = Transport Energy per unit mass and distance x distance x
product mass.
g) 2 days.
h) Energy required to refrigerate 100 bottles at 4C = 0.12kW
i)
Electrical to Mechanical (Electric Motors). Essentially refrigerators work by using

electric motors to compress gas.
M.F. Ashby 2011
62
j)
2MJ
k) Energy and CO2

l)
Material Phase.
m) Negative numbers in the Disposal or End of Life phase represent energies or

amounts of CO2 that can be saved, in the case of energy, or prevented from being
emitted in the case of CO2.
n) 2010 and before: 334MJ Energy and 18 Kg CO2..2011 onwards: 521 MJ and 22Kg for
first life, -194MJ and -5.4Kg for end of life potential.
o) 0.85 MJ.
79. Open the Bottled Mineral Water .prd file in the Eco Audit Tool. This file is for 100 PET
bottles. If you havent already noted the total CO2 and Energy used for this product and
exported the report for reference please do that now.
Which phase dominates? Where would you prioritise change to get the biggest benefit to
the environment?
If the embodied energies and CO2 used in the bottled water eco audit file are uncertain
by a factor of 25%, do the conclusions change? Export the report to Excel and use the
data table to create a chart with 25% error bars on it. Describe your conclusions.
Answer.
The material phase dominates and a material of lower embodied energy
or reducing the amount of material used in the bottle could have a
significant impact.
If you look at energy then the Material Phase still clearly dominate even
when we take the uncertain nature of the data into account. However the
picture is less clear for the carbon footprint. Here the error bars for the
Manufacturing Phase and the Material Phase overlap. So if reducing
your carbon footprint is your overriding concern (perhaps so your
marketing department can label the bottle differently) then the
manufacturing process would need to be investigated too.
M.F. Ashby 2011
63
100 Bottles Mineral Water, Energy and CO2 (Excel)
Energy (MJ) CO2 (Kg/Kg)
500.0000
400.0000
300.0000
200.0000
Energy (MJ)
100.0000
CO2 (%)
0.0000
-100.0000
Material
Manufacture
Transport
Use
End of life
-200.0000
-300.0000
Phase
Instead of using 0% virgin PET change the scenario so we are using 100% recycled
PET.
a) Click on View report and describe how this changes the environmental
impact.
You can buy material that is made 100% recycled PET. However, is it likely that 100% of
your bottles will get recycled?
b) Find the PET material record and reading from the Eco properties section,
what % of PET is recycled commonly?
Answer.
If using CES EduPack 2011 onwards then You no longer get credit for recycling
the bottle at the end of its life if you use recycled PET to start with as the credit is
based on the difference between the embodied energy of virgin PET and that of
recycled PET. Therefore there is no longer any entry in EOL Potential. However the
Material Phase has decreased significantly. There is much discussion about where
the boundary of the product should lie and how the double benefit of both using
recycled material and making sure the design of your product encourages easy
recycling or reuse should be encouraged by these types of tools. It is also interesting
to note that in this scenario the Manufacturing Phase is the most dominant phase for
CO2 production.
M.F. Ashby 2011
64
a) Only 22% of the material in the supply chain is from recycled stock. This doesnt
mean that only 22% of bottles will be recycled. There is also a growth in the number
of bottles etc. that are produced as the population grows and societies get richer and
consume more. However 22% (and this is high for a polymer) does indicate that it
might not be easy to get 100% recycled PET and/or that not 100% of the bottles will
be recycled.
81. Our Bottled Mineral Water has proved to be popular. The importers now
wish to move up-market. To do so they plan to market their water in 1
liter glass bottles of appealing design instead of the rather-ordinary PET
bottles. A single 1-liter glass bottle weighs 450 grams, much more than
the 40 grams of those made of PET. Critics argue that this marketingstrategy is irresponsible because of the increased weight. The importers
respond that glass has lower embodied energy than PET. Use the Eco
Audit Tool to come up with your own conclusions on this topic.
Open the Bottled Mineral Water .prd file in the Eco Audit Tool. This file is for 100 PET
Change the material used for the bottle to Soda-Lime Glass and the material used for
the cap to Aluminum Alloys..
Change the processes to Glass molding for the bottle and rolling for the cap.
Change the masses to 0.45Kg for the bottles and 0.002Kg for the caps.
Change the end of life of the caps to recycle.
View the report for this new scenario. What do you think of the marketing strategy. Does it
have Eco Credentials?
Answer.
The energy audit for 100 glass bottles, carried out in the same way as the PET bottles
and assuming the Glass and Aluminum are recycled at end of life, gives the breakdown
shown. The choice of glass is almost 3 times more energy intensive than PET. PET has
a higher embodied energy per unit mass, but the glass bottle is a lot heavier.
If the bottle is recycled, then the energy recovered: it is the difference between the
embodied energy and the recycle energy, (also listed in the CES EduPack). Even if all the
PET bottles are thrown in the landfill and all the glass bottles are recycled then the PET
bottle still uses less energy. No, sorry, this marketing strategy will not fly.
M.F. Ashby 2011
65
Change the end of life of the PET bottle to Combust.
View the report and describe what has happened to the Carbon footprint and why.
Answer
Combusting the bottle creates energy but also CO2
M.F. Ashby 2011
66
Change the transport method to Air Freight.
Change the number of days the bottle is refrigerated to 10 days.
a) View the report and describe what has happened to the Energy used.
b) How many days would the bottles have to be refrigerated for the use phase to use
approximately the same amount of energy as the material phase?
Answer.
The Transport Phase uses about 16 times the energy and the Use Phase uses about 5
times the energy.
The bottle would have to be refrigerated for about 15 days before the use phase
competes with the material phase in the original scenario for the most dominant phase.
84. Open up the eco-audit file for the Electric kettle in CES EduPack Eco Audit Tool Level 2.
Change the end of life for the Polypropylene body and the cardboard packaging to
recycle. Set all other components to landfill. How many Mega Joules could potentially be
saved if the body of the kettle and the cardboard packaging could be recycled for every
kettle? What is that as a percentage of the total energy used in the first life of the kettle?
Answer.
Using 2011 Edition
Phase
Energy (MJ)
Energy (%)
CO2 (kg)
CO2 (%)
Material
104
4.0
3.43
2.2
Manufacture
22.1
0.9
1.67
1.0
115
4.4
7.73
4.8
2.35e+03
90.7
147
91.9
0.744
0.0
0.0521
0.0
2.6e+03
100
160
100
Transport
Use
Disposal
Total (for first life)
End of life potential
-48.2
-1.42
48.2 MJ potential saving = ~1.9% of the total first life energy.
M.F. Ashby 2011
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85. Open up the eco-audit file for the Electric kettle in CES EduPack
Eco Audit Tool Level 2. If the Polypropylene body of the electric
kettle is replaced by a double walled stainless steel one
weighing twice as much, choose rough rolling, forging as the
process. How much does the total energy used in the first life of
the product change? If this reduces the electric power consumed
over life by 10%, does the energy balance favor the substitution?
Answer.
Using 2011
Original Kettle Summary
Phase
Energy (MJ)
Energy (%)
CO2 (kg)
CO2 (%)
Material
104
4.0
3.43
2.2
Manufacture
22.1
0.9
1.67
1.0
Transport
115
4.4
7.73
4.8
2.35e+03
90.7
147
91.9
0.686
0.0
0.048
0.0
2.6e+03
100
160
100
Use
Disposal
-18.3
1.76
Stainless Steel Kettle

Phase
Energy (MJ)
Energy (%)
CO2 (kg)
CO2 (%)
Material
162
5.9
9.9
5.8
Manufacture
17.3
0.6
1.31
0.8
Transport
194
7.1
13
7.6
2.35e+03
86.3
147
85.8
0.6
0.0
0.042
0.0
2.73e+03
100
171
100
Use
Disposal
-8.59
-0.258
Material and Transport phases have increased significantly.

Stainless Steel Kettle - reduced power rating.
Phase
Energy (MJ)
Energy (%)
Material
162
Manufacture
17.3
Transport
Use
Disposal
CO2 (kg)
CO2 (%)
6.5
9.9
6.3
0.7
1.31
0.8
194
7.8
13
8.3
2.12e+03
85.0
132
84.5
0.6
0.0
0.042
0.0
2.49e+03
100
156
100
-8.59
-0.258
Total first life energy is less for this last scenario and so the substitution is favored.
M.F. Ashby 2011
68
86. Open up the eco-audit file for the Electric kettle in CES EduPack Eco Audit Tool Level 2.
Export the report so you have it to refer to. Now change the % of recycled content in all
the materials that can be recycled to 100%. Three materials are marked as not being able
to be recycled: Phenolics, Natural Rubber and Rigid Polymer Foam. Next set the end of
life for the Polypropylene body, the Stainless Steel heating element and the Cardboard
packaging to recycle and the other components to landfill. View report again and compare
it to the original report.
What has happened to the Material Phase?
Answer.
Using 2011
Original Kettle Summary
Phase
Energy (MJ)
Energy (%)
CO2 (kg)
CO2 (%)
Material
104
4.0
3.43
2.2
Manufacture
22.1
0.9
1.67
1.0
Transport
115
4.4
7.73
4.8
Use
2.35e+03
90.7
147
91.9
Disposal
0.686
0.0
0.048
0.0
2.6e+03
100
160
100
-18.3
1.76
Kettle using recycled materials

Phase
Energy (MJ)
Energy (%)
CO2 (kg)
CO2 (%)
Material
49.1
1.9
1.58
1.0
Manufacture
22.1
0.9
1.67
1.1
Transport
115
4.5
7.73
4.9
Use
2.35e+03
92.6
147
93.0
Disposal
0.789
0.0
0.0552
0.0
2.54e+03
100
158
100
The embodied energy and CO2 emissions from the Materials phase have halved.
87. A 1700 Watt steam iron weighs 1.3 kg, 98% of which is
accounted for by the 7 components listed in the table.
The iron heats up on full power in 4 minutes, is then
used, typically, for 20 minutes, once a week. At end of
life the iron is dumped as landfill. Virgin materials are
used for all components. The iron is made in China and
used in the USA. It is transported by 14 tonne truck
M.F. Ashby 2011
69
from the factory to the port, 100km, by sea freight for 14,000km and by 14 tonne truck for
3000Km. Create an eco-audit for the iron assuming that it is used over a life of 5 years,.
What conclusions can you draw? How might the energy be reduced?
Steam iron: bill of materials
Component
Material
Mass (kg)
Shaping
Process
Body
Heating element
Polypropylene
0.15
Molded
Nickel
0.03
Drawn
Chromium
Alloys
Base
Stainless steel
0.80
Cast
Cable sheath, 3 meter
Polyurethane
0.18
Molded
Cable core, 3 meter
Copper
0.05
Drawn
Plug body
Phenolic
0.037
Molded
Plug pins
Brass
0.03
Rough
Rolling
Answer.
Phase
Energy (MJ)
Energy (%)
CO2 (kg)
Material
114
0.1
6.19
0.1
Manufacture
18.2
0.0
1.37
0.0
Transport
Use
Disposal
CO2 (%)
6.23
0.0
0.442
0.0
8.63e+04
99.8
5.35e+03
99.9
0.255
0.0
0.0179
0.0
8.64e+04
100
5.35e+03
100
M.F. Ashby 2011
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The bar chart shows this distribution of energy commitment over the phases of life. The
Use phase dominates, accounting for 99% of the total energy. So much that the other
phases are not visible on this scale of graph. 1/6 of the use energy is to heat up the base
of the Iron to working temperature. Requiring energy
Q = mC p T
Where m is the mass of the base of the iron (0.8 kg), C p is its specific heat and T is the
temperature interval through which it is heated. Thus energy could be saved by reducing
the mass of the base of the iron or by selecting a material for it with a lower specific heat,
or both.
88. A 970 Watt toaster. It weighs 1.2 kg including 0.75 m of

cable and plug. It takes 2 minutes 15 seconds to toast a
pair of slices. It is used to toast, on average, 8 slices per
day, so it draws its full electrical power for 9 minutes (540
seconds) per day over its design life of 3 years. The
toasters are made locally, in the USA, transport energy
and CO2 are negligible. At end of life it is dumped. Create
an eco-audit for the toaster using CES EduPack.
Which phase dominates? How could
the energy efficiency be increased in this phase?

Now change the % of Recycled content of the materials used to the typical amount found
in the supply chain where available in the drop down menu. How much effect does this
have?
Toaster: bill of materials
Body
Heating element
Mass
(kg)
0.24
0.03
Inner Frame
0.93
Cable sheath, 0.75 meter

Cable core, 0.75 meter
Plug body
0.045
0.011
0.037
Polypropylene
Nichrome
Low carbon
steel
Polyurethane
Copper
Phenolic
Plug pins
0.03
Brass
Component
Material
Shaping
Process
Molded
Drawn
Rough
Rolling
Molded
Drawn
Molded
Rough
Rolling
M.F. Ashby 2011
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Answer.
The bar chart shows this distribution of energy commitment over the phases of life. Note
the disposal phase is so small it isnt visible on this scale. The use phase dominates,
accounting for 90% of the total energy. How could the energy efficiency be increased? Air
circulates through the toaster during use, necessary to carry off the moisture distilled from
the bread, but carrying off energy too. Optimizing this air flow and the use of infra-red
lamp elements instead of the resistance coils could focus the heat more precisely where it
is needed. When toasting a single slice in a 2-slice toaster half the heat is wasted.
Provision of a switch or sensor to limit heating to the slot containing bread would
significantly reduce energy consumption.
Using materials with they typical recycled fraction reduces the energy used in the
materials phase only slightly as most of the embodied energy comes from the
Polypropylene body and the Polyurethane cable, both of which do not have a typical
recycled fraction available. You will see in their records that only a very minimal % of
these materials are recycled.
89. It is proposed to replace a low-alloy steel bumper, weighing 14Kg by one made of CFRP.
It is anticipated that the CFRP one will weigh 7 kg. The embodied energy and price of the
materials is available in the records.
a) Given a use energy of a gasoline- powered car as 2.1 MJ/tonne.km, how far does the
car need to travel before changing to CFRP make sense from an energy use
perspective?
b) Is that distance usual over the life of a normal family
car?
c) What other factors might speak against changing to
CFRP?
M.F. Ashby 2011
72
d) How much more expensive would the CFRP bumper be just based on the average
price data in CES EduPack?
e) How much petrol/gasoline can you buy with that amount of money? (Either find
figures in your own country or use the current UK price = 1.27 / litre.)
f)
If the average European family car weighs 1175Kg, what % weight saving would the
bumper achieve?
If fuel efficiency is proportional to the mass of the car and the original vehicle goes for
13Km on one litre of petrol/gasoline and assuming the cost of the new bumper is fully
passed through to the car owner does the owner of the car save money with the new
bumper over 98,000Km?
Answer.
a&b) The break-even distance is found by equating the total energy associated with the
steel bumper-set to that of the CFRP set (Embodied energy + Use Energy) for a driven
distance of X km, and solving for X. The result is 98,160 km. This is within the usual
range of the average family car over its lifespan.
Material
Mass
Material
Material
of fender
(kg)
embodied
energy (MJ)
energy (MJ/kg)
Low alloy
14
35
490
272
1904
steel
CFRP
c) CFRP as opposed to Low Alloy Steel is not readily recycled. CFRP is more
expensive.
d) 175.25
e) 138 Litres
f)
7/1175 *100 = 0.6%
g) A car with an efficiency of 13 km/L would use 98,000/13 liters of petrol costing 9,573
at current UK prices. If the fuel efficiency improved by 0.6% to about 13.08 km/L the
same distance would cost 9,517. This is a saving of about 57, not enough to cover
the extra cost of the bumper. If the cost of petrol were more expensive or the car was
driven a greater distance the change to the material of the bumper might start to
make economic sense to the consumer. (It is also worth noting that while a family car
does on average usually do 98,000km or more. It is not usually the first buyer of the
car that does that whole distance.)
M.F. Ashby 2011
73
90. Open up the Eco Audit File for a family car

in the Eco Audit Tool at level 2. The car is
manufactured in Germany and delivered to
the US show room by sea freight (distance
10,000 km) followed by delivery by heavy
truck over a further 250 .
Add in these
transport stages. The car has a useful life

of 10 years, and will be driven on average 24,820 km per year.
Review the Eco Audit report. Which phase of life consumes most energy? The inherent
uncertainty of current data for embodied and processing energies are considerable if
both of these were in error by a factor of 2 either way can you still draw firm conclusions
from the data? If so, what steps would do most to reduce life-energy requirements?
Answer.
The figure shows the bar chart based on the data. Even with a colossal allowance for the
imprecision of the base-line data the conclusion is inescapable: the use-phase of the
vehicle remains the dominant contribution to life-energy consumption. Material choice
should focus first on reducing vehicle mass since it is this that most directly correlates
with fuel consumption. It is essential to then check that the consequent change in
embodied energy of the material choice has not negated the gain resulting from the lower
mass, using the method of the previous exercise.
M.F. Ashby 2011
74
91. Use the Eco Audit Tool to conduct a CO2 eco-audit for the patio heater
shown here. It is manufactured in SE Asia and transported using sea
freight 8,000 km to the US where it is sold and used.
It weighs 24 kg, of which 17 kg is rolled stainless steel, 6 kg is rolled
medium carbon steel, 0.6 kg is cast brass and 0.4 kg is unidentified
injection-molded polypropylene.
In use it delivers 14 kW of heat (enough to keep 8 people warm) while
consuming 0.9 kg of propane gas (LPG) per hour. The heater is used in
an open patio for 3 hours per day for 30 days per year, over 5 years, at
which time the owner tires of it and takes it to the recycling depot (only 6
miles / 10 km away, so neglect the transport CO2) where the stainless
steel, carbon steel and brass are sent for recycling.
Describe the Carbon Footprint of this product.
Answer.
Phase
Material
Energy (MJ)
Energy (%)
CO2 (kg)
CO2 (%)
4.4
1.65e+03
4.8
107
Manufacture
167
0.5
12.5
0.5
Transport
30.7
0.1
2.18
0.1
3.24e+04
94.6
2.3e+03
94.9
16.6
0.0
1.16
0.0
3.43e+04
100
2.42e+03
100
-1.16e+03
Use
Disposal
-76.1
The table above lists the carbon footprints of the different phases for the patio heater. The
bar chart plots the totals. Sea transport over 8000km, releases 2.18 kg of carbon dioxide
per unit, so small as to be invisible on the bar chart. The use of the heater, delivering 14
kW , emits 2300 kg of CO2. Recycling saves the difference between the carbon footprint
of virgin and that of recycled material.
M.F. Ashby 2011
75
Not surprisingly, the carbon emission during use dominates. There is only one way to
reduce the carbon footprint of a device like this: turn it off.
Longer Summary Questions

92. You are asked to design a large heated work-space in a cold climate, making it as ecofriendly as possible. The space will be heated during the day (12 hours) but not at night.
The required insulation wall-thickness, w, is given by the equation:
2t
w
C
p
1/ 2
where is the thermal conductivity, Cp the specific heat of the wall per unit mass (so Cp
is the specific heat per unit volume) and t is the time interval between heating and
cooling. What is the optimum thickness of insulating material to minimize the energy loss
for Brick, Concrete, Glass and Straw Bale*?
Given that the area to be covered remains the same for each material, create a
performance index for the cheapest material. Which material is cheapest?
Now create a performance index for the material with the lowest embodied energy. Which
wins on this score?
*The Architecture Edition of CES EduPack contains data for Straw Bale and other
insulating materials. If you have this edition then you will also be able to choose to
explore different kinds of brick, glass and concrete. Note that thermal conductivity is the
reciprocal of Thermal Resistivity found in the Architecture Edition.
Straw, when
compressed, has a density of 123 kg/m3, a price of about 6 /m , a specific heat capacity
of 1670 J/kg.K, a thermal conductivity of 0.05 W/m.K and an embodied energy
0.173MJ/kg.
Answer.
2t
w
C
p
1/ 2
Cost Index = w * Price per unit volume = w * Price *

Embodied Energy Index = w * Embodied Energy per unit volume = w * *Hm.
M.F. Ashby 2011
76
Inserting the data given in the question for Straw Bale and for the other materials from
CES Edupack (and remembering to convert the 12 hour cycle time into seconds) gives
the results:
Straw Bale
Concrete
Brick
Soda-Lime Glass
W = Thickness cm
Cost index
14.5
22.9
18.5
19.3
0.87
17.7
214
452
Embodied
Energy Index
3.08
638
941
7340
Straw Bale wins on each index.
M.F. Ashby 2011
77
93. Car bumpers used to be made of steel. Most cars now have extruded aluminium or glassreinforced polymer bumpers. Both materials have a much higher embodied energy than
steel. Take the weight of a steel bumper-set to be 20 kg, and that of an aluminum one to
be 14 kg.
The energy consumption in MJ/km, Hkm, as a function of vehicle mass m is, for petrol
engine cars:
H km 3.7 X 10 3 m 0.93
(a) Work out how much energy is saved by changing the bumper-set of a 1500 kg car
from steel to aluminum, over an assumed life of 200,000 km.
(b) Calculate whether the switch from steel to aluminum has saved energy over life. You
will find the embodied energies of steel and aluminum in CES EduPack. Ignore the
differences in energy in manufacturing the two bumpers it is small.
(c) The switch from steel to aluminum increases the price of the car by $60. Using
current pump prices for gasoline, work out whether, over the assumed life, it is
cheaper to have the aluminum bumper or the steel one. (One liter of gasoline
provides 35 MJ of energy.)
Answer.
(a) The marginal change in this energy resulting from a small change is mass when
bumpers of one material are replaced by those of another is found by differentiating this:
H km
3.44 X 10 3
m
m 0.07
Thus a weight saving of 6 kg made possible by the change from steel to aluminum
bumpers on a car of mass 1500 kg saves, over 200,000 km, the energy 2,470 MJ.
(b) The table below lists the embodied energies of steel and aluminum; they are the
means of the ranges given in CES EduPack. From these the material energy per bumperset is calculated: the difference is 2,412 MJ. Thus the switch from steel to aluminum
bumpers has saved energy, but not much. The difference between the material and the
use energy over 200,000 km for a vehicle of this mass is only 58 MJ.
Material
Bumper mass (kg)
Embodied
energy
Material energy per
(MJ/kg)
bumper (MJ)
Steel
20
32
640
Aluminum
14
218
3052
M.F. Ashby 2011
78
(c) The change of material has saved the equivalent of less than two liters of fuel, and
has cost $60. Fuel cost depends on country; it varies at present between $1/liter and
$2/liter. Thus from an economic point of view, and assuming the conditions of use
described here (200,000 km on a vehicle of mass 1500 kg) the change of material is not
justified on cost grounds.
If the life-distance is increased to 400,000 km the picture changes. The change of
material has resulted in a reduction in energy of use by 4,940 MJ; the difference between
material and use energy then becomes 2,528 MJ, equivalent to 72 liters of gasoline, and
then, even with cheap gasoline ($1 per liter) the change becomes economically attractive.
94. Floor joists are beams loaded in bending. They can be made of wood, of steel, or of steelreinforced concrete, with the shape factors listed below. For a given bending stiffness and
strength, which of these carries the lowest production-energy burden? The relevant data,
drawn from the CES EduPack, are listed
(a) Start with stiffness. Find the material index for stiffness-limited, shaped beams of
minimum mass. Adapt this to make the index for stiffness-limited, shaped beams of
embodied energy by multiplying density by embodied energy/kg, Hp. Use the
modified index to rank the three beams.
(b) Repeat the procedure, this time for strength, creating the appropriate index for
strength-limited shaped beams at minimum energy content.
What do you conclude about the relative energy-penalty of design with wood and with
steel?
Density
Modulus
Strength
Energy Hp
(kg/m3)
E (GPa)
y (MPa)
(MJ/kg)
Soft wood
700
10
40
Reinforced concrete
2900
35
Steel
7900
210
Material
B e
B f
7.5
1.4
10
1.4
200
30
15
Hint: Search for Shape Factor in the help menu of CES EduPack.
Answer.
(a) The material index for stiffness-limited, shaped beams of minimum mass is
E
M
1/ 2
Thus the index for an energy-efficient beam with a specified stiffness, modified to
include shape, is
M.F. Ashby 2011
79
M1
1/ 2
H p
where E is the modulus, the density, Hp the energy content per unit weight, and B
the shape factor for stiffness controlled design. The first Table shows values of M1 for
the wood, the concrete and the shaped steel beam. Wood wins.
Material
E (GPa)
Hp
3
(GJ/m )
B e
M1
Soft wood
10
5.25
0.86
Reinforced concrete
35
14.5
0.57
Steel
210
238
15
0.23
(b) Similarly, the index for an energy efficient beam of prescribed strength is,
M2
where
B f
f
H p
f
2/3
is the shape factor in bending. The next table shows that, as before,
wood is the most efficient material.

f (MPa)
Material
Hp
3
(GJ/m )
B f
M2 (MPa2/3 / GJ/m3)
Soft wood
40
5.25
1.4
2.8
Reinforced concrete
10
14.5
1.4
0.4
Steel
200
238
0.36
M.F. Ashby 2011
80
95. In a far-away land, fridges cost the same as they do here but electrical energy costs 10
times more than here that is, it costs $2/kW.hr. For a service life of 10 years and using
this trade-off plot for fridges plot a set of penalty lines onto it, using $2/kW.hr for the
exchange constant, e . If you had to choose just one fridge to use in this land, which
would it be?
Answer.
We wish to minimize life-cost, which we take to be the sum of the initial cost and the cost
of the energy used over life. So define the penalty function
Z * C f eH f t
*
where Cf* is the initial cost and Hf* is the energy per year (both per cubic meter of cold
space), e the exchange constant, is the cost of energy per kW.hr and t is the service life
of the fridge in years, making Z* the life-cost of the fridge per cubic meter of cold space.
Inserting a life t of 10 years and an energy cost e of $2/kW.hr gives
*
Z * C f 20 H f
Rearranging gives
Hf
1 * 1
*
Z Cf
20
20
So the penalty function plots as a set of lines of slope 1/20 on the trade of plot of Hf*
against Cf*. They are shown in black on the figure.
M.F. Ashby 2011
81
The choice that minimizes total life-cost when electrical power costs $2/kW.hr is that
nearest the point where the new Z* contours are tangent to the trade-off surface. It is
ringed in red: the Hotpoint RLA 175.
Contours of Z*
for an
exchange
constant of
$2/kW.hr
The trade-off plot for fridges with contours of the new penalty function Z*.
M.F. Ashby 2011
82
Author
Professor Mike Ashby
University of Cambridge, Granta Design Ltd.
www.grantadesign.com
www.eng.cam.ac.uk
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Exercises With Worked Solutions

Unit 6: Eco Properties and the Eco Audit Tool

Professor Mike Ashby

Exercises with Worked Solutions

Materials Selection for Mechanical Design by Michael F. Ashby (ISBN-13:

Unit 6: Eco Properties and the Eco Audit Tool

Eco Data in the CES EduPack............................................................................................ 3

Eco Data in the CES EduPack

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA, PHB)

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Cellulose polymers (CA)

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA, PHB)

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Finding Definitions and Background Information

Data Sources and Accuracy

www.wrap.org.UK. ISBN 1-84405-268-0. (Data and an Excel-based tool to calculate

9. What are the main sources of uncertainty in the data?

Quantifying the inputs is not straightforward, particularly in regard to the system

The practice of eco-accounting is relatively new. A full input-output analysis,

10. Can we make decisions with uncertain data?

Embodied Energy (MJ/Kg)

embodied energy than Material 2.

The Case for Eco-design Consumption, Production and

14. Derive the dynamic index

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which on inversion gives

polyhydroxyalkanoates, polylactides, starch-based thermoplastics) and for cattle

Resource life, reserves and the prices of materials

World production (X106

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For two of the metals lead and copper the rate of

The production rate curve peaks and starts to decline

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The price starts to rise unsustainably.

Annual world production

Energy and CO2 Life Cycle Assessment

Energy intensive life phase

Take the coffee maker as an example.

Energy (kW.hr or MJ) or liters of water per kg of clothes

Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per m3 of cooled space per year

Home heating systems

Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per unit volume of heated space per

Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per unit volume of cooled space per

Power (Watts) per lumen (the measure of light intensity)

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Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per cup of coffee

Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per passenger mile

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Energy (kW.hr or MJ) per drying episode (difficult: long hair

Cost of broadband connection

Inventory compilation: what resources are consumed, what

Impact assessment: what do these do to the environment

An electric kettle; how many components approximately do you think it contains?

Material: is it energy-intensive? Does it create excessive emissions? Is it difficult or

Most materials require an input of virgin material to avoid build-up of uncontrollable

Sea defences can be constructed using floating arrays of tyres

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Affiliation: brands are defined by their packaging.

Break up for bean bags

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