Life cycle assessment of an LTE base station BASED ON Primary data Pernilla Bergmark Master Researcher, Sustainability Ericsson AB Third ETSI Workshop on ICT Energy Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability 3-5 June 215, Sophia Antipolis ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 1
Life Cycle assessment (LCA) Raw material acquisition Production Use End-of-life Total impact on: Global warming potential: CO 2 Acidification Eutrophication Ozone depletion / creation Toxicities (human, land, water) Abiotic depletion ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 2
ASSESSMENT BOUNDARIES Scope: Cradle-to-grave LCA of an LTE base station Main focus on raw materials & production RBS building block for network studies Only GHG presented here Functional unit: Data presented: per RBS AND per year AND per subscriber*year (subyear) As per defined configuration and use scenario ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 3
Data Collected Primary data: RBS configuration and hardware data RBS material content RBS parts production data Assembly data Transportation data Electricity mixes / emission factors Reused primary data: Secondary data RBS energy use Electricity mixes / emission factors Complementing production process data Materials acquisition process data Production process data for simple components Support activities (vendor and operator) Site data End of life treatment ICT network data (adopted for 214) ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 4
RBS LCA Data overview RBS E/// Assembly Primary data Secondary data Cable sets Power modules Cabinet Radio units Fan module Other modules Digital units Climate module Mechanics Mechanics Mechanics Mechanics Electronics Electronics Electronics Electronics Production processes Cable production Process data Mechanics: Ericsson mechanics Production process data Electronics: Power supply production Processes data Cabinet production Process data Power supply production Processes data Mechanics: Die casting Process data Electronics: PCB, Memories, IC, ASICS production Processes data Generic production process data Climate production Process data Mechanics: Ericsson assembly process data Electronics: PCB, Memories, IC, ASICS production processes Generic production process data Mechanics: Ericsson mechanics Production process data Electronics: PCB, Memories, IC, ASICS production processes Generic production process data Climate production Process data ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 5
RAW MATERIALS ACQUISITION & PARTS PRoDUCTION Raw material acquisition (incl extraction and processing) Raw material acquisition Parts production Electricity Fuels Other energy Unspecified Raw material processing Transport -Outbound Parts production (of e.g. IC, PBA, cables etc.) Transport -Outbound Part cradle-to-gate Unspecified Transport -Waste Support activities Waste Primary data Secondary data ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 6
Data collection complexity Raw materials Acquisition Collection of primary materials content data very time consuming Raw Materials in RBS Use of secondary process data from LCA tool database Data age Virgin / recycled ratios Yield information Meta data Known weight Unknown weight ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 7
From Materials data to Process Models Mapping between materials data and models non-trivial task Choices: One material many processes FE cast iron part, DE, PE-GaBi, 212-215 mine, iron GLO, Ecoinvent 2 Sinter, iron, at plant, GLO, Ecoinvent 1999-22 turning, cast iron, conventional, average, RER, 26-27 milling, cast iron, average, RER, Ecoinvent, 26-27 drilling, conventional, cast iron, RER, Ecoinvent, 26-27 COPPER (METALLIC) Copper sheet mix, EU-27, PE-GaBi, 12-15 copper product manufacturing, average metal working, RER, Ecoinvent, 6-7 copper, at regional storage, RER, Ecoinvent, 94-3 copper, primary, at refinery, GLO, Ecoinvent, 94-3 ZINC zinc, primary, at regional storage, RER, Ecoinvent, 1994-23 zinc, from combined metal production, at refinery, SE,Ecoinvent, 24-26 smelting,primary zinc production, GLO, Ecoinvent, 94-3, (p-agg) Proxy data: One material no processes PA 46 Nylon 6 granulate (PA 6), RER, PE-GaBi, 96-6 polyamid 46. is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic with very high thermal dimensional stability. Count as PA6 ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 8
Data collection complexity Production processes Primary data for production processes collection very time consuming! Below 6% answering rate Suppliers not used to LCA data requests Yield information often confidential 44% 56% suppliers provided data suppliers have not provided data ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 9
Supplier Data quality Production processes % Suppliers 1 9 8 7 6 5 4 Supplier General Data Quality % Suppliers 1 9 8 7 6 5 4 Supplier Energy Data Quality 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 scale -5 (:no data, 1: invalid data, 2: unreliable data, 3:aceptable data, 4: good data, 5: excellent data) 3 2 1 scale :5 (:no 1data, 1: invalid 2data, 2: unreliable 3 data, 3:aceptable 4 data, 4: 5 good data, 5: excellent data) Supplier data combined for best part level quality Secondary data from LCA tool used to fill data gaps ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 1
RBS configuration, use and EoLT scenarios Configuration 4 W RF power/ sector (2 TX, 2 W/antenna), 3 sectors/site 1 MHz bandwidth Materials based on Macro Indoor RBS 621 HW Energy consumption according to (Frenger et al, 213)*RF load 2% +1% for site cooling Use stage emission factor for word average electricity energy supply chain and losses included EoLT Full recycling (best case) Recycling data reused ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 11 *A case study on estimating future radio network energy consumption and CO2 emissions
Results for RBS site (life cycle) /subyear /year Life time Note! These results are only valid under the conditions applicable for the study kg CO 2 e per subscription and year (8 subscriptions per site) 12 1 8 6 4 2 tonne CO 2 e per site and year 1 8 6 4 2 tonne CO 2 e per site and life time (1 yrs) 1 8 6 4 2 Total Total RBS site RBS cabinet RBS cabinet operation Site equipment Special scenario, high cooling requirements (add-on) Site equipment operation ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 12 Operation (Global average electricity) Manufacturing and EoLT
Results for RBS site WITH TOWER Life time Note! These results are only valid under the conditions applicable for the study tonne CO 2 e per site and life time (1 yrs) 12 1 8 6 4 2 Total Total RBS site RBS cabinet RBS cabinet operation Site equipment Special scenario, high cooling requirements (add-on) Site equipment operation Tower, housing and road Special scenario, individual large tower (add-on) Top lights operation ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 13 Operation (Global average electricity) Manufacturing and EoLT
RBS cabinet cradle-to-gate raw materials acquisition, production 1 8 6 /subyear /year Life time 4 kg CO 2 e per subscription and year (8 subscriptions per site),6,5,4,3,2,1 tonne CO 2 e per site and year,5,4,3,2,1 tonne CO 2 e per site and life time (1 yrs) 5 4 3 2 1 Total Total RBS cabinet Raw materials Mechanical and electromech. parts 2 PCBs and components, excl. ICs RBS cabinet Results based on only virgin material production Results based on average material production in EcoInvent/GaBi Results based on 5/5 method ICs Ericsson own activities* Additional emissions for 1 km by air Average customer transports EoLT Note! These results are only valid under the conditions applicable for the study Manufacturing Transport related emissions ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 14
Overall mobile broadband service Global average electricity scenario /subyear kg CO 2 e per subscription and year (8 subscriptions per site) 5 4 3 2 1 tonne CO 2 e per site and year /year 4 3 2 1 RBS life time tonne CO 2 e per site and life time (1 yrs) 4 3 2 1 Note! These results are only valid under the conditions applicable for the study Smartphone(s) RBS site Core nodes Operator activities 3 year life time assumed Based on TeliaSonera study (21) scaled to 214 traffic Also including RBS site transmission Data transm. Data centers IP core network Manufacturing (including EoLT) Operation (Global average electricity) ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 15 Operation (other energy, e.g. travel)
Summary Assessment procedure: LCA based on primary data is resource intensive Assumptions and choices inevitable Suppliers have limited experience in providing LCA information. LCA tool databases have insufficient metadata Results for assessed scenario: RBS site life cycle impact 7 tonnes CO 2 e 7 tonnes CO 2 e/year 9 kg CO 2 e/subyear About 8% operation, 2% embodied Mobile broadband service equals 39 kg CO 2 e/subyear Future studies: more impact categories, broader use and EoL scenarios more sensitivity analysis ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 16
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LCA methodology primarily to be used for Identification of opportunities to improve environmental performance Information to decisions-makers to assist their policy choices Selection of relevant indicators of environmental performance for monitoring Understanding of the potential impact of new services and solutions Understanding of improvements between product generations ETSI EE WS 215, Sophia Antipolis Ericsson AB 215 215-5-29 Page 18