著者

柴田 清 杉山 静一 斎藤 文良 早稲田 嘉夫

出版者

公益社団法人 日本金属学会

雑誌

日本金属学会誌 (ISSN:00214876)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.63, no.7, pp.809-816, 1999 (Released:2008-04-24)

参考文献数

35

被引用文献数

1 1

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Automobile transportation is one of the predominant sources of air pollution, producing CO2, NOx, and SOx. The weight reduction of automobiles is essential for reducing the environmental burden during their life cycle. High-tension steel, aluminum alloy and resin are candidates for such purpose. However, substituting aluminum for steel is not always beneficial with respect to reducing the burden on the environment, because the energy consumption during aluminum production is considerably greater than that for steel. A generalized equation has been derived to describe the relationship between the driving distance, weight reduction, materials production route, and change in environmental performance. In particular, the effect of the difference of electricity source for aluminum smelting on life cycle CO2, NOx, and SOx, by substituting aluminum for steel in automobile parts, is discussed. The reduction of CO2 emission can be expected for all cases, if 50% of mass reduction is made. On the other hand, aluminum produced by the uncontrolled coal fire power is not capable of reducing NOx emission. It is also suggested that a reduction of SOx emission can only be obtained when using very clean aluminum.