Browsing by Author "Grayson, Mdemu"

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    Assessment of carbon footprint of the production process of PVC windows
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2016) Grayson, Mdemu
    This study was carried out to assess the carbon footprint on the production of PVC window. The study has itemized all activities involved in the production process, the quantity of energy used in the production process and the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in kg of Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e in kg). This study has established assessment procedures of carbon footprint for the case of workshop in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. PAS 2050 standard was used as the assessment tool in which four assessment steps; step 1: process mapping, step 2: boundary checking, step 3: data collection and step 4: carbon footprint calculation. The tool assesses the use of energy consumed in each activity, the emission factor of carbon dioxide for both electricity and petroleum fuel used and the distance covered. The study shows that, the amount of greenhouse gases emissions in the production process depend on the amount of energy used and emission factor. Throughout the production process and life cycle assessment, the activity that led to the largest emission of greenhouse gases is the transportation of finished windows to the site which was 5.60967 kg of CO2e, 2.12 x 10-4 kg of Nitrous Oxide (N2O) and 2.6 x 10-4 kg of Methane (CH4). Fewer emissions were on binding/milling of profiles per window production which reached 0.98986 kg of CO2e, 1.54 x 10-4 kg of N2O and 2.03 x 10-4 kg of CH4. The other activities and their emissions were (i) cutting profile and glasses 1.822806 kg of CO2e, 2.7 x 10-5 kg of Nitrous oxide, 2.9 x 10-5 kg of Methane, (ii) drilling 1.3372 kg of CO2e, 1.9 x 10-5 kg of Nitrous oxide, 2.6 x 10-5 kg of Methane, and (iii) transportation of materials to the workshop 4.36258 kg of CO2e, 1.65 x 10-4 Kg of Nitrous oxide, 2.08 x 10-4 kg of Methane. The study adopted the emission factors of 8.3 x 10-3 g/kwh, 0.0109 g/kWh and 558.8 g/kWh for Nitrous Oxide, Methane and Carbon dioxide respectively when electricity was used as source of energy and also 0.019 g/l, 0.024 g/l, 501 g/l for Nitrous oxide, Methane and Carbon dioxide respectively when fuel (diesel) was used.