Advanced sustainable foundry – Carbon balance and carbon footprint in foundry processes and foundry product cycles

Carbon footprint analysis (CFA) is a sophisticated environmental method to evaluate the impact of the whole life-cycle of a product on our climate – starting with the raw materials and ending with their disposal or re-use. This may prove a challenge for foundries in this field in the future. Today CFA already is applied to some consumer products like cars or the propellers of large shipping vessels. There it is used as proof that a specific product and its production are environmentally advantageous in comparison to other alternatives of manufacturing, product, and consumption.

CFA is not yet compulsory for cast parts as semifinished products. But the example of the ship’s propeller demonstrates that it may be introduced, especially if the CO2 reduction programmes in the EU countries should not show the desired results. Therefore, the authors regard it useful to present a view on future trends, which some may regard as a “worst case scenario” while others take it for the useful strategic information that it is intended to be. Based on actually available (but hard to come by) data and methods an introduction shall be given to this relatively young and very complex topic.