A tool to estimate materials and manufacturing energy for a product

Abstract

This study proposes an easy-to-use methodology to estimate the materials embodied energy and manufacturing energy for a product. The tool requires as input the product's Bill of Materials and the knowledge on how these materials are processed (or an educated guess); the resulting output represents the sum of all the energy inputs into a product system in the form of a value range on the energy requirements of the product during its beginning of life. This includes extraction of materials, processing, and manufacture of the final product.