Evaluation of the effect of remanufacturing diesel particulate filters to minimize environmental impacts

Abstract

Exhaust gas purification is required for the operation of heavy machinery, e.g., construction machinery which mainly uses diesel engines. Precious metals such as the platinum group are used in catalysts for this purpose, which heavily impacts the environment. In this study, the authors evaluated the potential of remanufacturing diesel particulate filters (DPF) to reduce these impacts. Climate change indicators, i.e., global warming potential (GWP), and resource consumption were evaluated.

As a result, the environmental impacts of new product manufacturing, particularly resource production and the manufacturing process, were quantitatively estimated to be significant, while the environmental impacts of the remanufacturing process, product delivery, and disposal of the used products were significantly lower. In addition, 47% of the GWP and 50% of the resource consumption were reduced using remanufactured diesel particulate filters compared with using only new diesel particulate filters.