'Green' manufacturing: A life cycle inventory of the automotive paint process and protocols for industry application

In response to growing interest in 'green' vehicles, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) concepts can quantify the automobile's environmental impacts. Potential benefits include Design-for-Environment (DfE) opportunities, increased manufacturing efficiencies, and future application to consumer-based eco-rating systems.;A detailed LCI reference dataset was developed to include materials, energy, and emissions associated with the Pretreatment, E-coat, and Top Coat paint unit processes. The challenges and industry realities of completing the LCI enabled a detailed set of guidelines to be developed, adapting existing protocols to the specifics of the manufacturing paint process. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).;Detailed and up-to-date LCI data for general application by LCI practitioners does not exist at this time for the majority of Manufacturing/Assembly processes in North America, including the automotive paint process. With an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) industry partner's commitment to a publicly available LCI database (i.e., NREL LCI Database), however, a representative vehicle assembly facility was selected for completion of a paint process LCI.