Life cycle assessment of a parabolic solar cooker and comparison with conventional cooking appliances
Résumé
Cooking is a basic need of humans that is fulfilled by a large variety of appliances and fuels. Some of them are responsible for large CO 2 emissions and environmental impacts, which might be reduced by using solar technologies. An analysis of the possibilities of reducing the ecological footprint and especially of climate impact mitigation through changing the cooking habits is necessary to inform the designers, producers and consumers of such appliances. To this aim, the environmental performances of conventional western means of cooking (induction hob, electric plate and gas hob) and of a solar concentration cooker were evaluated and compared using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, with the ReCiPe method more specifically. The life cycle inventory was built on real data collected for the selected devices. The actual and possible compositions (type and origin of materials like aluminium, recycled aluminium, wood) of the solar cooker were considered, with a total of 10 models. For conventional appliances, the energy consumption and efficiency were evaluated through experiments. Among the four types of appliances, the construction phase of the solar cooker has the highest impacts (for ReCiPe midpoint climate change indicator: 558 kgCO 2eq for the aluminium solar cooker against 463, 266 and 85 kgCO 2eq for the gas hob, the electric plate and the induction hob respectively). Nonetheless, due to the use phase, the impacts of conventional devices markedly rise (3278, 1169 and 760 kgCO 2eq for the gas hob, the electric plate and the induction hob respectively) and exceed those of the solar cookers irrespective of the construction material. The analysis was extended for different origins (and the related transportation activity) of the metallic components, and for different electricity emission factors in the use stage. Moreover, a combined use of one conventional and one solar cooker was investigated and the necessary utilization frequency of the solar cooker was determined to mitigate the climate footprint of the consumer. It was demonstrated that, e.g, the gas hob and electric appliances fed with a CO 2 -intensive electricity can be advantageously replaced by currently available parabolic solar cookers, even for a moderate usage. With a low-carbon electricity mix, the advantage is preserved for an intensive use of the solar cooker and/or by decreasing the emissions related to the construction. The results show that this can be achieved by using recycled or Canadian aluminium and by using wood for the structure holding the reflector.
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