This study was performed jointly by ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Environment), Bologna and Florence Universities and the firm FINI COMPRESSORI. A comparison is carried out between the environmental damages of two models (MK10 and MK94) of air axial compressors manufactured by FINI COMPRESSORI, with a volume of intaken air of 226 1/min, a power of 1.8 kW and a maximum pressure of 10 bar. The comparison is obtained by using LCA calculated by SimaPro 3.1 code and two methods: Eco-indicator 95 and a new method obtained by adding to the Eco-indicator 95 method other damage categories such as some raw material depletion, solid and energy. The system boundaries include raw material extraction and the end of life of the components and some special tools for manufacturing such as dies, moulds and shells. All metallic materials have the recycling as waste scenario. For LCA study we have considered the three components crankshaft, crankcase and valve plate for both the models, the air cooling conveyor for the MK94 and the surplus of consumed energy for the MK10. The conveyor decreases the temperature of air and therefore increases the compressor efficiency and reduces the electrical energy consumption during the use. From the LCA results, we can conclude that the introduction of the conveyor reduces the damage of MK10 model of 114.07 mPt and that the other modifications of the design increase the damage of MK10 model of 11 mPt. The damage of air compressor can be diminished by reusing crankshaft and crankcase. A design modification of the blades of the ventilator is proposed to avoid the conveyor.

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