th

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
Mobile Phones play an important part in our daily lives, allowing users to make and receive phone calls, along with other methods of communication (SMS,MMS, E-mail), all around the world instantly. It is estimated that there is currently over 6.8 billion mobile phone subscriptions around the world, penetrating about 89% of the global population [1]. With so many mobile phones being manufactured and used it is essential that it is a sustainable practice. Sustainability can be described as the ability to endure or maintain indefinitely.
“Sustainable development refers to a mode of human development in which the resources are used to meet human demand while ensuring the sustainability of natural systems and the environment, so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also in future generations to come” [2]. The concept of sustainability focuses on a balance between the environmental, economic and social equity demands of a product.
Over its lifecycle of each mobile phone will have an impact on the environment, the idea behind this paper is to take the knowledge gained over the semester about different sustainability issues and the possible solutions and redesign the product so that it is more sustainable. By examining the product from a lifecycle assessment (LCA) point of view over all stages of a products lifecycle, it is possible to identify the various impacts each stage of the LCA has on the environment.
Figure 1 Life Cycle Assessment Diagram
Figure 1shows a diagram of the entire life cycle of a product. The Life Cycle Assessment of a product begins with the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, in-use phase and finally disposal, the manufacturing and use phase usually contribute to the highest impact on the environment and it is because of this that this paper will mainly be focusing on those two stages of the lifecycle.
Chris Gallagher
2
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
In this particular study, in order to determine the LCA of a mobile phone and how it can be improved the Apple iPhone 4 was chosen as the baseline product. The iPhone will be broken down and analysed to establish what the major environmental factors are, the data will then be displayed in a graph of the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED), clearly shown in which areas improvement is needed and possible. Once a clear picture of the current design has been gained it will be possible to re-evaluate and redesign the mobile so that it becomes a more sustainable product. It is important when redesigning a product for the future to keep in mind the limitations of technology and feasibility of possible product solutions, but with a few reasonable assumptions it should be clear that with some minor changes significant improvements can be expected. Below is an overview plan of how this report is laid out.
1.
Baseline Study & Calculations
2.
Quantitative assessment, Methodology used, System Boundary, Functional Unit and
Assumptions
3.
Description of new product
4.
Evaluation of New Product
5.
Comparison between Baseline and Improved Scenarios
6.
Feasibility of Design and Potential Barriers
As mentioned above the iPhone 4 by Apple was chosen as the baseline product, the iPhone was chosen because it was relatively easy to gain information on and is one the most easily recognised mobile phones on the current market (Other than the faithful Nokia 3310). The methodology for determining the baseline study was taken from the Streamlined LCA
PowerPoint presentation found on the ET4407 website
1
.
Define your bill of Materials
The first step is to establish a bill of materials for the product. The information for the bill of materials of the iPhone was taken from the Apple website [3]. Figure 2 displayed below show the estimated greenhouse gas emissions and the percentage breakdown of the iPhone 4 and all of its materials. From this it can clearly be stated that the production and customer use has the biggest impact on the environment, if the impact in either can be reduced even slightly it would have a dramatic effect on the LCA of a mobile phone
Figure 2 Environmental Impact and Materials Used for iPhone 4
1
ET4407 website link: http://et4407.wordpress.com/
Chris Gallagher
3
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
Energy Cost of the Common Materials
Now with the breakdown of the product materials available it is possible quantitative calculate the Energy requirement of producing each material. The table used to estimate the cost of materials production is taken from Vaclav Smil “Energy in nature and Society,
General Energetic of Complex Systems” [4]. Each of the materials used to create an iPhone are listed below along with the calculations on the Energy requirements to produce the material.
• iPhone Glass:
Energy Cost of Glass (Mj/Kg) = 25 Mj/Kg
Glass = 25 Mj/Kg × 40.9g = 0.8998 Mj/Kg
• iPhone Stainless Steel:
Energy Cost of Steel, special alloy (Mj/Kg) = 45 Mj/Kg
Steel = 45 Mj/Kg × 38.7g = 1.7415 Mj/Kg
• iPhone Battery:
Assumed Lithium Battery for laptops = 925Mj/Kg
925Mj/Kg × 24.7g = 22.84Mj/Kg
•
Iphone Circuit Boards:
The baseline calculations for the iPhone Circuit Boards proved to be the trickiest part of the assessment as many of the design techniques used are confidential and a complete breakdown of the components weight or size could not be found. The ifixit.com [5] website proved to be the most effective means of estimating the type of the components used and the weights of those components.
As only the Energy cost of microchips and PCB manufacture was available, it is fair to assume that because the chips cover approximately 40% of the surface area of the board, then it will account for about 40% of the weight and the remaining 60% will be accounted for by the PWB. Total weight of the Circuit Board is 15.4g. o Microchip Analysis:
15.4g × 40% = 6.16g it is then assumed that the chip is 200mm Wafer technology.
200mm wafer technology = 9Kwh/g or 32.4Mj/g
(Note: All energy cost converted to Mj for simplicity)
32.4 Mj/g × 6.16g = 0.199Mj/Kg
Chris Gallagher
4
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone o Printed Wiring Board (PWB) Analysis:
15.4g × 60% = 9.24g
It is assumed to be manufactured as a 6 layer 2MJ/Kg process = 333Mj/Kg
333Mj/Kg × 9.24g = 3.076 Mj/Kg
Board assembly per unit = 130Mj/Kg
Final Assembly per chip = 0.3 Mj/Kg, assumed at least 15 chips
0.3Mj/Kg × 15 = 4.5Mj/Kg
Total Circuit Board Energy Cost = 0.199 30.76 + 130 + 4.5 = 137.77Mj/Kg
• iPhone Display:
Energy cost LCD Display per ݉
ଶ
= 3000 Mj. Approx
Total Area of Display = L×H = 75mm×55mm = 4125
3000Mj/m
2
× 4125 = 12.375 Mj/m
2
݉݉
ଶ
= 0.004125݉
ଶ
• iPhone Plastic
Energy Cost of Plastic, Polyethylene (Mj/Kg) = 90 Mj/Kg
Plastic = 90 Mj/Kg × 3.1g = 0.28 Mj/Kg
Taking the calculated values above and compiling them in Table 1the manufacturing energy requirement of the iPhone 4 can be calculated. Obviously production of the circuit board has by far the largest impact on the environment. The next largest environmental impact is caused by the battery, closely followed by the display. These will be the main focusing points of the new design.
Table 1 Energy Cost of iPhone 4
Glass
Stainless Steel
Battery
Circuit Boards
Display
Other
Plastic
Total Weight
40.9g
38.7g
24.7g
15.4g
7.2g
5g
3.1g
135 g
0.89Mj
1.74Mj
22Mj
137.77Mj
12.37Mj
N/A
0.28Mj
175.05Mj
Chris Gallagher
5
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
Energy Consumption during the Lifetime of the Product
The next step is to calculate the energy consumption of the iPhone during the “Use Phase”.
The information on a typical smart phone usage phase was taken from the lifehaker.com website [6]. The typical use phase of a smart phone is estimated to be 18-36 months and it is estimated that it takes 3.5kWh a year to charge a iPhone or 12.6Mj per year.
Figure 3 Typical iPhone Energy Consumption per Year
Figure 3 taking from the Life-hacker website illustrate the cost and energy consumption of a typical smart phone. Although the website compares the iPhone 5 and not the iPhone 4 modle that has been described throughout this report it is fair to presume that the energy consumption will be more or less the same. Figure 4 graphs the cumulative energy demand over the entire life cycle of the product.
CED (Mj)
250
200
150
100
50
0
0
Original Phone
5 10 15 20
Time (Months)
25 30
Figure 4 Cumulative Energy Demand of iPhone 4
35
Chris Gallagher
6
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
The requirement for the new phone is that fulfils the same basic functionality for the consumer while reducing the negative impact on the environment and improving the sustainability of the product. There are many possible solutions to the problem of developing a sustainable mobile phone, for instance what if many people used the one phone, like a payphone system. Pay phones were once a common site in any major town or city but have since gone into decline because mobile phones have the advantage of being portable and have also become very affordable, it is acceptable to say that a payphone type of service could be a sustainable service, but as mentioned earlier the user would lose functionality and this would be unacceptable. On the same principal then why do user not have one mobile phone for several people? In rural areas in Africa it is not uncommon to see a man standing in the middle of the town with several people lined up all waiting there turning to use the community cell phone, much the same as the payphone the users would pay for the service of using the mobile phone. If only 1 in ten people had a mobile but everybody had access to that phone then there would be a significant decrease in the environmental impact of the mobile phone industry, but the same as the first idea this would lead to a loss in functionality as the customer has now become used to having their own phone and being able to keep in connect with other users at any time instantly. So it is because of these factors that the communications industry had resolved to supply every subscriber with their own personal device.
The main ideas for an improved mobile phone design are:
1.
PSS (Product Service System) with modular design features
2.
Solar screen charging solution to increase time between charges
3.
Smart Product charging cycle (Smart Grid capabilities)
4.
Implementing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags recycling scheme
5.
Mobile Cloud computing (IMS)
The idea of PSS or Product Service System was examined by Damien O’Brien and can be found on his blog [7]. The model behind PSS is that rather than the customer buying the product they would buy the service of using that product and the supplier would responsible for managing all of the expenses such as servicing and disposal.
In order to provide a PSS product it is imagined that the consumer will buy the phone on a contract similar to the one already provided by supplier on a bill pay mobile device. The proposal is that the consumer will take possession of the product and unless a fault occurs they will use the phone for a set period of time, after the time period has passed the user will have different options on how they wish to proceed. a.
Send phone back to supplier, while using a temporary phone, to be routinely serviced. b.
Send phone back to supplier, and get specified component upgrade. c.
Send phone back to supplier, for disposal, and get a new upgraded phone
By implementing a PSS model it is to the advantage of the supplier if the product has a high lifetime expectancy, low maintenance cost and is easy to service. This would mean the manufacturer would be inclined to create a better product and forever lay to rest the idea of a product with planned obsolescence, forcing the consumer to purchase a new product after a certain amount of time had passed.
Chris Gallagher
7
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
One method for the manufacturer to improve the product is if a modular design was introduced then the supplier would be able to reprogram the major components such as the
PLD’s (Programmable Logic Device) to include new functionality or when the device becomes obsolete the PLD could be reprogrammed and used in other devices such as audio
Hi-Fi systems and washing machines.
Another way the supplier can ensure lower maintenance costs is to make parts in a common size and easy to replace. There is a concept design idea referred to a “Phonebloks” [8], by designing a phone so using the phone blocks concept it is achievable that the suppile would be able to remove the old outdated components such as the CPU or display and easily replace them with newer up-to-date components.
Figure 5 PhoneBloks Concept Idea
Figure 5 demonstrates how the basic concept of the PhoneBloks works, joining the major components to a central processing board made to easily upgrade and repair. If the mobile phone industry was to apply a PSS model utilizing the Phonebloks idea, it is feasible to say that the lifetime of a product would dramatically increase. Furthermore instead of throwing away the entire device when only one component such as the battery or display break causing massive amounts of E-waste that needs to be disposed of, the broken component can be simply replaced and the rest of the device can continue to function as before.
Although it is not all positives to arrange such a service would probably be more expensive initially and the cost would enviably be passed onto the consumer. Also with technology evolving as fast as it does, it is reasonable to assume that some components will not be made to last and become much cheaper as upgrading them would be so easy.
Chris Gallagher
8
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
An amazing new technology has recently come available that uses a transparent solar panel placed on top of the touch screen to collect energy from light source to power the phone. The technology is being research by a small company called Wysips [9] based in France.
Figure 6 Wysips Solar Panel Technology
Figure 6 give you an idea of how the solar panel technology could be used, and it would not only be limited to the front of the phone, there is no reason that the solar panel could not be used on the back of the mobile as well doubling the light catching area. One major flaw in this fantastic design is the fact that solar panel are not transparent, but Wysips recently reported testing a model that had 90% transparency. The solar panels being used are able to conduct the photovoltaic process using either natural or artificial light, and when experimented an old iPhone 4 model it was estimated that for every 10 minutes of use 4 minutes of battery was recovered through the solar panels. This means a 40% increase in time between charges or a slimmer battery making for a smaller and lighter device. As noted earlier in the Energy Cost of the Common Materials section the production of the battery is quite large by reducing the physical size of the battery we are reducing the environmental impact of each device also. Furthermore this technology is planned to be marketed at the very reasonable price of $2 per device. Although currently it is not available as it is under research and development, due to limitations the technology. What's more one major flaw in this design is that most user keep their mobile device in a handbag, suitcase or pocket where there is no access to a light source.
With the role out of Smart Grid technologies the potential to charge your phone will the demand on the grid is at its lowest or when renewable energy sources are available. This is an obvious sustainability solution to the charging of mobile phones problem, because it is not just the amount of energy needed to charge a mobile device that is important but the way in which that energy is being generated. For example China has a mostly coal based electricity generation system, which will have an estimated 30 times higher global impact than Norway with its almost exclusively hydroelectric system.
If products could be designed with Smart grid capabilities then the Smart Product would know about what is happening in the electric grid. Information on the smart grid can be found on the following websites
• 1) http://www.eirgrid.com
(CO2 intensity & wind generation)
• 2) http://www.sem-o.com
(predicted wholesale electricity price, predicted system demand)
Chris Gallagher
9
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
The idea is that the phone would be charged in and would only trickle charge (unless otherwise specified) until a large source of renewable or cheap energy would become available.
This would help dramatically reduce the environmental impact of charging the mobile devices. Furthermore it would help take pressure of the electricity grid at peak times. One of the major setbacks of this system is that most countries, including Ireland, do not have smart grid technologies and are many years away from implementing a truly smart grid.
Disposing of the waste created by the ICT sector has become a major problem as many of the materials are hazardous and harmful to the environment. By introducing RFID tags improvements in E-waste management can be achieved by embedding identification and information of the proper method of disposal for the materials. In addition is the material of a product sent for disposal can be properly identified, some of the materials can be easily reused by the manufacturer in the production of new product and this would directly influence the high demand on the raw materials. A failing of RFID tags is the limited range that they have and they would likely be many interference problems with this technology.
Besides unfortunately most recycling centre do not have the capability to accurate read all these RFID tags and so it would just be an extra expense passed on to the consumer.
Chris Gallagher
10
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
With the above improvements in the design process it can be expects that the environmental impact of the redesigned phone will be less than the Apple iPhone 4. Following are a few assumption that were made onthe impact that introducing each improvement would have on the LCA of the mobile phone. Even with the assumption kept at a very conservative level the impact experience is dramatic.
1.
PSS increases the lifetime of the mobile form 3 years to 5 years
2.
Solar screen charging solution to increase time between charges for 40%
3.
Smart Product charging cycle reduces the global impact by as much at 30 times
4.
RFID tags recycling scheme increases recycling potential by 10-15%
5.
Mobile Cloud computing (IMS)
CED (Mj)
250
200
150
100
50
Orinal Phone
Redesigned Phone
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Time (Months)
Figure 7 Comparison of Cumulative Energy Demand
Figure 7 clearly demonstrate how by using the above assumptions the CED per year of the device has considerably decreased. This can be further shown in the calculations below.
•
Original Design
•
New Design
CED/Year
206.55 Mj / 3 years = 68.86
CED/Year
225.60 Mj / 5 years = 45.12
Mj/Year Mj/Year
The new design has dramatically reduced the environmental cost of the mobile phone by about one quarter. This would be a significant saving if introduced to the ever increasing markets of the ICT sector.
Chris Gallagher
11
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
•
In conclusion the project redesign attempt has been an overall success. Each improvement suggested will have will have a small impact on the LCA alone but together there is a significant improvement to the overall LCA and CED/year of the mobile phone
•
The object of the report was to develop a mobile phone for use in the year 2020 with an improved LCA using the knowledge gained over the semester about sustainability problems and there solutions.
•
Over the course of the project I have learned many things about sustainability, product design and research methods that will no doubt prove to be invaluable in the future.
Furthermore I learned a great deal about the social, economical and environmental issues affected by the ICT sector.
•
One issue that had to be overcome was the lack of data on the weights of individual components on a circuit board. This problem was solved by taking a educated guess form images that were found on the ifixit.com website. Also the numbers ended up being so small it had very little effect on the overall LCA
•
Initially when talking about possible improvements to the design the idea of improving the circuit board was high on the list of priorities, as it has one of the largest impacts on the environment, but improving the manufacturing process would be too large a task to complete during this module so a modular design circuit was implemented meaning that less boards would need to be manufactured.
•
The final conclusion is that much progress has been made on the topic of mobile phone improvement, but there is still a huge amount of research that could be done and many other possible solutions available to use. The report does however layout some of the better idea’s and how those ideas would have an effect on the LCA of the product.
Chris Gallagher
12
12076481

Electronics and the Environment – Final Project - Mobile Phone
[1] “mobithinking.com,” [Online]. Available: http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketingtools/latest-mobile-stats/a#subscribers. [Accessed 29 11 2013].
[2] U. Nations, “UN-Documents,” 1987. [Online]. Available: http://www.undocuments.net/wced-ocf.htm. [Accessed 30 11 2013].
[3] Apple, “iPhone 4 Environemntal Reprt,” [Online]. Available: http://images.apple.com/br/environment/reports/docs/iPhone_4_Product_Environmental_
Report.pdf. [Accessed 25 11 2013].
[4] T. G. G. M. G. N. Duque Ciceri, “ET4407,” [Online]. Available: http://et4407.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/a-tool-to-estimate-materials-andmanufacturing-energy-for-a-product.pdf. [Accessed 25 11 2013].
[5] “ifixit.com,” [Online]. Available: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+4+Teardown/3130. [Accessed 15 11 2013].
[6] “Lifehacker,” [Online]. Available: http://lifehacker.com/5948075/how-much-energy-asmartphone-uses-in-a-year-and-what-it-means-for-your-budget. [Accessed 15 11 2013].
[7] D. O'Brien, “Product Service Systems,” [Online]. Available: http://uldamienobrien.wordpress.com/. [Accessed 30 10 2013].
[8] “PhoneBloks,” [Online]. Available: https://phonebloks.com/. [Accessed 8 10 2013].
[9] Wysips, “Sun Partner Technologies,” [Online]. Available: http://sunpartnertechnologies.com/mobile-phone/mobilestablets/. [Accessed 25 11 2013].
[10
]
C. Fitzpatrick, “Electronic and the Environment,” [Online]. Available: http://et4407.wordpress.com/. [Accessed 30 11 2013].
[11
]
Waleed, “Environmental Benefits of moving to the Cloud,” [Online]. Available: http://alwaleedkhair.wordpress.com/. [Accessed 30 10 2013].
[12
]
E. O'Brien, “Shape memory alloy actuators for active disassembly,” [Online]. Available: http://eoinobrien.wordpress.com/. [Accessed 30 10 2013].
[13
]
D. McNamra, “Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering of an Integrated Desktop PC,”
[Online]. Available: http://mcnamaradavid.wordpress.com/. [Accessed 30 10 2013].
[14
]
A. Malone, “alexandermalone.wordpress.com,” [Online]. Available: http://alexandermalone.wordpress.com/. [Accessed 30 10 2013].
[15
]
J. KJ Salchow, “F5 networks,” [Online].
[16
]
K. Hieronymi, “Et4407.Wordpress.com,” [Online]. Available: http://et4407.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/12-electronics-industry-competes-for-rawmaterials.pdf.
[17
]
N. Griffin-, “Energy Efficiency potential of Cloud based software,” [Online]. Available: wordpress.com. [Accessed 30 10 2013].
[18
]
C. Gallagher, “cgall91.wordpress.com,” [Online]. Available: http://cgall91.wordpress.com/. [Accessed 30 10 2013].
[19
]
“Writing Engineering Reports,” [Online]. Available: http://www.eng.wayne.edu/legacy/MSE130/REPORT.html.
Chris Gallagher
13
12076481