Environmental and Economic Evaluation of End-of-Life Alternatives for Automotive Engine

The aim of this research is to develop a business decision support system to evaluate environmental and economic implications for different end of life alternatives strategies. The case study described in the paper is the evaluation of end of life automotive engine. In detail, the analysis consists of the evaluation of environmental impacts and economic costs of engine remanufacturing process. In particular, will be compared three different alternatives: remanufacturing, reuse and recycling (material recovery). In fact, recycling is a common practice, increased in the last years, because generates an environmental and economic benefit, saving raw materials and selling the recycled materials. It is possible anyway to increase end-of-life benefits avoiding, from a life cycle perspective, the manufacturing process of new products trough refurbishing or reuse, preventing at the same time certain generation of waste. Results will be shown in a bi-dimensional graph displaying the three alternatives with their economic revenue and environmental gain.