Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost of Heat Exchangers - A Case for Inter Terminals Sweden AB Located in Port of Gothenburg

Inter Terminals AB store oil products for their costumers and need to store them at a certain temperature with the help of heat exchangers depending on the product. The current heat exchangers at Inter Terminals are old and does not function efficiently in terms of energy and costs. The heat exchangers are used to heat oil products in three caverns and a group of four tanks. The idea is to have heat exchangers for the caverns and for the group of tanks to keep the oil products at the desired temperature. This assessment evaluates and compares new heat exchangers for Inter Terminals, which is located in Port of Gothenburg. The companies responsible for the proposal of the new heat exchangers were Alfa Laval AB, ViFlow AB and GB Tank AB. Two of the heat exchangers were made of carbon steel and one of stainless steel. The comparison and evaluation is done through the methods life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) and three different heat exchangers were compared and evaluated in terms of environmental and economic aspects. The purpose of this evaluation and comparison is to help Inter Terminals decision-making to invest in new heat exchangers which they are in need of. The life cycle assessment was conducted by using OpenLCA, which is a software tool for calculating environmental impacts. The environmental impacts categories considered in the assessment were global warming potential, human toxicity, depletion of abiotic resources and acidification. The weight and the material which a heat exchanger is made of were two major factors contributing to the environmental impacts. The results of the LCC were analyzed to calculate the payback time for each heat exchanger. This was done by comparing the operating costs for the current heat exchangers and the new ones. This indicated the best alternative of the new heat exchangers for Inter Terminals from an economic point of view. Sensitivity analyses were also conducted regarding recycling rates, changes in energy prices and the percentage amendments of the energy sources. This lead to changes related to the environmental impacts and the payback time. The conclusion of this is assessment is that heat exchanger 2, purposed by ViFlow, is best suited for Inter Terminals and is also manufactured by ViFlow in Ornskoldsvik. It is a shell and tube heat exchanger made of carbon steel and has the least environmental impacts and has the shortest payback time compared to the other alternatives.