Quantitative Analysis of Carbon Emissions in Precision Turning Processes and Industrial Case Study

With growing concerns regarding the global environment, the industrial sector has played a significant role; that is, it is responsible for consuming large amount of energy and resources, while simultaneously producing wastes and carbon dioxide. A quantitative calculation of carbon emission in the turning process is presented in this paper. A generic carbon emission system boundary based on exergy balance is proposed first to avoid blurred system boundaries or the omission of elements. Then, a carbon emission model (iERWC) is formed by converting energy consumption (E), resource depletion (R) and waste generation (W) to equivalent carbon emissions (C) based on information flow (i), which effectively solves the problem of quantifying the impact of the machining process on the environment. Finally, the model is verified by experiments, and a simulation analysis is carried out. Additionally, the influence rule of processing parameters on carbon emissions is analyzed, and the cutting parameter that produces the lowest carbon emission is given.