Identification of connection units with high GHG emissions for low-carbon product structure design

Abstract The aim of this paper is to create an easier way of calculating carbon footprints of products by focusing on the connection characteristics between components. They are defined as connection units. Thus the product can be considered as the organic combination of connection units. In order to reduce the product’s carbon footprint and reuse the carbon footprint data and knowledge, a novel method of identification of connection units with high GHG emissions is proposed. Through life cycle analysis, a product life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions flow is studied to find the factors related to the product’s carbon footprint from the aspect of product structure. By analyzing the parts’ connection characteristics, the GHG emissions of connection units are calculated by the proposed recursive distribution approach of connection units’ carbon footprint based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. Finally, an example of a thin film transistor LCD module for a TV validates the feasibility of the method proposed in the paper.