| NuRail Project ID | NURail2015-MTU-R13 |
| Project Title | Life Cycle (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost (LCCA) Analysis of Freight Transportation Alternatives to Copperwood Mine Project |
| University | Michigan Technological University |
| Project Manager | Lautala |
| Principal Investigator | Lautala |
| PI Contact Information | |
| Funding Source(s) and Amounts Provided (by each agency or organization) | $10,230 NURail, $53,445 Matching |
| Total Project Cost | $ |
| Agency ID or Contract Number | DTRT13-G-UTC52 (Grant 2) |
| Start Date | 2015-01-01 |
| End Date | 2017-08-31 |
| Location | |
| Brief Description of Research Project | Freight transport occurs between nearly any two process steps of a product system and is often of major importance for a product life cycle (Spielmann, 2005). The transportation sector accounted for 28% of the total greenhouse gas emission in the US in 2012 (EPA website) and it is forecasted to account for 63 percent of the total growth in global consumption of petroleum and other liquid fuels between 2010 and 2040 (US EIA website). For these reasons, it's essential that the development of new freight transportation lanes and activities takes a holistic approach in the evaluation of alternatives where energy consumption and emissions are minimized throughout the project life cycle. This project takes steps toward that goal by applying the Life Cycle (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost (LCCA) methodologies for comparing road, rail and multimodal transportation alternatives in the movement of ore between a proposed mine and refinery in the Upper Peninsula (Copperwood Mine project) and the movement of refined concentrate between the refinery and Escanaba, MI. |
| Describe Implementation of Research Outcomes (or why not implemented) | |
| Photos | |
| Impacts/Benefits of Implementation (actual, not anticipated) | |
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| Project Website | |
| Completed | yes |
| Final Report | NURail2015-MTU-R13_Final_Report_LCA_Copperwood.pdf
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