In accordance with ISO 14021
The result presented in this document are taken from an LCA performed in accordance with ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006 LCA standards. The document also follows ISO 14021:2016.
Publication date: 2025-02-21
Version: 1.0
Document number: ESD-017
Type of ESD: ESD of multiple products based on average results of the included products
Owner of the document: Elcowire Rail GmbH
Lichtöcherberg 40
D-06333 Hettstedt, Germany
The document owner has the sole ownership and responsibility.
Contact information:
Head of Product Management: Robert Gehrmann
+49 3476 8714 56
robert.gehrmann@elcowire.com
Sustainability Manager: Jonas Ciardi
+46 707 614 726
jonas.ciardi@elcowire.com
Description of the organisation: Elcowire is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of copper wire rod, wires, stranded conductors, profiles, and overhead catenary systems made from copper, copper alloys, and aluminum, with an annual production of approximately 300,000 metric tonnes. The profiles can be formed into any shape and dimension. Elcowire also produces aluminum conductors, rectangular wire, and profiles for electrical applications.
Elcowire is driven by a commitment to continuous improvement, always keeping the customer at the forefront. This results in high-quality products, reliability, meticulous attention to detail, and a strong technical partnership. The business is organized into five units: Rod, Rail, High Voltage, Specials, and Wire & Strands.
Product-related or management system-related certifications: ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
Name and location of production site(s): Elcowire Group has production plants in Helsingborg, Sweden and Hettstedt, Germany. This document concerns Elcowire Rail GmbHs production plant in Hettstedt.
This document is the 1st version.
Elcowire offer customers to buy Copper Wire Rod with Standard Copper based on copper cathodes with a standard climate impact.
Elcowire applies the Mass Balance Approach (MBA), which enables allocation of specific characteristics (like biobased material or recycled content) to products from a manufacturing process without making complicated changes of the production infrastructure. Thus, copper with different specific characteristics is, within the production environment, mixed causing them to no longer be traceable directly to the source. However, by tracking the amount of each input material and the amount of product output, it is possible to estimate the amount of each input material that is used in the production of the final product.
This document provides information of the environmental impact for Contact Wire from Rod with Standard Copper.
In Elcowire’s MBA, the copper cathodes are grouped into three categories (LCC, 100% Recycled Copper and Standard Copper) based on the suppliers’ climate impact cradle-to-suppliers gate with respect to the principles below:
• Principle 1: Copper cathodes, with or without recycled copper, whose climate impact is less than 1.5 kg CO2 eq./kg from cradle-to-supplier’s gate, are categorized as either LCC or Standard Copper.
• Principle 2: Copper cathodes consisting of 100% recycled copper are categorized as 100% Recycled Copper, regardless of the climate impact from cradle-to-suppliers gate.
• Principle 3: Copper cathodes that do not meet the criteria of Principle 1 or Principle 2 are categorized as Standard Copper.
Note that the principles apply for cradle-to-suppliers gate, i.e., the climate impact from transportation of copper cathodes from the suppliers to Elcowire’s production site is outside the categorization.
Elcowire collects specific data on cradle-to-suppliers gate climate impact in kg CO2 eq./kg copper cathode, recycled content and transportation from supplier to Elcowire’s production site. If the supplier cannot provide specific data for cradle-to-suppliers gate climate impact, global averages are assumed according to the International Copper Association. The same principle applies for recycled content where Elcowire assumes a recycled content of zero if the supplier cannot support with a verification. For Elcowire, materials are classified as recycled content if they originate from or have previously been designated as waste material. The definition includes activities for waste management and recycling but excludes production waste that is reutilized within the same production process that generated it, as well as reconditioned and repaired products that remain in active use.
The MBA is based on planned volumes for 2024 while the actual volumes is followed up via book-keeping with a reconciliation period of three months. The actual volumes are scaled up year-to-year to compare the climate impact between planned and actual volumes. If there is a mismatch of 10 % for the climate impacts, a recalculation of the mass balance is actualized. However, the copper cathodes are contractually purchased on an annual basis, and it is expected that deviations are small.
As described earlier, the copper cathodes are sorted into the three categories (LCC, 100% Recycled Copper, and Standard Copper) with respect to the principles above. Subsequently, weighted averages are derived for each category, considering the cradle-to-suppliers gate climate impact, emissions related to transportation from the supplier to Elcowire’s production site, and the planned volumes for 2024. The recycled content for each category is calculated by dividing the recycled fraction with the total volume of copper cathodes per category.
Product name: Contact wire (Cu-ETP, CuAg0.1, CuSn0.1) from rod based on standard copper with a recycled content of 0%.
Product description: Contact wires are a part of the overhead contact line systems. The function of the contact wire is to supply traction units with electrical energy via current-collection equipment.
The contact wires are designed to be used in different types of overhead contact lines systems designed for different speeds of the trains as well as for different electrical power systems (AC or DC). Contact wires are used on main and side lines as well as for metros, trolley buses and mining.
On an international basis the characteristics of copper and copper alloy grooved contact wires of cross-sections from 70 mm2 to 170 mm2 for use on overhead contact lines are specified in international standards. Depending on the field of application different profiles of contact wire are available and different alloys that are used are mainly pure copper, copper-silver alloys, copper-magnesium and copper-tin alloys.
For each configuration electrical and mechanical properties are specified in national and international standards.
Table 1. Overview of materials and speed range (selection).
Exemplarily, the following table (Tab. 2) gives an overview of the specified technical data for Cu-ETP contact wires (normal tensile strength) according to DIN EN 50149 and IEC 62917. For the alloys CuAg0 1 and CuSn0 1 corresponding characteristic value are specified in the mentioned standards.
Figures 1 to 3 give an exemplarily overview of the appearance of contact wires.
Product specifications:
• DIN EN 50149; Bahnanwendungen – Ortsfeste Anlagen – Elektrischer Zugbetrieb – Rillenfahrdrähte aus Kupfer und Kupferlegierung
• IEC 62917; Railway applications – Fixed installations – Electric traction – Copper and copper alloy grooved contact wires
Type of ESD: ESD of multiple products based on average results of the included products. The average is weighted according to the production volumes of the included products.
Declared unit: 1 kg of contact wire (Cu-ETP, CuAg0.1, CuSn0.1) from rod based on standard copper with a recycled content of 0%.
Packaging material consists of wood and steel drums, pallets, wooden boxes and coverings, plastics and cardboards.
Time representativeness: Process data are representative for 2023, while the procurement of copper cathodes is based on planned volumes for 2024.
Databases and LCA software used: Ecoinvent 3.8 and SimaPro 9.3.0.3
Description of system boundaries: Cradle to gate with modules C1–C4 and module D (A1–A3 + C + D)1. See Figure 2 for a representation of the system boundaries and modules declared.
System boundaries:
Figure 1 Modules declared (G = generic data, S = specific data).
Estimates and assumptions: Electricity, heat, chemicals, water usage, waste, and packaging materials are calculated as weighted averages based on process data for 2023 The distance for transportation of packaging materials was assumed to 500 km. All transportation was assumed to be carried out with a EURO VI truck. The electricity in core manufacturing process (A3) was modelled with a market process representing the production mix in Germany 2023
Cut off criteria: All known inputs and outputs are included in the system boundary.
1 Equal to EPDs produced in accordance with the EN 15804:2012+A2:2019 standard.
Data quality: The global warming potential for the copper cathodes cradle-to-suppliers gate is based on either specific data or global reference values by International Copper Association. The data quality can be considered good. Data quality for waste can be described as fair. Upstream waste from copper production in A1 is based on reference values from International Copper Association as no specific data was available. The specific data for the core manufacturing process in A3 has been done thoroughly including all relevant flows and should be considered very good.
Dangerous substances: No dangerous substances from the candidate list of SVHC for authorization are included in the products.
Module C and D are calculated based on a scenario.
Module C – Only copper is taken into consideration in module C, therefore there is no impact in C1.
The copper is assumed to be transported 100 kilometres by a EURO VI truck from the site to a recycling centre (C2). As only the copper is being considered, no processing before recycling is necessary. In C3, the packaging materials of steel is assumed to be recycled, while packaging materials made of wood, paper and plastic is assumed to be incinerated.
No disposal occurs for the products, thus there is no impact in C4.
Module D – Copper and packaging materials made of steel are assumed to be recycled, while packaging materials made of wood, paper and plastic are assumed to be energy recovered. However, only primary copper is considered as a benefit beyond the system boundaries. The recycled copper and steel replace virgin material and the incinerated packaging materials assumes to contribute with electricity to the European electricity grid. Therefore, all materials contribute positively beyond the system boundary.
The results for the declared product are presented in the tables below. For module A1-A3, the climate impact for the GWP-GHG indicator is equal to 3.96 kgCO2e/declared unit.
Results per kg of contact wire (Cu-ETP, CuAg0.1, CuSn0.1) from rod based standard copper with a recycled content of 0% Indicator
minerals&metals*
Acronyms
GWP-fossil = Global Warming Potential fossil fuels; GWP-biogenic = Global Warming Potential biogenic; GWP-luluc = Global Warming Potential land use and land use change; ODP = Depletion potential of the stratospheric ozone layer; AP = Acidification potential, Accumulated Exceedance; EP-freshwater = Eutrophication potential, fraction of nutrients reaching freshwater end compartment; EP-marine = Eutrophication potential, fraction of nutrients reaching marine end compartment; EP-terrestrial = Eutrophication potential, Accumulated Exceedance; POCP = Formation potential of tropospheric ozone; ADP-minerals&metals = Abiotic depletion potential for non-fossil resources; ADP-fossil = Abiotic depletion for fossil resources potential; WDP = Water (user) deprivation potential, deprivation-weighted water consumption
* Disclaimer: The results of this environmental impact indicator shall be used with care as the uncertainties of these results are high or as there is limited experience with the indicator.
Results
2 The indicator includes all greenhouse gases included in GWP-total but excludes biogenic carbon dioxide uptake and emissions and biogenic carbon stored in the product. This indicator is thus almost equal to the GWP indicator originally defined in EN 15804:2012+A1:2013.
Results per kg of contact wire (Cu-ETP, CuAg0.1, CuSn0.1) from rod based standard copper with a recycled content of 0%
Acronyms
PERE = Use of renewable primary energy excluding renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials; PERM = Use of renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials; PERT = Total use of renewable primary energy resources; PENRE = Use of non-renewable primary energy excluding nonrenewable primary energy resources used as raw materials; PENRM = Use of non-renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials; PENRT = Total use of non-renewable primary energy re-sources; SM = Use of secondary material; RSF = Use of renewable secondary fuels; NRSF = Use of non-renewable secondary fuels; FW = Use of net fresh water
Results per kg of contact wire (Cu-ETP, CuAg0.1, CuSn0.1) from rod based standard copper with a recycled content of 0%
Results
Results per kg of contact wire (Cu-ETP, CuAg0.1, CuSn0.1) from rod based standard copper with a recycled content of 0%
3 Biogenic carbon stored in packaging material and as energy is direct balanced out in the module they are manufactured.
• CEN/TC 350, 2019. Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products. European committee for standardization.
• Ecoinvent
• Elcowire Group, 2024. Accounting and verification process
• Elcowire Group, 2024. Cathode Massbalance HET 2024 - locked version for LCA – 20240917.
• International Copper Association. Copper Environmental Profile.
• International Organization for Standardization, 2006. ISO 14040:2006 Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Principles and framework.
• International Organization for Standardization, 2006. ISO 14044:2006 Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Requirements and guidelines
• International Organization for Standardization, 2016. ISO 14021:2016 Environmental labels and declarations - Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling)
• Network for Transport Measures, 2024. Default and benchmark transport data.