Week 6 (Activity 2 & 3)

 ACTIVITY 2 Chemical Product Life Cycle 

 Chemical Product: Portable Water Heater 

 

1) Extraction   

Since our product is a portable water heater, commonly used materials required are copper and stainless steel. Copper is obtained by ore that is removed from the ground in either open pit or underground mines. Stainless steel is consisting of raw materials of nickel, iron ore, chromium, silicon, molybdenum, and others, are melted together. 

2) Manufacturing & Production 

“Manufacturing” refers to the making of products in factories by machineries on a large scale. This process changes individual pieces parts, recycled materials even raw materials obtained by extraction, into newly functional products. Stainless steel is an alloy made by melting the raw materials that were extracted such as iron ore, chromium, silicon and molybdenum. Other materials such as polytetrafluoroethylene are made into different parts of the product, it could be used as insulation from the heating source, or the hot water contained in the bottle. 

3) Packaging 

“Packaging” refers to the wrapping material around a consumer item that serves to contain, identify, describe, protect, display, promote and otherwise make the product marketable and keep it clean. For this case, packaging may include bubble wraps, cable ties for protection and security to prevent fragile items from being damaged. 

 

4) Distribution 

“Distribution” can be described as materials such as copper or stainless steel or the portable water heater itself being transported from one place to another. This can be by means of land or by sea. Apart from this delivery method, warehousing can also be included under this category. This is because suppliers would be using warehouses to distribute the materials and products.

  

 

5) Use 

“Use” refers to consumers using the materials or products. Consumers can use the raw materials to make products they wish to create. Knowing that the portable water heater is reusable, its life span is much longer compared to single use or disposable products which tend to create and accumulate more waste. Once the portable water heater does not function well, it could either be repaired or disposed. 

 

 

6) Disposal  

After products have been used, there are 3 ways on how they can be dealt with. Firstly, it can be reused, where they are given or sold to other people at a reduced price. Secondly, it can be recycled, in which they are recovered to produce new products. Lastly, they can also end up in landfills or incinerators. For the water heater, copper can be recycled by bringing it to scrap metal companies where they are sorted, melted and cast into finished shape or for subsequent fabrication (e.g. rolled out into sheets).  For stainless steel, since it is a non-ferrous metal, it is exported overseas for recycling. 

  

 

 

ACTIVITY 3 Integrate any two C2C design strategies into your chemical product and update the product life cycle diagram. 

Activity 3: Cradle-to-Cradle Design 

Product: Water Heater Bottle 

For the 2 strategies for our cradle-to-cradle design, we have decided on making our product solar powered and making it consist of materials that are recyclable.  

The first Cradle-to-Cradle is “Use of renewable energy”, mainly a solar powered portable water heater. The team has decided that the portable water heater can be redesigned, by installation of a mini solar panel that can absorb sunlight. This would convert solar energy to electrical energy. This would reduce the consumption of fossil fuels being burned to produce electricity hence, the solar panel will help heat up water without polluting the environment, as compared to using fossil fuels. 

 

The second strategy, which is under nutrients can be nutrients again is done by making it consist of recyclable parts. For the bottle’s exterior, we have come up with stainless steel as this material is light yet durable, versatile and it is recyclable which can be made into new products. For the insulation part in order to slow down the rate of heat escaping, we have decided to use biodegradable and recyclable plastic such as polylactic acid. We designed the bottle so that it is easily detachable and that once the user wishes to dispose it after a long period of usage, the user simply has to unscrew the compartments and discard accordingly.