Abstract
The Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association（JEMA）conducted life cycle CO2 analysis of Japanese refrigerator in 1999. Compared to the scenarios applied for the model of the year 1999, recent Japanese refrigerator has many differences or improvements i.e., improved efficiency of compressor, vacuum insulation panel, manufacturing sites from Japan to overseas. Therefore JEMA made a revised life cycle CO2 analysis for the model of the year 2010 using new scenarios, and assuming that the 1999 model is replaced with the 2010 model, compared the amount of life cycle CO2 emissions of the 2010 main model to that of the 1999 main model. Results show that an amount of life cycle CO2 emissions for the 2010 model is 1709 kg. Compared between life cycle stages, use stage is the largest share（81 %）and raw material procurement stage is the second share（19%）. The amount of life cycle CO2 emissions of the product manufactured in China and Thailand is 1.3% and 0.9% larger than that of the product manufactured in Japan. The amount of CO2 emissions of the whole life cycle and use stage of the 2010 model decreased 59 % and 64 % respectively, compared to the 1999 model. This result indicates that energy consumption performance during use stage is highly improved by vacuum insulation panel and so on. As a conclusion, energy consumption performance during use stage is the key for decreasing life cycle CO2 for refrigerators.
