Environmental assessment of the production process of internal combustion engines

The aim of this article is to demonstrate using the LCA methodology the environmental effects of material composition changes on Volkswagen Golf passenger cars over the past 30 years. The simplified LCA model of the engine presented in the work shows the energy consumption and total CO₂ emissions based on the mass of materials. It was built to investigate general assumptions about material production and car recycling. The results of the research presented in the paper give an image of the modernity of a passenger car engine on the basis of consumption and the degree of recovery of materials used for its construction.