Design Life-Cycle

Elliot Locke

DES 40A

Professor Cogdell

14 November 2018

The Embodied Energy of a Hydro Flask

In the age of heightening environmental distress over the intensifying global crisis of climate change, trends of new methods in which we can easily diminish our ecological footprint has prompted a questioning of single-use plastic water bottles. The byproducts of manufacturing hydrocarbon intensive plastic bottles have choked the air we breathe and its ballooning waste has stifled our precious marine ecosystems. This reality has garnered more deliberation and has inevitably provoked many to reflect on their mindless consumeristic habits. In response to this plastic epidemic, many, especially young people, have reacted by switching to reusable bottles. If you step foot onto a high school or college campus in California, you won’t make it far without noticing a plethora of brightly colored stainless-steel water bottles decorated with stickers and the occasional dent. Called “Hydro Flasks”, these double walled, vacuum insulated water bottles have earned them all the buzz for their stylishness and their insulative technology that keeps your drink cold or hot all day. Surely reusing a Hydro Flask instead of using plastic bottles once and throwing them away is more advantageous for the environment, right? Despite being hailed for its greenness because of its reusability, Hydro Flasks, however, are exceedingly energy intensive in its production phase. By thoroughly evaluating the energy used in all aspects of its life-cycle, otherwise known as its embodied energy, we can ascertain whether or not Hydro Flasks are truly a greener option.

Say the comprehensive evaluation of Hydro Flasks energy requirements throughout its lifespan is established and stated as a quantitative value, so what? Forming a comparison between this stainless steel bottle is paramount to lend some relevancy to an otherwise intangible numerical value of embodied energy. A distinction between a Hydro Flask and a traditional single-use plastic bottle is only logical to determine if Hydro Flask’s principal argument of reusability of stainless bottles being a greener option has stature. According to the plastics manufacturing industry, it takes around 3.4 megajoules (MJ) of energy to produce a typical one-liter plastic bottle, cap, and packaging. [1] According to similar articles on plastic water bottles’ embodied energy, the combining of all the energy inputs for a typical 16 ounce plastic water bottle will typically total from 2.8 to 5.1 MJ. [2]. These energy figures claim to include the energy needed to package clean, drinkable water. Producing tap water typically requires a fraction of the energy inputs, roughly about 0.0025 MJ for treatment and distribution [2]. This value, although relatively miniscule, will be factored in when making the one-on-one comparison between the two bottle options. It is also important to note that this study captures the first-degree or surface level energy use. It does not account for the energy use, for example, to mine and transport the coal that is burned by China’s energy companies to be used in the manufacturing plant that assembles Hydro Flasks.

The foremost step in producing a Hydro Flask is acquiring the fundamental materials required for the manufacturing process. Understanding its material makeup and where these materials originate from is crucial in accurately calculating the amount of energy consumed simply because of the differences in electricity generation between countries and the distance covered when shipping the material from the ore processor to the factory in China. Here the energy requirements for extraction, processing and shipment of the material to the manufacturing plant will be assessed.

Hydro Flasks are manufactured out of Type 304 or “18-8” grade Stainless steel, which consists primarily of Iron (74%) plus Chromium (18%) and Nickel (8%) with trace amounts of Manganese and Copper [3]. Located in the Guangdong District of southeastern China, the manufacturing/assembling plant where Hydro Flasks are produced must use both the domestic supply and imports of these raw materials for production. The majority of the world’s Iron production comes from Australia; it’s a safe assumption that the stainless steel contains mostly Australian iron with some Chinese steel. The same applies, to an even larger degree, for Chromium and Nickel as it’s produced almost entirely in South Africa and in the Philippines. To quantify the energy required for mining and processing, assumptions for each of these three main elements will be made to calculate the energy required to make the equivalent of one Hydro Flask worth of stainless steel. In my investigation, there lacked any analyses of specific ore extraction and processing energy data from their correlating countries of extraction. Therefore, the most specific mineral extraction data found will be applied to the three ores as they are already similar in extraction and processing techniques. Evidence of mine blasting showed that approximately 1 ton of explosives are required to mobilize 5,000 tons of rock. [4] Sample data on a mining cost calculator states that 1.1 liters of diesel fuel is required per ton of ore. Combining these figures, this results to 38 MJ per ton of raw, unprocessed ore. [5] It’s important to note that a fraction of the ton of raw ore is unusable or is wasted in the processing stage, thus increasing the embodied energy as more than one ton of raw ore is required to create a ton of processed ore. The energy requirements in total to produce 1 metric ton of stainless steel is 53 GJ under current global operations, 26 GJ if made with 100% recycled materials and 79 GJ using only virgin materials. [6] With each Hydro Flask being composed of 10.8 ounces (0.3061748 kg) of stainless steel, this works out to be 16 MJ per bottle under current operations, 8 MJ if made with completely recycled materials and 24 MJ using solely new ore. Other sources have confirmed these figures, with similar data ranges (based on material makeup) roughly equivalent to 8 MJ to 20 MJ per Hydro Flask.

Once the raw ore is extracted from the earth and readied to be used in global production, the processed material has to be packaged and shipped overseas via large cargo ships. Before the material leaves the dock for the factory, however, they first must get to the coast. As most mines are some distance in land, different countries rely upon different methods of transporting their ore from processor to ship. In the case of larger ore mining operations in Australia and in South Africa, mining companies use railways to transport product from the mine-site to the port. In the case of ore mining in the Philippines and Indonesia, it is assumed that truck and river barge transport are used to haul ore to port for shipment. Both Australia and South Africa’s major mining operations lay within 200 miles of coastal shipping ports. According to CSX, a dominant transportation company, it takes roughly half a gallon of diesel to haul one ton of iron and chromium ore from processor to port. This is equivalent to around 17 MJ per ton. Although a third the fuel efficiency of freight, trucking Nickel ore in Indonesia and the Philippines only consumes roughly one third of a gallon of diesel to transport ore as they are closer to port, equaling roughly 11 MJ per ton. [7][8] Iron and chromium together make up roughly 90% of stainless steel with Nickel again at 8%. Therefore, if you calculate the ores’ percentage makeup of stainless steel, freight uses 0.047 MJ and trucking uses 0.0027 MJ to transport one Hydro Flask worth of processed ore to the port. After arriving at the port, the iron, chromium and nickel are loaded up onto massive containerships and make their way to China. According to an oxford study on cargo ship energy consumption, per ton a cargo ship is one of the most efficient forms of cargo transportation at 50 kJ per ton per km [9], equaling 0.153 kJ per bottle per km. Iron from Western Australia shipped to Guangdong, China makes a 4400km journey, equaling 500 kJ used to ship one Hydro Flask worth of iron. Chromium from South Africa makes a 11,000 km trip, equaling 303 kJ. Nickel from Indonesia travels 1000-1750 km to Guangzhou, consuming an average of 17 kJ to ship one bottle’s worth of Nickel.

Following the proper acquisition of stainless steel, Hydro Flasks are finally manufactured and assembled in factories by Ecoway Houseware Ltd, located in the Guangdong District. Here the manufacturing industry is powered predominantly from fossil fuels such as Coal (65.5%) and Natural gas (3.1%) with a noteworthy contribution of Hydro electric power (19%). The factory takes in large quantities of raw stainless steel and oil to mold, shape and produce double-walled bottles and plastic caps. The manufacturing process consumes a significant amount of electricity through welding the steel, creating the vacuum, using electrolysis for corrosion prevention, polishing, painting with surface treatment, and injection molding the plastic and packaging. [10] Here my investigation rapidly decelerated as a substantial paucity of data regarding the factory’s energy use during the manufacturing process made it impossible to calculate and finish the total embodied energy. Lacking a fundamental value of the total energy consumed through its life-cycle, I had to resort to other bottle investigations for data. Klean Kanteen, for example, estimates a total of 78 MJ used in the manufacturing process, however, it’s not clear whether this is per bottle or for some large batch. This is as close as I could come as it highlights that it requires another significant addition of energy but only leaves me guessing to how much of that is one bottle’s worth of energy consumption. For the Hydro Flask plastic lid, I used an engineering community’s analysis of the plastic industry’s manufacturing energy data. It states that 69 MJ is required to produce 1 kg of polypropylene, [11] totaling 4.7 MJ needed to produce the 2.4 ounce cap on a Hydro Flask.

            Once the Hydro Flask is fully assembled and packaged for global consumerism, the stainless steel bottle must back to the coast where it is loaded and readied for a complex, multi-step journey across the globe. The bottles are loaded on a truck and driven roughly 50 km from Changping to the nearest international shipping port, using another 4 kJ per bottle. Once again loaded aboard a containership, the Hydro Flask will make its way to the United States for distribution and sale. This 11,000 km trip will again consume 303 kJ per bottle. For this example, the bottles will arrive in San Francisco as it’s an international shipping port. The bottles will again be loaded onto a semi and be distributed to stores and outlets across various markets. For this energy calculation, I will use Sacramento as an example of a central hub to calculate a sample, slightly more accurate embodied energy. It will require 2 kJ of energy to reach the store and it will take another roughly 11 kJ for an example consumer to drive roughly 6 miles to the store getting an average fuel efficiency of 24.7 mpg to purchase their new bottle.

When first considering the energy use of a Hydro Flask, it doesn’t seem like its uses any. However after further investigation, its crucial to acknowledge the energy needed to deliver clean, drinkable water to your tap. As previously stated, treatment and distribution for the production of tap water typically requires roughly about 0.0025 MJ for about 16 oz of water [4]. But what about when you want to wash your bottle, say in the sink or in the dish washer? The dish water would further require even more water and energy as it consumes more water to clean and consumes energy to heat the water that cleans the dishes. If you are only drinking water, you won’t need to clean your bottle often. If you feel the urge to clean it, try handwashing.  

One the most attractive features of a Hydro Flask is the elimination of disposal after use. Built with ultra durable and high grade stainless steel, this bottle is designed to be forever by your side rather than sitting in the landfill or choking our oceans like its plastic counterpart. As they are seeming infinitely reusable, there’s no need to physically recycle them. However, if your bottle gets run over and crushed or for whatever reason you have to toss it, consumers have many options to recycle steel and return it back into the system. As one of North America’s highest recycled material, stainless steel contains an average of over 60% recycled content. [12] We need to continue to educate and drive home the importance of recycling materials when seeking disposal, especially from an energy standpoint as stainless steel requires 4 times more energy to produce with new materials rather than with completely recycled materials.

From the depths of a mine to the crushing ore processor and out to the expansive coast aboard a ship and back in from the coast to your department local store, a Hydro Flask has proven highly energy intensive. Adding the energy consumed in each of these steps, it takes roughly 22 to 100 MJ of energy to produce a Hydro Flask. The absence of crucial data and the seemingly infinite amount of unacknowledged factors and confounding variables in some of these steps challenged the absolute accuracy of this calculated value and is responsible for the stated range in value. Nonetheless, it’s irrefutable that this double-walled, vacuum sealed bottle that many love and cherish demands an immense amount of resources to produce and ultimately keep your favorite liquid hot or cold. That being said, is stainless steel actually better than plastic? It’s difficult to determine the relative depth of the embodied energy reports of plastic bottles, however, a stainless steel bottle is obviously much worse than a plastic one. Producing a 300-gram stainless steel bottle requires seven times as much fossil fuel and demands the extraction of hundreds of times more metal resources than making a 32-gram plastic bottle. [15] If you’re planning to take only one drink in your life, then buy plastic. The chances that you are going to use one plastic bottle, however, are slim. Buying a Hydro Flask will prevent you from using and then throwing away countless plastic bottles. Consider the harm done by making more and more plastic. If your Hydro Flask takes the place of 100 plastic bottles, it beats plastic and the environment is truly better off.  

Works Cited

1.     “Bottled Water and Energy Fact Sheet.” Pacific Institute, 2007, pacinst.org/publication/bottled-water-and-energy-a-fact-sheet/. 

2.     Zyga, Lisa. “How Much Energy Goes Into Making a Bottle of Water?” Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and Technology, Phys.org, 2009, phys.org/news/2009-03-energy-bottle.html. 

3.      “Iron Alloy.” MakeItFrom.com, 18 Oct. 2018, www.makeitfrom.com/material-properties/AISI-304-S30400-Stainless-Steel.

4.     Johnson, Jeremiah. “The Energy Benefit of Stainless Steel Recycling.” Elsevier, 2007, www.mgg-recycling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/The-Energy-Benefit-of-Stainless-Steel-Recycling.pdf.

5.     “Mining Cost Models.” Cost Models of Theoretical Mining Operations | CostMine, 2018, costs.infomine.com/costdatacenter/miningcostmodel.aspx.

6.     Graedel, T.E. “The Energy Benefit of Stainless Steel Recycling.” NeuroImage, Academic Press, 18 Oct. 2007, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421507003655.

7.     “Fuel Efficiency.” CSX.com, 2015, www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/the-csx-advantage/fuel-efficiency/?mobileFormat=true.

8.     Elert, Glenn. “Energy Density of Diesel Fuel.” E-World, 2008, hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/TatyanaNektalova.shtml.

9.     Ashby, M.F. 2015. Materials and sustainable development, table A.14. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

10.  “How Are Vacuum Insulated Bottles Made?” Ecoway|China OEM Bottle|Tumbler|Cup Manufacturer, 25 May 2018, www.ecohydration.net/2018/05/ 

11.   “Embodied Energy Polypropylene Vs Copper.” Community Engineering Services, 2018, www.coengineers.com/embodied-energy-polypropylene-vs-copper/. 

12.  “Comparing Reusable Water Bottles on Sustainability: Stainless Steel, Glass, and Plastic {Infographic}.” Dr. Karen S. Lee, 2 Nov. 2013, www.drkarenslee.com/comparing-reusable-bottles-stainless-steel-glass-plastic/.

13.  Goleman, Daniel, and Gregory Norris. “How Green Is My Bottle?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Apr. 2009, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/ 2009/04/19/opinion/20090419bottle.html?_r=0.  

Nicolas Ling

Christina Cogdell

DES 40A

Fall 2018

Hydroflasks and its Impact on our Environment.

Plastic bottles and plastic, in general, have negative effects on the environment. Plastic is sometimes treated like trash and gets to our landfills. Others somehow get into our ocean. Since plastic isn't biodegradable it can have a long lifespan in our oceans. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a huge issue in the world. Plastic accumulates in huge patches around the world in our oceans. It is estimated that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers up to about 1.6 million square kilometers. The plastic affects our ecosystem, especially marine life and even has effects on us, but one company is helping to try and reduce that.

HydroFlask has recently become one of the most popular brands when it comes to insulated bottles. Their double wall vacuum sealed stainless steel bottle has made it easy to keep beverages hot or cold for longer periods of time. The lids for the bottles are made of polypropylene and the strap is thermoplastic polyurethane. Many companies have already made similar double wall vacuum sealed stainless steel bottles, but Hydroflask takes into consideration function as well as design. Their simple bottle comes powder coated with multiple colors to choose from. A simple HydroFlask branding is all that covers the bottle leaving the rest of the bottle a blank canvas where people can be creative with stickers and make it their own. It's obvious why this brand got so much attention. Hydroflask overall is environmentally friendly and replaces the need for plastic water bottles. Their choice of materials makes the company and their bottles eco-friendly, waste and production wise.

Hydroflasks are manufactured in China by a company called EcoWay Drinkware. They manufacture quality 18/8 grade stainless steel water bottles to companies such as HydroFlask. Stainless steel is a material that requires little to no maintenance, unlike other metals. Its durable long lasting properties means that it saves time and materials by manufacture things once instead of twice or more.

The life cycle of stainless steel and glass outlast plastic bottles as long as you don't break or lose them. Plastic bottles are usually a one-time use for flavored drinks, sodas and bottled water. Reusable plastic bottles usually have a short time span of use because they aren't as durable as glass or stainless steel. Plastic can also be harmful to the environment if it is not disposed of properly in recycling. Glass, however, last just as long stainless steel but glass does not have the recyclable properties and durability that stainless steel or plastic has. Glass bottles can last and be reusable as long as it is not broken which is unlikely to happen. Since stainless steel is so durable, it outlasts glass and plastic bottles meaning that it is less likely to show up in landfills.

Producing stainless steel involves hundreds of steps in the process. Each process has its own environmental impacts such as transportation or harvesting of raw materials. Mining ore such as chromium or nickel which are important components of stainless steel can be harmful to workers as it increases the risk of cancer. The ores also have to be processed in order to extract the metal which is an energy-intensive process that uses large amounts of fossil fuels and also releases harmful greenhouse gas emission causing toxic particles to pollute the air and water. When manufacturing stainless steel, it is mainly manufactured using two methods. Both methods use scrap steel. The primary method uses about 13.8% scrap and creates emissions of about 1.987 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel. The secondary method uses 105% scrap steel and creates an emission of about 0.357 tonnes of CO2 per tonne. This is only a few processes it takes for stainless steel production but I was not able to find information about the complete emissions process that comes from the production of HydroFlask bottles.

After the manufacturing process, HydroFlask bottles are transported from factories to distribution centers, and finally, to the consumers. Bottles are shipped in a shipping container from Asia to Bend Headquarters which is located in Oregon. Bend is the company that owns HydroFlask since it was founded in 2009. I wasn't able to find information specific to HydroFlask about greenhouse gas emission for bottles being distributed to stores and sold to consumers but I was able to find that one shipment of bottles emits about 52 pounds of CO2 emissions which per year can equal up to 2,600,000 pounds of CO2.

The main element of stainless steel which Hydroflasks are primarily made of is iron. Iron is the main element that makes stainless steel so durable. The production of iron and steel in factories create a significant amount of byproduct waste. Most of the waste is scrap metal leftover from production. Over 80% of stainless steel byproduct waste is reused to make new stainless steel products or sold which is a huge change compared to the early 1900s when byproduct waste was trashed in the landfills. Leftover materials can usually be reused and recycled back into the production process or sold to be reused in other things such as electronics, or use in the building industry.

A byproduct produced in iron and steel production is slag. Slag is a component that gives steel its desired traits. There are different types of slag produced by different processes but the most common would come from ore based production. The composition, amount and function of slag produced depend on the raw materials used in production. It is utilized in many ways and is desired because of their function in steel production. Slag can be used to create desired steel qualities. No more than 20% of slag byproduct is wasted or disposed of in landfills.

A second byproduct in the metal production industry is dust and sludge. Dust created from high-temperature processes are captured using filters. The filters now are way more efficient at collecting dust than before which is good from an environmental standpoint. Dust is sent to treatment facilities so the dust can dry out and form sludge which can be reused as raw materials. Some dust is sent to other processing plants to reuse the metals. Dust from stainless steel, for example, is sent to be reprocessed for its metal contents such as nickel, iron, and chromium.

The stainless steel that is recycled is remelted into new stainless steel that is ready to be reused in the manufacturing of products. HydroFlask bottles last for a significant amount of time but when it comes time to actually dispose of it, the bottle is 100% recyclable and and that includes the lid and strap. Since Stainless steel is recyclable it reduces the amount of waste we put in the landfill by about 90%. Stainless steel hardly ever becomes waste at the end of its lifecycle. This is why I believe HydroFlask uses the best materials in their products. Stainless steel is durable meaning it will last longer through abuse and longer lifetime use. Producing Hydroflasks requires about eight times as much fossil fuel, which releases sixteen times more greenhouse gas emissions. Although HydroFlask bottles have a high energy consumption, it still beats plastic bottles if repeatedly used. HydroFlasks bottles are made to replace single-use plastic bottles. Manufacturing one HydroFlask bottle is equivalent to manufacturing 50 plastic bottles. If reusable bottles are reused at least 500 times, it would be better than plastic in all environmental aspects. Stainless steel as of 2012 has a 90% recycling rate according to worldstainless.org, unlike plastic bottles that have a recycling rate of 23%.

While HydroFlask isn't completely environmentally friendly, it is still a better alternative than using plastic bottles. Plastic bottles end up in landfill much more often than stainless steel. Stainless steel also looks better. It's shiny and aesthetic wise looks much better. HydroFlask even powder coats their bottles if you want a color other than just a stainless steel bottle. Stainless steel is much more durable meaning a longer lifespan. Since HydroFlask bottles are reusable unlike one-time use plastic bottles, they have more value behind them, meaning people that buy them won't just throw it away. HydroFlask is just one way to help reduce plastic use and encourages the reuse of its bottle and its materials.

Work Cited

“Comparing Reusable Water Bottles on Sustainability: Stainless Steel, Glass, and

Plastic {Infographic},” Dr. Karen S. Lee, 10 July, 2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2018. https://www.drkarenslee.com/comparing-reusable-bottles-stainless-steel-glass-plastic

“Environment Aspects of Stainless Steel,” British Stainless Steel Association, Web. 30 Oct.

2018. https://www.bssa.org.uk/sectors.php?id=99

“Hydro flask manufacturing made in China,” Ecoway|China OEM Bottle|Tumbler|Cup, 4

Jan. 2018, Web 30 Oct. 2018. http://www.ecohydration.net/tag/hydro-flask-manufacturing-made-in-china/

Walker, Robert Donald. “Iron processing,” Britannica.com, 27 Jan. 2017, Web. 30 Oct.

2018. https://www.britannica.com/technology/iron-processing

“Life Cycle Costing and Stainless Steel,” SASSDA, Web. 23 Oct. 2018.

https://sassda.co.za/about-stainless/life-cycle-costing-and-stainless-steel/

Tufvesson, Angela. “Plastic Vs Stainless Steel Vs Aluminium,” Green Lifestyle Magazine, G

Magazine, 22 Feb, 2011, Web. 23 Oct. 2018. https://www.greenlifestylemag.com.au/node/2436/full

“Position paper on life cycle,” Worldsteel, Web. 23 Oct. 2018.

https://www.worldsteel.org/publications/position-papers/lca-position-paper.html

“Stainless steel life cycle,” Outokumpu, 5 Jan. 2018, Web. 30 Oct. 2018.

https://www.outokumpu.com/sustainability/product-stewardship/stainless-steel-life-cycle

“The carbon footprint of steel,” Newsteelconstruction.com, 1 Jan. 2010, Web. 30 Oct.

2018. http://www.newsteelconstruction.com/wp/the-carbon-footprint-of-steel/

“Why Is Stainless Sustainable?,” Sustainable Stainless, Web. 30 Oct. 2018.

http://www.sustainablestainless.org/why-stainless

Ocean Cleanup. “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” The Ocean Cleanup,

www.theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/#what-is-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch.