Since 2003, Proterial has provided the Metglas^™ amorphous alloy that reduces transformer standby power consumption to about one third of the power consumed by conventional transformer cores such as magnetic steel sheet cores. The goal is to increase the use of Proterial’s amorphous alloy as a transformer core material to reduce CO₂ emissions by about 50,000 tons a year^*1 compared to transformers using magnetic steel sheets as a core material. Proterial developed MaDC-A, a new amorphous alloy contributing to an increase of transformer efficiency, in March 2020, and has been providing it to customers around the world. The new material is attracting strong interest, as it helps reduce CO₂ emissions.

To enable customers to select materials appropriately from the perspective of reducing CO₂ emissions, the results of the LCAs of materials are important. A customer requested an LCA report, so Proterial performed the LCA and published the report.

Proterial performed an LCA of MaDC-A, an amorphous alloy used as a transformer core material, from raw material procurement, manufacturing and transportation to waste disposal. The prepared LCA report was reviewed by a third-party LCA expert and then published. This is the first time that Proterial has conducted an LCA and published an LCA report.

If customers use the LCA report as evidence in their conducting life cycle assessments of the amorphous core transformers they manufacture, it will be possible to calculate the amount of CO₂ emitted throughout the life cycles of the amorphous core transformers. In addition, it will enable the calculation of the CO₂ emissions reduction achieved throughout the life cycle of amorphous core transformers compared to transformers using magnetic steel sheets as their core material.

Through this LCA report, Proterial will ensure that customers and other stakeholders have an accurate understanding of the excellent performance of the MaDC-A amorphous alloy and the amorphous core transformers that use MaDC-A and promote the popularization of amorphous core transformers and the realization of decarbonized society.

The amount of GHGs emitted was calculated to be 3.10kg CO₂e per kilogram of the product. Examining the product by life cycle stage, emissions in the raw material procurement stage were 2.36kg CO₂e, accounting for 76.2% or about three quarters of the emissions from the entire life cycle of the product. By process, the environmental load related to raw materials manufacturing included in the raw materials procurement stage is 72.3% of the total environmental load. The next largest environmental load was related to energy consumption in the production stage, which was 23.1% of the total environmental load. These two types of environmental load are together over 95% of the total environmental load.