Assessing the impact of China's vehicle emission standards on diesel engine remanufacturing

The remanufacturing industry is one of the strategic emerging industries in China that are changing the traditional economic growth mode, developing a circular economy, as well as promoting development toward becoming a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society. Based on the current development of China's engine remanufacturing industry and government policy, this study analyzed the characteristics and development trend of the engine remanufacturing industry. Diesel engine remanufacturing is the earliest remanufacturing business in China and is the key to the development of the remanufacturing industry. Diesel remanufacturing mostly involves different stages of the vehicle exhaust emission standard implemented in China. A life-cycle assessment model was developed to investigate pollution prevention achieved in China by remanufacturing a China 2 standard heavy-duty diesel engine compared with a new one that has similar specifications and manufactured by the same OEM but meets the China 4 standard. Qualitative analysis indicates that a different remanufacturing strategy needs to be adopted for an engine in a different exhaust emission standard stage. The principle of remanufacturing is “Remanufacturing restores used automotive engines to like-new condition”. However, remanufacturing a China 2 or 3 engine increases emissions. Therefore, the principle of remanufacturing does not always achieve the goal of remanufacturing development in China.