Life Cycle Assessment of Metallic Copper Produced by the Pyrometallurgical Technology of China

2015 ◽  
Vol 814 ◽  
pp. 559-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Tao Wang ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Xian Zheng Gong ◽  
Zhi Hong Wang ◽  
Feng Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Copper Production ◽  
Copper Smelting ◽  
Environmental Load ◽  
Copper Ore ◽  
Abiotic Depletion Potential ◽  
Abiotic Depletion ◽  
Depletion Potential

With the rapid development of industry in China, China has become the largest producer of refined copper as well as the largest consumer of copper in the world. In order to provide the support for decreasing the environmental impact of the copper pyrometallurgy of China, the life cycle assessment methodology was carried out in this study to identify and analyze the typical processes’ environmental load of refined copper production from ‘cradle-to-gate’ perspective. The results showed that the most serious environmental impact of copper pyrometallurgy was abiotic depletion potential and human toxicity. The abiotic depletion potential mainly comes from the copper ore mining, for this reason, increasing the use of renewable copper is an effective means to alleviate environmental load of our country copper pyrometallurgy industry. Meanwhile, reducing the direct and indirect discharge of poisonous and harmful elements (e.g. heavy metals) from the copper ore mining stage and the copper smelting process could decrease the human health damage efficiently.

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment between Ordinary Gypsum Plasterboard and Functional Phase-Change Gypsum Plasterboard

2020 ◽  
Vol 993 ◽  
pp. 1473-1480
Author(s):  
Yan Jiao Zhang ◽  
Li Ping Ma ◽  
Shi Wei Ren ◽  
Meng Chi Huang ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Renewable Resource ◽  
Pollutant Emissions ◽  
Main Stage ◽  
Depletion Potential

With the emphasis of national policies on green manufacturing and the recognition of the people for green development, expanding the green assessment of products will be the general trend. In this study the life cycle assessment method was used to compile a list of resources, energy consumption and pollutant emissions during the life cycle of typical ordinary gypsum plasterboard and functional phase-change gypsum plasterboard, the key environmental impact indicators of both products during the life cycle calculated, the key stages affecting the environmental performance of products analyzed and identified, and the difference in environmental impacts between phase-change gypsum plasterboard and ordinary gypsum plasterboard compared and analyzed, for guiding the selection of green building materials and the development of ecological building materials. The results show that the global warming potential of phase-change gypsum plasterboard is 3.42 kgCO2 equivalent/m2, the non-renewable resource depletion potential is 2.25×10-5 kgSb equivalent/m2, the respiratory inorganic is 1.97×10-3 kgPM2.5 equivalent/m2, the eutrophication is 1.21×10-3 kgPO43- equivalent/m2, and the acidification is 9.47×10-3 kgSO2 equivalent/m2. Compared with ordinary gypsum plasterboard, the phase-change gypsum plasterboard shows the biggest increase by 874.03% in non-renewable resource depletion potential. The major environmental impact of ordinary gypsum plasterboard in the life cycle is mainly from energy use, and the transport process is the main stage of eutrophication. The use of phase-change materials in the phase-change gypsum plasterboard is the main stage causing environmental impact.

Life Cycle Assessment of Cathode Copper Production

2017 ◽  
Vol 898 ◽  
pp. 2422-2431
Author(s):  
Hao Li ◽  
Xian Zheng Gong ◽  
Zhi Hong Wang ◽  
Yao Li
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Category ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Copper Production ◽  
Life Cycle Approach ◽  
Pyrometallurgical Process ◽  
Environmental Burden ◽  
Cathode Copper

The environmental impact of Chinese cathode copper production was identified and quantified in the context of pyrometallurgy ical and hydrometallurgical method by life cycle approach. Combined with the situation of copper resources in China, the copper ores mining, mineral processing, transportation and smelting sector, were analyzed in detail. The normalization results shows that abiotic depletion is the largest environmental impact in both Pyro-and hydro-metallurgical methods, which were 28.4 kg Sb eq and 32.0 kg Sb eq, respectively. Electrolytic refining is the key process in hydrometallurgical life cycle environmental burden (50.21%), and the mining process contributed the largest environmental impact (17.94%) in pyrometallurgical process. In addition, the total environmental burden of pyrometallurgical process is 1.15 times of hydrometallurgical process. Pyrometallurgical methods has many environmental impact category which were much higher than hydrometallurgical because of the more use of fossil fuels in smelting process. Based on the life cycle assessment results, the key factors to reduce the overall environmental impact for China’s cathode copper production include optimizing the efficiency of copper resource, and clean energy sources for electricity production.

Life Cycle Assessment of Particulate Recycled Low Density Polyethylene and Recycled Polypropylene Reinforced with Talc and Fiberglass

2011 ◽  
Vol 471-472 ◽  
pp. 999-1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam Al-Ma'adeed ◽  
Gozde Ozerkan ◽  
Ramazan Kahraman ◽  
Saravanan Rajendran ◽  
Alma Hodzic
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Composite Materials ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Human Toxicity ◽  
Acidification Potential ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Abiotic Depletion

Although recycled polymers and reinforced polymer composites have been in use for many years there is little information available on their environmental impacts. The goal of the present study is to analyze the environmental impact of new composite materials obtained from the combination of recycled thermoplastics (polypropylene [PP] and polyethylene [PE]) with mineral fillers like talc and with glass fiber. The environmental impact of these composite materials is compared to the impact of virgin PP and PE. The recycled and virgin materials were compared using life cycle assessment method according to their environmental effects. Within the scope of the study, GaBi software was used for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis. From cradle-to-grave life cycle inventory studies were performed for 1 kg of each of the thermoplastics. Landfilling was considered as reference scenario and compared with filled recycled plastics. A quantitative impact assessment was performed for four environmental impact categories, global warming (GWP) over a hundred years, human toxicity (HTP), abiotic depletion (ADP) and acidification potential (AP) were taken into consideration during LCA. In the comparison of recycled and virgin polymers, it was seen that recycling has lower environmental effect for different impact assessment methods like acidification potential, abiotic depletion, human toxicity and global warming.

Studies on the Environmental Impact of the HVAC Equipments Based on the LCA Theory

2014 ◽  
Vol 694 ◽  
pp. 417-421
Author(s):  
Yue Ren ◽  
Yue Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Damage Model ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Environmental Load ◽  
Index Method ◽  
Air Conditioners ◽  
Ecological Index

We chose an endpoint damage model and combined it with ecological index method to obtain the life cycle assessment model of HVAC equipment. The environmental load was calculated which included the production of room air conditioners and water chillers. The environmental impact of the HVAC industry in China was analyzed quantitatively at a macroeconomic level. And the energy saving strategy was analyzed.

Comparative Analysis of Environmental Impacts between Dregs Disposal and Conventional Cement Production by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

2013 ◽  
Vol 777 ◽  
pp. 461-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kan Fu ◽  
Xiao Yu Ren ◽  
Jin Quan Lin ◽  
Ping Yue
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Load Ratio ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Cement Kiln ◽  
Environmental Load ◽  
Human Toxicity ◽  
Cement Production ◽  
Depletion Potential

The environmental impacts of the dregs disposal in cement kiln and conventional production were contrastively evaluated by life cycle assessment (LCA) in this study. The results showed that the environmental load ratio of both cement productions followed the order of energy depletion potential (EDP) > depletion potential (ADP) > global warming potential (GWP) > acidification potential (AP) > human toxicity (HT) > photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP). The comprehensive environmental load of disposal dregs was 14.465×10-12/a, which was 3.98% lower than that of the conventional cement production. Moreover, the reduced percentage of the environmental load followed the order of HT> AP> POCP> EDP> ADP> GWP, which indicated that the reduced percentage of human toxicity and acidification reached 10.62% and 10.06% respectively. Thus, considering the environmental benefits, it would be a better method to dispose dregs instead of limestone in cement kiln.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Mortars with Incorporation of Industrial Wastes

Fibers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catarina Brazão Farinha ◽  
José Dinis Silvestre ◽  
Jorge de Brito ◽  
Maria do Rosário Veiga
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Forest Biomass ◽  
Primary Energy ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Industrial Wastes ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Environmental Impact Categories ◽  
Depletion Potential

The production of waste is increasing yearly and, without a viable recycle or reutilization solution, waste is sent to landfills, where it can take thousand to years to degrade. Simultaneously, for the production of new materials, some industries continue to ignore the potential of wastes and keep on using natural resources for production. The incorporation of waste materials in mortars is a possible solution to avoid landfilling, through their recycling or reutilization. However, no evaluation of their “sustainability” in terms of environmental performance is available in the literature. In this sense, in this research a life cycle assessment was performed on mortars, namely renders, with incorporation of industrials wastes replacing sand and/or cement. For that purpose, eight environmental impact categories (abiotic depletion potential, global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, use of non-renewable primary energy resources, and use of renewable primary energy resources) within a “cradle to gate” boundary were analyzed for 19 mortars with incorporation of several industrial wastes: sanitary ware, glass fiber reinforced polymer, forest biomass ashes, and textile fibers. Sixteen out of the 19 mortars under analysis presented, in all environmental impact categories, an equal or better environment performance than a common mortar (used as a reference). The benefits in some environmental impacts were over 20%.

scholarly journals Environmental Evaluation of Concrete Containing Recycled and By-Product Aggregates Based on Life Cycle Assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 7503
Author(s):  
Seungjun Roh ◽  
Rakhyun Kim ◽  
Won-Jun Park ◽  
Hoki Ban
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Bottom Ash ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Recycled Aggregate ◽  
Coarse Aggregates ◽  
Fine Aggregates ◽  
Depletion Potential

This study aims to compare the potential environmental impact of the manufacture and production of recycled and by-product aggregates based on a life cycle assessment and to evaluate the environmental impact and cost when they are used as aggregates in concrete. To this end, the six potential environmental impacts (i.e., abiotic depletion potential, global warming potential, ozone-layer depletion potential, acidification potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, and eutrophication potential) of the manufacture and production of natural sand, natural gravel, recycled aggregate, slag aggregate, bottom ash aggregate, and waste glass aggregate were compared using information from life cycle inventory databases. Additionally, the environmental impacts and cost were evaluated when these aggregates were used to replace 30% of the fine and coarse aggregates in concrete with a design strength of 24 MPa. The environmental impact of concrete that incorporated slag aggregate as the fine aggregates or bottom ash aggregate as the coarse aggregates were lower than that of concrete that incorporated natural aggregate. However, concrete that incorporated bottom ash aggregate as the fine aggregates demonstrated relatively high environmental impacts. Based on these environmental impacts, the environmental cost was found to range from 5.88 to 8.79 USD/m3.

Life Cycle Assessment of Lightweight Aggregate Concrete Block

2014 ◽  
Vol 599 ◽  
pp. 66-69
Author(s):  
Li Li Zhao ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Zhi Hong Wang ◽  
Jia Ping Cui ◽  
Quan Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Lightweight Aggregate ◽  
Concrete Block ◽  
Lightweight Aggregate Concrete ◽  
Environmental Load ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Aggregate Concrete ◽  
Environmental Impact Categories

The environmental impact of lightweight aggregate concrete block, which use fly ash ceramic, was analyzed. The results show that AP and GWP are the most significant environmental impact categories accounting for 30% and 25% of the total environmental impact respectively. The results also show that, in different life cycle phases, the environmental load of the lightweight aggregate concrete block is mainly caused by the production of cement, which accounts for 42% of the total environmental impact.

scholarly journals Multi-criteria analysis of ten single family houses regarding environmental impacts

2020 ◽  
Vol 310 ◽  
pp. 00065
Author(s):  
Andrea Moňoková ◽  
Silvia Vilčeková
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Reduction Rate ◽  
Mineral Wool ◽  
Expanded Polystyrene ◽  
Building Structures ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Abiotic Depletion Potential ◽  
Abiotic Depletion ◽  
Depletion Potential

This study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of ten single family houses located in Eastern Slovakia with the aim to compare them in terms of the materials and technologies used. The main goal is to investigate and emphasize the reduction rate of environmental impact resulting from using green materials and technologies. Environmental impacts are determined by using eToolLCD software. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) categories of global warming, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication and photochemical ozone creation potential, as well as abiotic depletion potential - elements, abiotic depletion potential - fossil fuels, use of renewable primary energy resources, net use of fresh water, components for reuse and materials for recycling are determined within the cradle-to-grave boundary. Assessed family houses are built as a combination of conventional materials such as aerated concrete blocks, expanded polystyrene (EPS), extruded polystyrene (XPS) and roofing mineral wool and natural materials such as wood, cellulose, clay, straw and extensive vegetation roofs. Multi-criteria decision analysis points out that material optimization of building structures as well as the application of green technologies can ensure a considerable reduction of environmental impacts.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of an Electric Chiller Integrated with a Large District Cooling Plant

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Chima Cyril Hampo ◽  
Ainul Bt Akmar ◽  
Mohd Amin Abd Majid
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
Environmental Load ◽  
Centrifugal Chillers ◽  
Conventional Cooling

District cooling (DC) systems have recently proven to be more economically and environmentally viable as compared to conventional cooling techniques. In most DC setups, electric centrifugal chillers (ECCs) are installed to provide chilled water (CW) to charge the thermal energy storage (TES) tank or for direct CW supply to the DC network. The operation of these ECC systems consumes most of the electrical power supplied to the entire DC plant; this therefore strengthens the need to conduct a comprehensive environmental assessment in order to quantify the indirect ecological impact resulting from the energy consumed in the ECC system operation. In order to achieve this, a case study was conducted of four ECC systems with a use-life of 25 years installed in a large DC plant in Malaysia. A gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was adopted to analyze the environmental performance of the system setup. The result of the study year reveals that April and June account for the highest and lowest environmental impact, respectively. The influence of climatic temperature conditions on the monthly cooling and environmental load distribution was also observed from the results. Finally, in substantiating the study’s investigation, environmental performance based on the composition of two different electricity fuel mixes is discussed and compared. The results revealed a drastic decrease in environmental load as the ratio of non-renewable energy sources decreased in the composition of the mix, thereby reducing the contribution of the overall environmental impact of the ECC systems’ use phase.

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