Sustainability 2016, 8(8), 719; doi:10.3390/su8080719
Life Cycle Assessment of Steel Produced in an Italian Integrated Steel Mill
Ionian Department of Law, Economics and Environment, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Lago Maggiore angolo via Ancona, 74121 Taranto, Italy
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Academic Editors: Alessandro Ruggieri, Samuel Petros Sebhatu and Zenon Foltynowicz
Received: 15 June 2016 / Revised: 20 July 2016 / Accepted: 22 July 2016 / Published: 28 July 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quality and Innovation for a Circular Economy and a Sustainable Future)
Abstract
The purpose of this work is to carry out an accurate and extensive environmental analysis of the steel production occurring in in the largest integrated EU steel mill, located in the city of Taranto in southern Italy. The end goal is that of highlighting the steelworks’ main hot spots and identifying potential options for environmental improvement. The development for such an analysis is based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of steel production with a cradle to casting plant gate approach that covers the stages from raw material extraction to solid steel slab production. The inventory results have highlighted the large solid waste production, especially in terms of slag, which could be reused in other industries as secondary raw materials. Other reuses, in accordance with the circular economy paradigm, could encompass the energy waste involved in the steelmaking process. The most burdening lifecycle phases are the ones linked to blast furnace and coke oven operations. Specifically, the impact categories are influenced by the energy consumption and also by the toxicity of the emissions associated with the lifecycle of steel production. A detailed analysis of the toxicity impacts indicates that LCA is still not perfectly suitable for toxicity assessments and should be coupled with other more site specific studies in order to understand such aspects fully. Overall, the results represent a first step to understanding the current levels of sustainability of the steelworks, which should be used as a starting point for the development both of pollution control measures and of symbiotic waste reutilization scenarios needed to maintain the competitiveness of the industrial plant. View Full-TextKeywords:
steel production; integrated steel mill; Life Cycle Thinking; LCA; LCI; industrial symbiosis; waste reuse
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Renzulli, P.A.; Notarnicola, B.; Tassielli, G.; Arcese, G.; Di Capua, R. Life Cycle Assessment of Steel Produced in an Italian Integrated Steel Mill. Sustainability 2016, 8, 719.
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