Life Cycle Assessment of Steel Produced in an Italian Integrated Steel Mill
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
LCA Approach and Assumptions
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- Global warming: caused by greenhouse gasses emitted in atmosphere;
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- Ozone depletion: caused the emission of ozone-depleting substances (e.g., CFCs) in the atmosphere which then reach the stratosphere;
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- Human toxicity cancer effect: carcinogenic effect on human health due to the emission of toxic substances;
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- Human toxicity non cancer effect: negative effect (excluding carcinogenic one) on human health due to the emission of toxic substances;
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- Particulate matter: microscopic solid or liquid matter suspended in the atmosphere, which can have negative effects on climate, human health and vegetation;
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- Ionizing radiation: high-energy electromagnetic waves and subatomic particles, ions or atoms that can have negative effects on health;
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- Photochemical ozone formation: formation occurs when nitrogen oxides carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds react in the atmosphere in the presence of sunlight, and has negative effects on health;
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- Acidification: formation of acid rain which can have effects on soil, plants, water, fish and wildlife and materials;
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- Terrestrial eutrophication: oversupply of nutrients which induces explosive growth of certain plants whilst hindering others;
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- Freshwater and Marine eutrophication: oversupply of nutrients which induces explosive growth of plants and algae which disrupts the normal functioning of the aquatic ecosystem;
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- Freshwater eco-toxicity: a result of emissions of toxic substances to air, water and soil which end up in freshwater systems;
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- Land use: the amount of land occupied/used for the activities related to the product system under assessment;
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- Water resource depletion: decline of quantity or quality of water resources;
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- Mineral fossil and renewable depletion: reduction/increase in scarcity of available mineral fossil and renewable resources.
3. Inventory Analysis
4. Impact Assessment, Results and Implications
5. Discussion
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- there is a discrepancy, in terms of results, when assessing the same system, between toxicity modelling with site specific approaches such as the above-mentioned one and site independent approaches like LCA. This has often been highlighted as a critical issue of LCA [35], and it is demonstrated by the fact that many impact assessment models do not include characterisation factors (CFs) for all toxic substances, and, in many cases, one CF of one method may give very different results for the same CF of another method;
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- the calculated impact resulting from LCA studies is not necessarily that which actually occurs in specific areas due to the “potential” and site independent nature of the LCA indicator values. Hence, a large potential Human Toxicity impact, which is attributable to areas where iron ore mining and overseas transport activities occur, does not translate in an effective damage to humans due to the small presence of human beings in these areas. Vice versa, a small potential human toxicity impact can turn out to effectively cause widespread damage to human health, as in the case of Taranto, due to the high population density around the steelworks;
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- independently of the characterisation factor used to model an LCA potential impact, the results of the study have highlighted how shifting from an LCA database to another can, in some cases, give different results.
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
LCA | Life Cycle Assessment |
LCI | Life Cycle Inventory |
ULCOS | Ultra-Low CO2 Steelmaking |
BOF | Basic Oxygen Furnace |
LD converter | Linz–Donawitz converter |
BF | Blast Furnace |
PCI | Pulverised Coal Injection |
FU | Functional Unit |
BREFs | Best Available Techniques reference documents |
ELCD | European Reference Life Cycle Database |
ILCD | International Reference Life Cycle Data System |
CFs | Characterisation Factors |
PAHs | Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
PCDDs | Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins |
PCDFs | Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans |
PCB | Polychlorinated Biphenyl |
VOC | Volatile Organic Compounds |
COD | Chemical Oxygen Demand |
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Input | Energy Input (MJ) | Output | Energy Output (MJ) | GJ/t Steel | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Coke ovens | Electric energy | 79,830,000 | Coke | 12,845,384,530 | 3.7 |
Fossil fuels | 19,050,124,247 | Coke gas | 4,348,146,647 | ||
BF gas | 565,821,301 | Tar | 138,475,200 | ||
Coke gas | 1,199,334,593 | ||||
Vapour | 103,773,000 | ||||
Total | 20,998,883,141 | 17,332,006,377 | |||
Sintering Plant | Electric energy | 174,801,600 | 1.9 | ||
Coke gas | 95,616,802 | ||||
Coke | 1,614,852,349 | ||||
Vapour | 54,618,000 | ||||
Total | 1,939,888,751 | - | |||
Blast Furnace | Electric energy | 179,460,000 | Pig iron | 1,471,761,225 | 13.4 |
Fossil PCI | 5,002,995,703 | BF gas | 3,857,363,340 | ||
Coke | 11,230,532,182 | ||||
Coke gas | 867,784,449 | ||||
BF gas | 1,060,867,505 | ||||
Vapour | 365,931,000 | ||||
Total | 18,707,570,839 | 5,329,124,565 | |||
Basic Oxygen Furnace | Electric energy | 290,037,600 | BOF gas | 969,152,322 | 0.8 |
Pig Iron | 1,471,761,225 | Steel | 29,700,000 | ||
Vapour | 21,846,000 | ||||
Total | 1,783,644,825 | 998,852,322 | |||
(Data referred to the production of 1 Mt of steel) | 19.8 |
Impact Category | Unit | Coke Ovens | Sintering Plant | Blast Furnace | Basic Oxygen Furnace | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Climate change | kg CO2 eq | 3.57 × 108 | 3.27 × 108 | 6.63 × 108 | 2.42 × 108 | 1.59 × 109 |
Ozone depletion | kg CFC-11 eq | 6.34 × 100 | 8.86 × 100 | 1.77 × 101 | 1.58 × 101 | 4.87 × 101 |
Human toxicity, cancer effects | CTUh | 8.21 × 101 | 4.10 × 100 | 3.45 × 101 | 5.10 × 100 | 1.26 × 102 |
Human toxicity, non-cancer effects | CTUh | 2.37 × 102 | 8.26 × 101 | 1.42 × 102 | 3.35 × 101 | 4.95 × 102 |
Particulate matter | kg PM2.5 eq | 1.44 × 105 | 2.49 × 105 | 2.85 × 105 | 6.12 × 104 | 7.40 × 105 |
Ionizing radiation HH | kBq U235 eq | 1.08 × 107 | 1.55 × 107 | 2.63 × 107 | 2.20 × 107 | 7.45 × 107 |
Ionizing radiation E (interim) | CTUe | 3.70 × 101 | 5.04 × 101 | 7.48 × 101 | 5.09 × 101 | 2.13 × 102 |
Photochemical ozone formation | kg NMVOC eq | 1.97 × 106 | 2.21 × 106 | 2.53 × 106 | 5.11 × 105 | 7.23 × 106 |
Acidification | molc H+ eq | 3.33 × 106 | 4.26 × 106 | 4.94 × 106 | 9.04 × 105 | 1.34 × 107 |
Terrestrial eutrophication | molc N eq | 7.93 × 106 | 8.43 × 106 | 9.57 × 106 | 1.68 × 106 | 2.76 × 107 |
Freshwater eutrophication | kg P eq | 9.97 × 105 | 1.95 × 104 | 3.84 × 105 | 2.76 × 104 | 1.43 × 106 |
Marine eutrophication | kg N eq | 8.93 × 105 | 7.43 × 105 | 9.10 × 105 | 1.57 × 105 | 2.70 × 106 |
Freshwater ecotoxicity | CTUe | 7.21 × 109 | 4.08 × 108 | 3.81 × 109 | 1.11 × 109 | 1.25 × 1010 |
Land use | kg C deficit | 4.45 × 108 | 1.09 × 108 | 6.52 × 108 | 1.48 × 108 | 1.35 × 109 |
Water resource depletion | m3 water eq | 8.75 × 107 | 1.47 × 108 | 3.63 × 108 | 4.12 × 108 | 1.01 × 109 |
Mineral, fossil & ren resource depletion | kg Sb eq | 1.27 × 103 | 2.05 × 103 | 3.48 × 103 | 4.88 × 103 | 1.17 × 104 |
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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. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8080719
Renzulli PA, Notarnicola B, Tassielli G, Arcese G, Di Capua R. Life Cycle Assessment of Steel Produced in an Italian Integrated Steel Mill. Sustainability. 2016; 8(8):719. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8080719
Chicago/Turabian StyleRenzulli, Pietro A., Bruno Notarnicola, Giuseppe Tassielli, Gabriella Arcese, and Rosa Di Capua. 2016. "Life Cycle Assessment of Steel Produced in an Italian Integrated Steel Mill" Sustainability 8, no. 8: 719. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8080719