Life cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in Australia

Abstract Metal production industries are associated with positive economic benefits, however their activities are significantly resource and energy intensive, contributing to emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases to the environment. The balance between the economic inputs and environmental foo...

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Autores principales:	Vladimir Strezov, Xiaoteng Zhou, Tim J. Evans
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/1de32f595ba64c9481e1feacbc6f1921
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:1de32f595ba64c9481e1feacbc6f19212021-12-02T15:55:17ZLife cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in Australia10.1038/s41598-021-89567-92045-2322https://doaj.org/article/1de32f595ba64c9481e1feacbc6f19212021-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89567-9https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Metal production industries are associated with positive economic benefits, however their activities are significantly resource and energy intensive, contributing to emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases to the environment. The balance between the economic inputs and environmental footprint of the metal production industries determines their contribution to sustainability. This work provides environmental impact assessment of the production of aluminium, copper, gold, iron and steel, lead, nickel and zinc, and considers their contribution to the economy. The emissions of selected representative industries in Australia were sourced from public national emission inventories and used as input parameters in the openLCA software. ReCiPe midpoint and endpoint hierarchist impact assessment methods were used to investigate the environmental impacts of the selected industries. The results indicate that lead, followed by aluminium and nickel production had the largest environmental impacts. The work further revealed the specific emissions for better control for each industry taking into consideration their relative environmental and economic impacts. For instance, adoption of renewable energy sources would significantly decrease the greenhouse gas emissions and the associated environmental impacts of the copper, zinc, gold, and iron and steel production industries. Improvement of sustainability of the production of lead would require further control of trace metal emissions, while for aluminium and nickel production, improved control of emissions of particles and the acidic gases SO2 and NOx.Vladimir StrezovXiaoteng ZhouTim J. EvansNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Vladimir Strezov Xiaoteng Zhou Tim J. Evans Life cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in Australia
description	Abstract Metal production industries are associated with positive economic benefits, however their activities are significantly resource and energy intensive, contributing to emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases to the environment. The balance between the economic inputs and environmental footprint of the metal production industries determines their contribution to sustainability. This work provides environmental impact assessment of the production of aluminium, copper, gold, iron and steel, lead, nickel and zinc, and considers their contribution to the economy. The emissions of selected representative industries in Australia were sourced from public national emission inventories and used as input parameters in the openLCA software. ReCiPe midpoint and endpoint hierarchist impact assessment methods were used to investigate the environmental impacts of the selected industries. The results indicate that lead, followed by aluminium and nickel production had the largest environmental impacts. The work further revealed the specific emissions for better control for each industry taking into consideration their relative environmental and economic impacts. For instance, adoption of renewable energy sources would significantly decrease the greenhouse gas emissions and the associated environmental impacts of the copper, zinc, gold, and iron and steel production industries. Improvement of sustainability of the production of lead would require further control of trace metal emissions, while for aluminium and nickel production, improved control of emissions of particles and the acidic gases SO2 and NOx.
format	article
author	Vladimir Strezov Xiaoteng Zhou Tim J. Evans
author_facet	Vladimir Strezov Xiaoteng Zhou Tim J. Evans
author_sort	Vladimir Strezov
title	Life cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in Australia
title_short	Life cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in Australia
title_full	Life cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in Australia
title_fullStr	Life cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in Australia
title_full_unstemmed	Life cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in Australia
title_sort	life cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in australia
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/1de32f595ba64c9481e1feacbc6f1921
work_keys_str_mv	AT vladimirstrezov lifecycleimpactassessmentofmetalproductionindustriesinaustralia AT xiaotengzhou lifecycleimpactassessmentofmetalproductionindustriesinaustralia AT timjevans lifecycleimpactassessmentofmetalproductionindustriesinaustralia
_version_	1718385377015758848

Life cycle impact assessment of metal production industries in Australia

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