A process systems approach to life cycle inventories for minerals: South African and Australian case studies |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, J01, Sydney 2006, NSW, Australia;2. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa;1. Department of Materials, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom;2. Departamento de Electrónica, Tecnología de Computadoras y Proyectos, ETSI Telecomunicaciones, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Campus Muralla del Mar, Cartagena, 30202, Spain;3. Product Bureau, JRC European Commission, 41092 Sevilla, Spain;4. Departamento de Física Aplicada, ETSI Industrial, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Campus Muralla del Mar, 30202, Cartagena, Spain;1. School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China;2. School of Life and Environmental Science, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China;3. The Key Lab of Pollution Control and Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Clusters, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510006, China;4. Guangdong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Environmental Risk Prevention and Emergency Disposal, Guangzhou 510006, China;1. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and Built environment, School of Mining Engineering, South Africa;2. Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, School of Mining Engineering, Wits Mining Institute, South Africa;1. School of Mines, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China;2. Key Laboratory of Deep Coal Resource Mining, Ministry of Education of China, Xuzhou 221116, China;1. Room 3.25, School of Biosystems Engineering, University College Dublin Agriculture Building, UCD Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland;2. Room 3.02b, School of Biosystems Engineering, University College Dublin Agriculture Building, UCD Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland;3. Room 3.15, School of Agriculture & Food Science, University College Dublin Agriculture Building, UCD Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland |
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| Abstract: | In this paper, we present a process synthesis approach to the development of Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) for production of minerals from primary ore bodies, based on a heuristics-driven flowsheeting methodology. Technologies are specified to a level of detail consistent with information availability and mass balance closure. This approach enables the creation of flowsheets for all minerals processing activities using a “cradle-to-gate” system boundary, from which it is possible to generate LCIs using accepted practices for the mapping of resource flows and emissions onto a profile of environmental burdens. In this work, LCIs are presented only for the foreground system (i.e. the flows from background systems, such as electricity generation, are documented but their environmental burden profile is not included in the LCIs reported). This method allows for the detailing of these inventories on a commodity, sector, or geographic (regional) basis. The approach has been demonstrated for all sub-sectors of the Australian and the South African minerals processing industries. A case study of the gold sub-sector in each region is presented in some detail, in order to highlight the key features of the approach and the usefulness of the LCI profiles generated. The potential for this approach to support comparative technology assessment and sub-sectoral performance is demonstrated for the copper sub-sector. Some indication of the value of the approach to assist in company benchmarking is presented. The performance of all key sectors, namely coal, gold, non-ferrous metals, ferrous metals, uranium, platinum group metals and mineral sands, though not detailed here, is available on our on-line data-base.1. This information is used to develop an aggregated picture of minerals LCIs for the minerals processing activity in Australian and South Africa. |
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