global life cycle assessment
DESCRIPTION
International Copper Association Global Life Cycle AssessmentTRANSCRIPT
International Copper Association Global Life Cycle Assessment
Oct 2011, Chicago
Manfred Russ John Jewell
2 10.10.2011
Global Copper Cathode LCA Copper association needs and benefits
International Copper Association (ICA) desired outcomes: Respond to market demand for life cycle information Provide robust data to stakeholders making material choices and the LCA community at large Harmonize copper industry’s efforts with other metal industry LCI work
Benefits to the ICA:
Better understanding of the environmental performance Promotion of continuous improvement Response to customer requests for environmental information Foundation to build “cradle-to-grave” profiles of copper-containing products Benchmark for ICA members
3 10.10.2011
LCA methodology for Copper LCA Scope of study
Goals
Creation of recent, high quality LCI for primary copper cathode at refinery gate
Results will be disclosed to the public as aggregated LCIs for public and commercial databases
No comparative assertions are disclosed to the public
Scope
“cradle-to-gate” life cycle inventory
Geographical scope: global
Technological scope: pyrometallurgical route / hydrometallurgical route
Temporal scope: reference period 2005-2009
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Summary of Participants Overview
5
10 companies with 35 sites
involved
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Summary of Participants Representativeness
5
Global primary cathode production – 15.3 thousand tonnes
Pyro – 12.3 k-tonnes Hydro – 3 k-tonnes
ICA study – 4.3 thousand tonnes Pyro – 3.3 k-tonnes Hydro – 1 k-tonne
Missing countries / regions with significant production:
China Russia India Indonesia Zambia
Missing countries had an accumulated annual production volume in 2007 of 4,650 ktonne, so their share on worldwide primary copper cathode production sums up to 30%
29% of Global production
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LCA methodology for Copper LCA Function and functional unit
Function
The system function is the production of primary copper cathode at the factory gate (minimum 99.99% purity level)
Generation of valuable co-products from the copper production system have been eliminated using allocation or avoided burden via system expansion
Functional unit Main functional unit
1000 kg of primary copper cathode at the factory gate
Intermediate functional unit
1000 kg of copper concentrate at the factory gate (29.6% copper content, based on the weighted average of the participants)
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LCA methodology for Copper LCA System boundaries
8 10.10.2011
LCA methodology for Copper LCA Treatment of co-products – co-products in the copper production system
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Data and Modelling Data limitations
Limitations of the study Topics to be evaluated in more detail as the science is available:
Water footprint
Land use
Biodiversity
Data needs for further elaboration and special focus in the future:
Use/treatment of waste
Tailings
Waste rock / Overburden
Toxicity
Metals in air and water
Related Impact categories (e.g. terrestric ecotoxicity, aquatic ecotoxicity, human toxicity)
10 10.10.2011
LCA results – Copper Cathode Impact assessment (CML 2001) split by scope
11 10.10.2011
LCA results – Copper Cathode Pyro route breakdown
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LCA results – Copper Cathode Hydro route breakdown
13 10.10.2011
LCA results – Copper Cathode Sensitivity Analyses
Sensitivity analyses:
Sulphuric acid – Market value vs. System expansion
Treatment of ore, concentrate and metal co-products with different approaches
Sensitivity on the results based on the share of the pyro- and hydro-route
The choice of H2SO4 treatment as co-product has the largest effect on results.
The other sensitivity analyses have no relevant influence on the overall results.
14 10.10.2011
Conclusions
Dominant production stage: Mining and Concentrate production are dominant contributors for PED, GWP, EP Smelting and Refining are dominant for AP, POCP, ODP
Electricity grid mixes:
Grid mix is a significant contributor for all impacts Differences between the applied grid mixes (Chile, Argentina, Mexico, US, Europe, Australia, Japan) are considerable.
Co-product – sulphuric acid:
Credit given to Pyro smelters producing surplus H2SO4 based on avoided virgin acid production. H2SO4 input to the hydro process is environmental burden free. Choice of treatment method (system expansion vs. credit for avoided production) is significant
Copper scrap:
Production of primary copper cathode includes copper scrap (secondary raw material). This results in reduced concentrate consumption is reduced along with those burdens. Secondary copper is useful as cooling scrap but is limited by availability of scrap
Questions? Manfred Russ – [email protected] John Jewell – [email protected]