The Life Cycle Assessment of Copper Metallurgical Process

"Environmental impact assessment of copper metallurgical processes will soon become a compulsory activity in the future. The goal of this work is to analyses the copper metallurgical processes including pyro-metallurgy and hydrometallurgy based on the life cycle assessment method implemented in GaBi software. The evaluation indicators such as global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) and human toxic potential (HTP) are taken into account. The results show that the major environmental impact phase in pyro-metallurgy derives from beneficiation because of the largest material and energy consumption. It is also shown that copper hydrometallurgy has significantly lower environmental impact than pyro-metallurgy. Based on the evaluation results, some corresponding optimization methods are recommended to reduce environmental impact.IntroductionCopper is an important metal in modem society due to its wide variety of uses, including electrical wiring, heat exchangers, piping and roof construction and increasingly consumer electronics. Demand for copper has increased dramatically over the past decades, driving production rates almost exponentially. Annual production of copper was estimated to be 20 million tonnes in 2012 with Chinese production at about 6.06 million ton in 2012P1. The production process of copper has environment impacts that often go unnoticed by the producer. Higher production, coupled with declining ore grades, is placing increasing pressure on the natural environment.Sound environmental management helps producers improve their manufacturing technique. LCA is a well-established tool for assessing environmental impact potential and can be readily adapted to map impact potential over time, which can be used to quantify the environment impacts of a product or a process [21. This is achieved by creating an inventory of all the energy and material flows used in the process's life cycle. The results of an LCA can be used to improve the operation of a process so that they have less impact on the environment."