SUstainable management of PRIMary raw materials through a better approach in Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (SUPRIM)
Ainara Garcia Uriarte
1, Pierre Menger
1, Laura Garcia Zambrano
1, Aritz Alonso Galdames
1,Tobias C. Kampmann
2, Glenn Bark
2, Rodrigo A. F. Alvarenga
3, Jo Dewulf
3, David Sanjuan-Delmás
3, Johannes Drielsma
4, Mats Lindblom
5, Lucas Alcon
6, Juan Manuel Escobar Torres
6, Lauran van Oers
7, Jeroen B. Guinée
7, Rita Schulze
7, Reinout Heijungs
11 Tecnalia · 2 Luleå University of Technology · 3 Ghent University · 4 Euromines · 5 Boliden · 6 Cobre las Cruces 7 Institute of Environmental Sciences Leiden
The project focuses on the assessment of the environmental impact of raw materials production and the development of services to better understand sustainability issues in the sector. The main objectives of the project are:
• Development of a Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method to address resource accessibility in sustainability assessment and testing and validating the method.
• Development of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets through case studies in collaboration with the industrial partners from the mining sector and apply an environmental assessment with the aim to better understand the environmental impacts of the production of copper and the sources of these impacts
• Bring the service to a broader audience, including the LCIA community, mining companies and their downstream users, policy makers, academia.
Two case studies have been performed, the Cobre las Cruces mine in Spain, operated by First Quantum Minerals Ltd, as well as the Aitik mining operation in northern Sweden, operated by Boliden Mineral AB.
Testing of the new SUPRIM Environmental Dissipation impact category (long-term) to the case study data from Aitik/Rönnskär and Cobre Las Cruces and comparing the results with the ADP (Guinée and Heijungs (1995); Oers et al. (2019)).
Regarding the application of the AD method, most of the impact generated is due to extracted Cu. This result is plausible since the production of 1 kg of Cu implies the extraction of such an amount of this element. Thus, the elements responsible for the impacts in ED and AD are rather different, with various elements as the main contributor for the former one and mainly Cu for the latter.
The general equations for characterization Life Cycle Impact Assessment models developed by SUPRIM represent a new state-of-art.
Guinée JB, Heijungs R (1995) A proposal for the definition of resource equivalency factors for use in product life‐cycle assessment. Environ Toxicol Chem 14:917–925. doi: 10.1002/etc.5620140525 Van Oers L van, Guinée JB, Heijungs R (2019) Abiotic resource depletion potentials (ADPs) for elements revisited - updating ultimate reserve estimates and introducing time series for production data – Int J Life Cycle Assesment
van Oers L, Guinée JB, Schulze R, Alvarenga R, Dewulf J, Drielsma D, Sanjuan-Delmás D, Kampmann TC, Bark G, Garcia Uriarte A, Menger P, Lindblom M, Alcon L, Sevilla Ramos M, Escobar Torres JM (in prep) Impact assessment of the use of elements in LCA, Part 1 - from perspective to modelling concept. Int J Life Cycle Assesment
van Oers L, Guinée JB, Heijungs R, Schulze R, Alvarenga R, Dewulf J, Drielsma D, Sanjuan-Delmás D, Kampmann TC, Bark G, Garcia Uriarte A, Menger P, Lindblom M, Alcon L, Sevilla Ramos M, Escobar Torres JM (in prep) Impact assessment of the use of elements in LCA, Part 2 - practical implementation. Int J Life Cycle Assesment
AD – Abiotic depletion
ADPi is the cumulative ADP based on the global cumulative extraction of element i over the period 1970-2015
mi is the extraction of elements as listed in the inventory result of the Functional Unit which is defined for the product in the LCA case study.
ED – Environmental dissipation
ADPi is the ADP based on the global extraction of element i in the year 2015
ei is the emission of elements as listed in the inventory result of the Functional Unit which is defined for the product in the LCA case study.
Leaving impacts on resources aside to begin with, the case study results suggested that most of the apparent environmental impacts were due to use of energy and materials, rather than being due to transport, emissions or generation of waste. The processes that appeared to contribute most to these impacts were upstream supplier processes used to manufacture diesel, electricity, explosives.
At Cobre las Cruces, these materials are mostly used for blasting the ore (explosives), leaching the ore (oxygen) and electrolytic refining of the pregnant leach solution (electricity).
To summarize, the main potential hotspots identified at Las Cruces were:
• “Climate Change”, “Ionizing Radiation”, “Acidification” and “Ozone Depletion” from the generation of electricity purchased for use in the copper cathode manufacturing process.
• “Freshwater Eutrophication” from the manufacture of liquid oxygen purchased for use in the leaching process.
• “Terrestrial Eutrophication”, “Photochemical Ozone Formation” and “Marine Eutrophication” from manufacturing of explosives purchased for blasting, and
• Several environmental impacts from production of diesel purchased to fuel equipment in the mine
At Aitik, these materials are mostly used for blasting the ore (explosives) and transporting the ore out of the mine (diesel).
To summarize, the main potential hotspots identified at Aitik were:
• “Climate Change” and “Marine Eutrophication” from manufacturing of explosives purchased for blasting and diesel purchased to fuel equipment in the mine
• “Climate Change” directly from the use of diesel to transport material out of the mine
• “Ionising Radiation” and “Ozone Depletion” from the generation of electricity purchased for use in grinding the ore at the mine, and
• “Acidification” and “Photochemical Ozone Formation” from the smelting of Aitik concentrate at Rönnskär
Introduction
The new SUPRIM method for impacts of resource use
Conclusions
Environmental impacts
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Climate change Climate change
Climate change
Explosives Direct (M&C)
Transport by train
Explosives Indirect (M&C)
Diesel Direct (M&C) Others (M&C)
Diesel Indirect (M&C)
Materials Transport Energy Waste Emissions
Ozone layer depletion Ozone layer
depletion Ionizing radiation Ionizing radiation Photochemical
ozone formation Photochemical
ozone formation Acidification Acidification Terrestrial
eutrophication Terrestrial
eutrophication Freshwater
eutrophication Freshwater
eutrophication Marine
eutrophication Marine
eutrophication
Contact info:
Ainara Garcia Uriarte
Ainara.garcia@tecnalia.com
http://suprim.eitrawmaterials.eu
Copper Gold Platinum Cadmium Palladium Silver
Molybdenum Others
Copper 100 %
Copper 98 %
12 %
34 %
14 %
70 % 12 %
9 %
6 %
11 % 10 %
8 % 3 %
3 %3 %2 % 3 %
1 %
CLC - Abiotic depletion Aitik - Abiotic depletion CLC - Environmental dissipation Aitik - Environmental dissipation
Copper Platinum Palladium Gold Cadmium Others
Platinum Cadmium Silver Sulfate Copper
Molybdenum Selenium Carbon dioxide Sulfur dioxide
Platinum Antimony Carbon dioxide Cadmium Others
