Life Cycle Assessment For Sustainable Mining

Life Cycle Assessment for Sustainable Mining addresses sustainable mining issues based on life cycle assessment, providing a thorough guide to implementing LCAs using sustainability metrics. The book details current research on LCA methodologies related to mining, their outcomes, and how to relate sustainable mining concepts in a circular economy. It is an in-depth, foundational reference for developing ideas for technological advancement through designing reduced-emission mining equipment or processes. It includes literature reviews and theoretical concepts of life cycle assessments applied in mining industries, sustainability metrics and problems related to mining and mineral processing industries identified by the life cycle assessment results. This book will aid researchers, students and academics in the field of environmental science, mining engineering and sustainability to see LCA technology outcomes which would be useful for the future development of environmentally-friendly mining processes. Details state-of-the-art life cycle assessment theory and practices applied in the mining and mineral processing industries Includes in-depth, practical case studies outlined with life cycle assessment results to show future pathways for sustainability enhancement Provides fundamental knowledge on how to measure sustainability metrics using life cycle assessment in mining industries

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for Decision-Making: Methodologies and Case Studies gives readers a comprehensive introduction to life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methodology for sustainability measurement of industrial systems, proposing an efficiency methodology for stakeholders and decision-makers. Featuring the latest methods and case studies, the book will assist researchers in environmental sciences and energy to develop the best methods for LCA, as well as aiding those practitioners who are responsible for making decisions for promoting sustainable development. The past, current status and future of LCSA, Life Cycle Assessment method (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA), the methodology of LCSA, typical LCSA case studies, limitations of LCSA, and life cycle aggregated sustainability index methods are all covered in this multidisciplinary book. Includes models for assessing sustainability in environmental, energy engineering and economic scenarios Features case studies that help define the advantages and obstacles of real world applications Presents a complete view, from theory to practice, of a life cycle approach by exploring the methods and tools of sustainability assessment, analysis and design of sustainability assessment

The first book of its kind, the Life Cycle Assessment Handbook: A Guide for Environmentally Sustainable Products will become an invaluable resource for environmentally progressive manufacturers and suppliers, product and process designers, executives and managers, and government officials who want to learn about this essential component of environmental sustainability. As the last several decades have seen a dramatic rise in the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in decision making, the interest in the life cycle concept as an environmental management and sustainability tool continues to grow. The LCA Handbook offers a look at the role that life cycle information, in the hands of companies, governments, and consumers, may have in improving the environmental performance of products and technologies. It concisely and clearly presents the various aspects of LCA in order to help the reader better understand the subject. The content of the book was designed with a certain flow in mind. After a high-level overview to describe current views and state-of-the-practice of LCA, it presents chapters that address specific LCA methodological issues including creating life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and capturing eco-systems services. These are followed by example applications of LCA in the agri-food industry; sustainable supply chain management; solid waste management; mining and mineral extraction; forest products; buildings; product innovation; and sustainable chemistry and engineering. The international success of the sustainability paradigm needs the participation of many stakeholders, including citizens, corporations, academia, and NGOs. The handbook links LCA and responsible decision making and how the life cycle concept is a critical element in environmental sustainability. It covers issues such as building capacity in developing countries and emerging economies so that they are more capable of harnessing the potential in LCA for sustainable development. Governments play a very important role with the leverage they have through procurement, regulation, international treaties, tax incentives, public outreach, and other policy tools. This compilation points to the clear trend for incorporating life cycle information into the design and development processes for products and policies, just as quality and safety concerns are now addressed throughout product design and development.

This study investigates social and environmental impacts caused by an ecolabeled notebook along its entire life cycle. In order to analyse the divers effects of the laptop, a social life cycle assessment and an environmental life cycle assessment were performed in parallel. Both assessments together provide a holistic overview of positive and negative impacts in regard to social and environmental sustainability.This book contains the complete final report written by GreenDeltaTC on behalf of the Belgian Federal Public Planning Service Sustainable Development. It comprises the methodological background, the social inventory, process modifications with regard to the environmental inventory, and detailed results of the impact assessment phase. Further, a newly developed social impact assessment method is presented and applied. In addition, recommendations on company and policy level were derived.

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA) that was developed about three decades ago demands a broadening of its scope to include lifecycle costing and social aspects of life cycle assessment as well, drawing on the three-pillar or ‘triple bottom line’ model of sustainability, which is the result of the development of the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). LCSA refers to the evaluation of all environmental, social and economic negative impacts and benefits in decision-making processes towards more sustainable products throughout their life cycle. Combination of environmental and social life cycle assessments along with life cycle costing leads to life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). This book highlights various aspects of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA).

"Coal plays an important role in meeting the energy needs of the World. Given its abundance and low cost, its use is bound to increase with the growing energy demand. Despite its importance, there are concerns over coal's environmental burdens. In order to extract and use coal in a sustainable manner, sustainability assessment has to be comprehensive. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides systematic and quantifiable measures for assessing environmental burdens of products and processes. Extensive LCA work has been done on coal use, particularly in electricity generation, but, the coal mining stage has been neglected, for the most part. This has resulted in data gaps in the life cycle inventory (LCI) of coal and, consequently, in the LCIs for electricity and other products that are linked to coal. The situation has resulted in incomplete assessments of the sustainability of coal extraction and use, and potential for suboptimal strategies for reducing the potential impacts of coal, especially in the mining stage. The aim of this study was to employ the general principles of the ISO 14040-49 series LCA standards, adapting them where necessary, to estimate the cradle-to-gate life cycle impacts of coal from surface mining in the United States. Five strip mines that produce bituminous coal were used as case studies. The study assessed the life cycle water use, land use, energy use, abiotic resource depletion and climate change impacts for each mine and compared the performances of the mines based on the impacts. For the studied mines, the life cycle potential water use impact is 178 liters/tonne of processed coal at the mine gate. The potential land use impacts range from 3 to 10 m2- year/tonne. The potential energy use impacts vary from 97 to 181 MJ/tonne, the abiotic resource depletion impacts vary from 7.8 to 9.4 kg Sb-equivalent/tonne, and the climate change impacts range from 38 to 92 kg CO2-equivalent/tonne. This study provides insight into contributions of mining processes to the impacts of coal. The results of the study contribute the much needed information to fill the data gaps in the LCI of coal, and provide baseline information that can aid the coal mining industry and public policy makers in the development of strategies and policies to sustainably exploit coal"--Abstract, leaf iii

This book reviews the assessment of industrial biotechnology products and processes from a sustainable perspective. Industrial Biotechnology is a comparably young field which comes along with high expectations with regard to sustainability issues. These stem from the promise of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and replacing fossil resources in the near or later future and using green technology, i.e. more environmentally friendly technologies. The intended economic, ecological and social benefits, however, need to be proven, resulting in a variety of challenges, both from a methodological and application point of view. In this book, specific assessment and application topics of industrial biotechnology are addressed, highlighting challenges and solutions for both developers and users of assessment methods. In twelve chapters, experts in their particular fields define the scope, characterize industrial biotechnology and show in their contributions the state of the art, challenges and prospects of assessing industrial biotechnology products and processes. The chapter 'Societal and Ethical Aspects of Industrial Biotechnology' of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com

A perfect introduction to sustainable mining for those new to the subject or those who require some revision, this book provides a basic overview of international sustainable mining practices since 1992, with particular emphasis upon practices in the Americas, Asia and Europe. The text begins by addressing issues such as the volume of waste generated by mining, mine closure planning and the environmental impacts, and then goes into specific detail in the following areas: cleaner production practices in Australia; blasting impacts and their control in the US; minimizing surface water impacts; minimizing groundwater impacts; use of environmental indicators in mining; and emerging mining technologies that minimize environmental impacts. The text contains relevant examples and case histories for ease of revision, and also includes a chapter on Best Mining Practices for Sustainable Mining and sub-chapters on small-scale mining, tailings pond management and hazardous waste management.