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

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.

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.

"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.

Phosphorus is a crucial element in agriculture to feed the fast-growing global population. Its sustainable supply has ecological, social and human dimensions and it is classified as critical to European industries. On the other side, phosphate can also be critical for the producing countries as phosphate mining contributes to their national economies. This work investigates implications of environmental and social impacts and the resource governance to mitigate global phosphate criticality.

This book covers the latest developments in life cycle assessment LCA both in terms of methodology and its application in various research areas. It includes methodological questions as well as case studies concerning energy and mobility, materials and engineering, sustainable construction and future technologies. With numerous research articles from leading German and Austrian research institutes, the book is a valuable source for professionals working in the field of sustainability assessment, researchers interested in the current state of LCA research, and advanced university students in various scientific and technical fields. Chapter “Life Cycle Assessment of a Hydrogen and Fuel Cell RoPax Ferry Prototype” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

26 Circular economy and regional implications -- 27 Life cycle management for regional development in France: Example of building sector -- 28 From product LCAs to territorial LCAs: Methodological principles -- 29 Integrated life cycle and risk assessment of human health impacts in Catalonia -- 30 LCA application in regional waste management in Chile -- 31 Water footprint assessment at the regional level -- 32 Carbon footprint of biofuels -- 33 Sustainable procurement based on life cycle costing -- 34 Sustainability performance in industrial parks -- 35 Sustainable redevelopment of degraded land and landscapes -- Part V: Integrated use of life cycle approaches in key economic sectors -- 36 Sustainable agri-food chains and LCA -- 37 Integration of LCA, LCC, and SLCA methods for assessing a bioeconomy region -- 38 Responsible mining - from a life cycle to a stewardship approach -- 39 Trends and considerations of renewable energy development: A regional perspective -- 40 Closing the loop: The example of packaging -- 41 Life cycle aspects of the Walloon wood sector -- 42 Global warming assessment of Himalayan buildings -- 43 Integrated waste management and resource recovery in India -- 44 Biodiversity restoration and sustainable tourism in south-western Australia -- Part VI: Life cycle perspectives for regional socio-economic development -- 45 Synthesis - life cycle approaches and perspectives for sustainable regional development -- Index

Mining and Processing Residues: Future’s Source of Critical Raw Materials provides a comprehensive review of principal aspects of CRM-containing residues re-processing, including available sampling and analytical techniques, the latest available processing technologies, authorization and legal matters, and analysis of environmental, social, and economic impacts. Suitable for academic researchers, practicing engineers and students, the book is aimed at giving a complete and multilateral view of CRM recovery from the residues. Includes the most relevant techniques for residue sampling and analysis Describes the most recent technologies applicable for residue re-processing Covers authorization and legal aspects of residue storage and re-processing Includes case studies Provides analysis of environmental, social, and economic impacts of residue re-processing