Sustainability Assessment of the Rare-Earth-Oxide Production Process and Comparison of Environmental Performance Improvements Based on Emergy Analysis

Jing An, Aitian Tao, He Yang and Ang Tian
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Jing An: School of Metallurgy, Liaoning Province Key Laboratory of Metallurgical Resources Recycling Science, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
Aitian Tao: School of Metallurgy, Liaoning Province Key Laboratory of Metallurgical Resources Recycling Science, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
He Yang: School of Metallurgy, Liaoning Province Key Laboratory of Metallurgical Resources Recycling Science, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
Ang Tian: School of Metallurgy, Liaoning Province Key Laboratory of Metallurgical Resources Recycling Science, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-16

Abstract: In recent years, the rapid development of the rare earth industry has had a serious impact on the environment. Some enterprises have taken measures to improve the production process. In order to explore the sustainability of this industry and these improvements’ environmental benefits, this paper combines emergy analysis and lifecycle assessment to evaluate and compare the production process of rare-earth oxides considering the three aspects of emergy flow, pollutant emissions, and emergy-based indicators. Changes in the emergy of pollutant emissions before and after improvement of the production process are discussed. The results show that the greatest inputs in the mining and beneficiation stage and smelting separation stage are labor force and service and non-renewable resources, respectively. These two production stages are highly dependent on external input and have weak competitiveness. Both stages place great pressure on the environment, so the bastnasite production process would be unsustainable in the long term. After the improvement, the environmental impact of the production process for bastnaesite changed significantly, indicating that the improvement effect of the wastewater treatment facilities and the change of fuel from coal to natural gas is remarkable.

Keywords: rare-earth production; emergy analysis; emission impacts; emergy-based indicators; improvement of environmental performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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