Life Cycle Assessment of an Integrated Steel Mill Using Primary Manufacturing Data: Actual Environmental Profile

Jana Gerta Backes, Julian Suer, Nils Pauliks, Sabrina Neugebauer and Marzia Traverso
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Jana Gerta Backes: Institute of Sustainability in Civil Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Julian Suer: Institute of Sustainability in Civil Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Nils Pauliks: Institute of Sustainability in Civil Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Sabrina Neugebauer: Institute of Sustainability in Civil Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Marzia Traverso: Institute of Sustainability in Civil Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: The current dependency on steel within modern society causes major environmental pollution, a result of the product’s life cycle phases. Unfortunately, very little data regarding single steel production processes have been found in literature. Therefore, a detailed analysis of impacts categorized in terms of relevance cannot be conducted. In this study, a complete life cycle assessment of steel production in an integrated German steel plant of thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG, including an assessment of emissions from the blast furnace, the basic oxygen furnace, and casting rolling, is carried out. The functional unit is set to 1 kg hot-rolled coil, and the system boundaries are defined as cradle-to-gate. This study models the individual process steps and the resulting emitters using the software GaBi. Total emissions could be distributed into direct, upstream, and by-product emissions, where the biggest impacts in terms of direct emissions from single processes are from the power plant (48% global warming potential (GWP)), the blast furnace (22% GWP), and the sinter plant (79% photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP)). The summarized upstream processes have the largest share in the impact categories acidification potential (AP; 69%) and abiotic depletion potential fossil (ADPf; 110%). The results, including data verification, furthermore show the future significance of the supply chain in the necessary reduction that could be achieved.

Keywords: steel production; LCA; blast furnace; basic oxygen furnace; casting rolling; green steel; integrated German steel plant; primary data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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