Negative Environmental Impacts of Production Technologies

Abstract

The current market environment is affected by several fundamental changes. A large number of these affect manufacturing companies the most. They are forced to continuously reduce their costs, improve the quality of service to their customers and adapt to a highly competitive environment. However, environmental requirements for production processes have become increasingly important in recent years. These are underpinned by legislative changes that put enormous pressure on manufacturers. Often, environmental requirements can also determine the economic success of a manufacturer. The areas that have a significant environmental impact include metallurgical technologies. These are currently predominantly based on the use of coke, which is produced from high-quality hard coal. The mining of raw materials also has significant environmental impacts. The article deals with analysing downstream production processes regarding their environmental impact. These are the areas of mining, ore processing and iron and steel production. These areas can be seen as downstream production stages. Iron ore processing and iron and steel production often occur within a single production organisation. Therefore, a possible overall optimisation in handling environmental impacts and treating pollutants can be assumed. The secondary objective of the paper is to analytically assess the potential reuse of the produced waste in production processes. The article is based on the research results carried out in a selected metallurgical enterprise in the Czech Republic.