Life Cycle Assessment of Environmental Impact of Steelmaking Process

Abstract

The steel industry is facing problems such as serious environmental pollution and high resource consumption. At the same time, it lacks effective methods to quantify potential environmental impacts. The purpose of this work is to conduct a specific environmental analysis of steelmaking production in steel plants. The ultimate goal is to discover the main pollution of steelmaking and identify potential options for improving the environment. This paper uses life cycle assessment method to carry out inventory and quantitative analysis on the environmental impact of steelmaking system. Through analysis, the hazards are divided into four major categories, which are human health, climate change, ecosystem quality, and resources. The results show that molten iron has the greatest impact on human health, followed by the greatest impact on resources. The impact of scrap steel on human health ranks third. Molten iron is a key process that affects human health, climate change, ecosystems quality, and resources. In addition, processes such as fuels, working fluids, and auxiliary materials also cause certain environmental damage, accounting for a relatively small proportion. Optimizing the utilization of scrap steel and molten iron resources and improving the utilization efficiency of resources and energy are helpful to reduce the environmental hazards of steelmaking system.