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Open access
Date
2021-04-27Type
- Conference Paper
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
Globalization and ever-increasing growth of human progress require a continuous supply of materials, notably metals, to sustain these developments. However, metals production inadvertently generates environmental burdens due to tailings. These are the waste from metallurgical processing to separate unwanted materials from metal ore deposits and are disposed of in storage facilities. Despite advancements in metallurgical processing, there are still a fraction of metals lost in the tailings and they pose long-term pollution risks.
Valorization of tailings are therefore having a twofold impact: First, metals leftover recovery can minimize the discharge of toxic metals into the environment. Second, after the purification process, the ground materials in the form of mineral matrices are another potential resource that could be exploited, thus reducing the need for primary production. However, the valorization technique requires processes causing environmental impacts and therefore we apply life cycle assessment (LCA) to account for tradeoffs. LCA enables evaluation of energy, materials, and waste along product life-cycle stages.
Based on state-of-the-art upscaling frameworks in the metallurgical processing domain, we perform a case of prospective LCA for the alkali-activated materials fabricated by mechanochemical activated mining wastes. In this study, we develop systematic procedures to leverage bench-scale experiments into industrially optimized facility by means of process simulation. As takeaways, a comparative analysis is presented for the case studies with maturity levels. Ultimately, the results will be the critical inputs for process designers in steering the developments towards sustainable use of mine tailings. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000479632Publication status
publishedBook title
Proceedings of the 7th International Slag Valorisation Symposium. Shifting gears to a climate-neutral & resource efficient societyPages / Article No.
Publisher
KU LeuvenEvent
Subject
life cycle assessment (LCA); circular economy; METALLURGICAL PROCEDURES AND PRODUCTS; sustainabilityOrganisational unit
02608 - Institut für Umweltingenieurwiss. / Institute of Environmental Engineering
Funding
812580 - European Training Network for the remediation and reprocessing of sulfidic mining waste sites (EC)
Notes
Conference lecture held on April 28, 2021. Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) the conference was conducted virtually.More
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ETH Bibliography
yes
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