A LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF SECONDARY COPPER PRODUCTION
To promote the healthy and sustainable development of the recycled copper industry,the imported recycled copper raw materials as well as the recycled copper prepared from China's domestic copper scrap as raw materials,were taken as the research objects,and the ReCiPe 2016 mid-point and end-point methods were used to carry out the life cycle assessment and analyze the main factors causing environmental impacts in the production process.The results show that the environmental impact of the imported recycled copper raw material resource production is relatively smaller compared with the domestic copper scrap recycling.Among the environmental impact categories,human carcinogenicity toxicity is the most significant environmental impact in the process of the imported recycled copper raw materials and domestic copper scrap recycling.Energy,transportation,and production emissions are the top three contributors to the human health impacts of imported recycled copper feedstock resourcing,accounting for 46.7%,37.4%,and 14.2%,respectively.In the process of domestic copper scrap regeneration,energy,production emissions,and auxiliary materials contribute more to the impact on human health,accounting for 37.9%,31.1%,and 27.1%,respectively.Based on the above analysis and combined with China's actual situation,suggestions are put forward to mitigate the environmental impact of the recycled copper production process.
imported raw materials of recycled coppercopper scrap recyclinglife cycle assessmenthuman carcinogenic toxicityenvironmental impact