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Life Cycle Assessment of Metals: A Scientific Synthesis
Open accessAbstract
We have assembled extensive information on the cradle-to-gate environmental burdens of 63 metals in their major use forms, and illustrated the interconnectedness of metal production systems. Related cumulative energy use, global warming potential, human health implications and ecosystem damage are estimated by metal life cycle stage (i.e., mining, purification, and refining). For some elements, these are the first life cycle estimates of environmental impacts reported in the literature. We show that, if compared on a per kilogram basis, the platinum group metals and gold display the highest environmental burdens, while many of the major industrial metals (e.g., iron, manganese, titanium) are found at the lower end of the environmental impacts scale. If compared on the basis of their global annual production in 2008, iron and aluminum display the largest impacts, and thallium and tellurium the lowest. With the exception of a few metals, environmental impacts of the majority of elements are dominated by the purification and refining stages in which metals are transformed from a concentrate into their metallic form. Out of the 63 metals investigated, 42 metals are obtained as co-products in multi output processes. We test the sensitivity of varying allocation rationales, in which the environmental burden are allocated to the various metal and mineral products, on the overall results. Monte-Carlo simulation is applied to further investigate the stability of our results. This analysis is the most comprehensive life cycle comparison of metals to date and allows for the first time a complete bottom-up estimate of life cycle impacts of the metals and mining sector globally. We estimate global direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in 2008 at 3.4 Gt CO2-eq per year and primary energy use at 49 EJ per year (9.5% of global use), and report the shares for all metals to both impact categories.
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“Such downcycling constitutes itself an energy loss: pig iron production causes emissions of 1.5 kg CO 2 equivalent per kg iron, while alloying elements range from similar (1.9 kg CO 2 /kg metal for ferrochromium) to much higher (11 kg CO 2 /kg nickel from sulfide ores) [170], so that the emissions associated with highly alloyed steel can be significantly higher than those of construction steel.”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Nuss, P., & Eckelman, M. J.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Northeastern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Nuss, Philip
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2014-07-07
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- e101298
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4085040
- OpenAlex
- W2046102090
- Cited by
- 777
- References
- 79
- Citations by year
- 2026: 121 · 2025: 116 · 2024: 89 · 2023: 75 · 2022: 80 · 2021: 85 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 5
- FWCI
- 20.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Yale University
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Metals and Alloys › Extraction and Separation Processes
- Keywords
- metals, life cycle assessment, environmental impact, mining, metal purification, metal refining, global warming potential, greenhouse gas emissions, human health effects, ecosystem damage, coproducts, platinum group metals, gold, iron, aluminum, thallium, tellurium, primary energy consumption
- MeSH terms
- Carbon Dioxide, Environmental Monitoring, Humans, Metals, Minerals, Ecosystem, Global Warming
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