Assessing the Life Cycle Performance in the Metallurgical Sector: A Case Study in Italy

Main Article Content

Giuliana Vinci
Marco Ruggeri
Carlo Barricella

Abstract

This study compared two types of sheets: one made of steel and one made of aluminum, using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). The LCA results show that the aluminum sheet had a greater environmental impact than the steel one in 11 out of 18 impact categories, such as a 5% higher Global Warming Potential, 3% higher Stratospheric Ozone Depletion, and 72% higher Ionizing Radiation. The main contributing factors were energy-intensive processes and bauxite processing associated with aluminum production. The LCC results also supported the findings of the LCA, demonstrating that the raw material, electricity, and labor costs for aluminum sheets were higher compared to steel ones, with the aluminum sheets costing €163 and the steel ones costing €19. However, the S-LCA results presented a contrasting perspective. They indicated that steel sheets exhibited poorer social performance compared to aluminum ones, particularly regarding child labor and discrimination, primarily due to the harsh working conditions in Ghana, the primary source of iron used in steel production. Overall, this study highlights the environmental superiority of steel screens over aluminum ones but also underscores the social challenges associated with steel production.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
[1]
Giuliana Vinci, Marco Ruggeri, and Carlo Barricella , Trans., “Assessing the Life Cycle Performance in the Metallurgical Sector: A Case Study in Italy”, IJITEE, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 22–27, Aug. 2023, doi: 10.35940/ijitee.I9702.0812923.
Section
Articles
Author Biographies

Giuliana Vinci, Department of Management, Sapienza University of (Rome), Italy.

Giuliana Vinci is a full professor of commodity sciences at the Faculty of Economics at the Sapienza University of Rome. She has more than 330 scientific publications in research areas such as Sustainable Development, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Food Quality and Food Safety, Food Science Technology, and Environmental Science.

Marco Ruggeri, Department of Management, Sapienza University of (Rome), Italy.

Marco Ruggeri is a research fellow at the Faculty of Economics at the Sapienza University of Rome. His scientific production counts about 35 publications on subject areas such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Social Life Cycle Assessment (S.LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Industry 4.0, food safety, and food quality.

Carlo Barricella, Department of Management, Sapienza University of (Rome), Italy.

Carlo Barricella is a recent graduate in Economics from the Sapienza University of Rome. In his master's thesis, he highlighted the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of steel and aluminum production.

How to Cite

[1]
Giuliana Vinci, Marco Ruggeri, and Carlo Barricella , Trans., “Assessing the Life Cycle Performance in the Metallurgical Sector: A Case Study in Italy”, IJITEE, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 22–27, Aug. 2023, doi: 10.35940/ijitee.I9702.0812923.
Share |

References

Olmez, G. M., Dilek, F. B., Karanfil, T., & Yetis, U. (2016). The environmental impacts of iron and steel industry: a life cycle assessment study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 130, 195–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JCLEPRO.2015.09.139

High-efficiency extraction of aluminum from low-grade kaolin via a novel low-temperature activation method for the preparation of poly-aluminum-ferric-sulfate coagulant. Journal of Cleaner Production, 257, 120399.

https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JCLEPRO.2020.120399

Ding, Y., Geng, X., Wang, P., & Chen, W. Q. (2021). How material stocks sustain economic growth: Evidence from provincial steel use in China. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 171, 105635. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RESCONREC.2021.105635

International Aluminum, 2021. Available online at: https://international-aluminium.org/statistics/greenhouse-gas-emissions-aluminium-sector/. Accessed on June 15th, 2023.

IEA (2020), Iron and Steel Technology Roadmap, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/iron-and-steel-technology-roadmap. License: CC BY 4.0

Kim, J., Sovacool, B. K., Bazilian, M., Griffiths, S., Lee, J., Yang, M., & Lee, J. (2022). Decarbonizing the iron and steel industry: A systematic review of sociotechnical systems, technological innovations, and policy options. Energy Research & Social Science, 89, 102565. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ERSS.2022.102565

Ferro, P., & Bonollo, F. (2019). Materials selection in a critical raw materials perspective. Materials & Design, 177, 107848. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.MATDES.2019.107848

Quantitative environmental risk assessment for the iron and steel industrial symbiosis network. Journal of Cleaner Production, 157, 106–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JCLEPRO.2017.04.094

ISO 14040:2006 - Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Principles and framework.

ISO 14044:2006 - Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Requirements and guidelines.

ISO 15686-5:2017. Buildings and constructed assets — Service life planning — Part 5: Life-cycle costing

UNEP/SETAC. Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products; UNEP/SETAC: Nairobi, Kenya, 2009; pp. 1–104. ISBN 978-92-807-3021-0. Available online:

https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/7912/-Guidelines%20for%20Social%20Life%20Cycle%20Assessment%20of%20Products-20094102.pdf?sequence=3&amp%3BisAllowed=

Trading Economics (2023). Available online at:

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity. Accessed on June 19th, 2023

GSE. (2023). Esiti Mercato Elettrico. Available on: https://www.mercatoelettrico.org/It/default.aspx. Accessed on June 19th, 2023

Eisfeldt, F.; Ciroth, A. PSILCA—A Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment Database. Documentation. 2020. Available online at: https://psilca.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PSILCA_documentation_v3.pdf. Accessed on June 26th, 2023.

Sala, S.; Vasta, A.; Mancini, L.; Dewulf, J.; Rosenbaum, E. Social Life Cycle Assessment: State of the Art and Challenges for Supporting Product Policies; EUR 27624; JRC99101; Publications Office of the European Union: Luxembourg, 2015.

Ionizing radiation and radioactive materials in health and disease. Veterinary Toxicology: Basic and Clinical Principles, 391–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-385926-6.00025-9

Artiola, J. F., Walworth, J. L., Musil, S. A., & Crimmins, M. A. (2019). Soil and Land Pollution. Environmental and Pollution Science, 219–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814719-1.00014-8

Kerry, J. (2012). Aluminum foil packaging. Packaging Technology, 163–177. https://doi.org/10.1533/9780857095701.2.163

Schwarz, H.-G. (2004). Aluminum Production and Energy. Encyclopedia of Energy, 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-12-176480-X/00372-7

Human Rights Watch (2021). I Must Work to Eat. Covid-19, Poverty, and Child labor in Ghana, Nepal, and Uganda. ISBN: 978-1-62313-907-0. Available online at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2021/05/crd_childlabor0521_web.pdf. Accessed on June 22th, 2023.

Australian Government, Department of Home Affairs (2023). Temporary Skill Shortage visa. Available online at: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/temporary-skill-shortage-482. Accessed on June 22th, 2023.

Sanders, D., Willson, G., Susomrith, P., & Dowling, R. (2016). Fly in to work; fly out to Bali: An exploration of Australian fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) workers leisure travel. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 26, 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JHTM.2015.11.002

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>