A multilevel sustainability analysis of zinc recovery from wastes
A multilevel sustainability analysis of zinc recovery from wastes
As waste generation increases with increasing population, regulations become stricter to control and mitigate environmental emissions of substances, e.g. heavy metals such as zinc and copper. Recovering these resources from wastes is the key interest of industries. The objective of this paper is the sustainability and feasibility evaluations of zinc recovery from waste streams. Sustainability and feasibility of a resource recovery strategy from wastes in a circular economy are governed by avoided environmental impacts and cost-effective transformation of an environmental contaminant into a valuable resource, e.g. as a coproduct by making use of an existing infrastructure as much as possible. This study, for the first time, gives a comprehensive overview of secondary sources and processes of recovering zinc, its stock analysis by country, regional and global divisions by a Sankey diagram, policies to regulate zinc emissions and avoided environmental impacts by zinc recovery. Two representative cases are further investigated for economic feasibility analysis of zinc recovery from (1) steelmaking dust and (2) municipal solid waste (MSW). The amount and value of zinc that can be generated from dust emitted from various steelmaking technologies are estimated. Additional revenues for the steelmaking industrial sector (with electric arc furnace), at the plant, national (UK), regional (EU) and global levels are 11, 12, 169 and 1670 million tonne/y, or 19-143, 20-157, 287-2203 and 2834-21740 million €/y, respectively. The second case study entails an integrated mechanical biological treatment (MBT) system of MSW consisting of metal recovery technologies, anaerobic digestion, refuse derived fuel (RDF) incineration and combined heat and power (CHP) generation. An effective economic value analysis methodology has been adopted to analyse the techno-economic feasibility of the integrated MBT system. The value analysis shows that an additional economic margin of 500 € can be generated from the recovery of 1 t of zinc in the integrated MBT system enhancing its overall economic margin by 9%.
Circular economy, Heavy metal recovery from waste, Life cycle assessment, Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant, Municipal solid waste, Techno-economic assessment
88-105
Ng, Kok Siew
62e1ac18-f6ab-474c-b9cf-787f42d32eb5
Head, Ian
45e5ea84-bd86-4ffd-a6e3-64b23dc711d2
Premier, Giuliano C.
318775e0-df2e-4ee1-bbab-7100c0da3804
Scott, Keith
38909157-296d-4fe7-a245-1b98e1fee913
Yu, Eileen
28e47863-4b50-4821-b80b-71fb5a2edef2
Lloyd, Jon
03a3a92e-c680-4630-8c27-9deed5d09a02
Sadhukhan, Jhuma
7b83ac24-93c1-445a-972c-df8b88c6dae1
1 October 2016
Ng, Kok Siew
62e1ac18-f6ab-474c-b9cf-787f42d32eb5
Head, Ian
45e5ea84-bd86-4ffd-a6e3-64b23dc711d2
Premier, Giuliano C.
318775e0-df2e-4ee1-bbab-7100c0da3804
Scott, Keith
38909157-296d-4fe7-a245-1b98e1fee913
Yu, Eileen
28e47863-4b50-4821-b80b-71fb5a2edef2
Lloyd, Jon
03a3a92e-c680-4630-8c27-9deed5d09a02
Sadhukhan, Jhuma
7b83ac24-93c1-445a-972c-df8b88c6dae1
Ng, Kok Siew, Head, Ian, Premier, Giuliano C., Scott, Keith, Yu, Eileen, Lloyd, Jon and Sadhukhan, Jhuma
(2016)
A multilevel sustainability analysis of zinc recovery from wastes.
Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 113, .
(doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.05.013).
Abstract
As waste generation increases with increasing population, regulations become stricter to control and mitigate environmental emissions of substances, e.g. heavy metals such as zinc and copper. Recovering these resources from wastes is the key interest of industries. The objective of this paper is the sustainability and feasibility evaluations of zinc recovery from waste streams. Sustainability and feasibility of a resource recovery strategy from wastes in a circular economy are governed by avoided environmental impacts and cost-effective transformation of an environmental contaminant into a valuable resource, e.g. as a coproduct by making use of an existing infrastructure as much as possible. This study, for the first time, gives a comprehensive overview of secondary sources and processes of recovering zinc, its stock analysis by country, regional and global divisions by a Sankey diagram, policies to regulate zinc emissions and avoided environmental impacts by zinc recovery. Two representative cases are further investigated for economic feasibility analysis of zinc recovery from (1) steelmaking dust and (2) municipal solid waste (MSW). The amount and value of zinc that can be generated from dust emitted from various steelmaking technologies are estimated. Additional revenues for the steelmaking industrial sector (with electric arc furnace), at the plant, national (UK), regional (EU) and global levels are 11, 12, 169 and 1670 million tonne/y, or 19-143, 20-157, 287-2203 and 2834-21740 million €/y, respectively. The second case study entails an integrated mechanical biological treatment (MBT) system of MSW consisting of metal recovery technologies, anaerobic digestion, refuse derived fuel (RDF) incineration and combined heat and power (CHP) generation. An effective economic value analysis methodology has been adopted to analyse the techno-economic feasibility of the integrated MBT system. The value analysis shows that an additional economic margin of 500 € can be generated from the recovery of 1 t of zinc in the integrated MBT system enhancing its overall economic margin by 9%.
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Published date: 1 October 2016
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Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Circular economy, Heavy metal recovery from waste, Life cycle assessment, Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant, Municipal solid waste, Techno-economic assessment
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Local EPrints ID: 498550
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/498550
ISSN: 0921-3449
PURE UUID: 50879cce-b23b-4f77-b57e-9f81e9480885
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Date deposited: 20 Feb 2025 18:15
Last modified: 22 Feb 2025 03:13
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Author:
Kok Siew Ng
Author:
Ian Head
Author:
Giuliano C. Premier
Author:
Keith Scott
Author:
Eileen Yu
Author:
Jon Lloyd
Author:
Jhuma Sadhukhan
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