The Experts below are selected from a list of 195 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform

Xianzheng Gong - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • life cycle assessment of primary magnesium production using the Pidgeon Process in china
    International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2009
    Co-Authors: Zhi Hong Wang, Xianzheng Gong
    Abstract:

    Background, aims, and scope China has been the largest primary magnesium producer in the world since year 2000 and is an important part of the global magnesium supply chain. Almost all of the primary magnesium in China is produced using the Pidgeon Process invented in the 1940s in Canada. The environmental problems of the primary magnesium production with the Pidgeon Process have already attracted much attention of the local government and enterprises. The main purposes of this research are to investigate the environmental impacts of magnesium production and to determine the accumulative environmental performances of three different scenarios. System boundary included the cradle-to-gate life cycle of magnesium production, including dolomite ore extraction, ferrosilicon production, the Pidgeon Process, transportation of materials, and emissions from thermal power plant. The life cycle assessment (LCA) case study was performed on three different fuel use scenarios from coal as the overall fuel to two kinds of gaseous fuels, the producer gas and coke oven gas. The burden use of gaseous fuels was also considered.

  • life cycle assessment of primary magnesium production using the Pidgeon Process in china
    International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2009
    Co-Authors: Feng Gao, Xianzheng Gong, Zhi Hong Wang, Zuoren Nie, Tieyong Zuo
    Abstract:

    China has been the largest primary magnesium producer in the world since year 2000 and is an important part of the global magnesium supply chain. Almost all of the primary magnesium in China is produced using the Pidgeon Process invented in the 1940s in Canada. The environmental problems of the primary magnesium production with the Pidgeon Process have already attracted much attention of the local government and enterprises. The main purposes of this research are to investigate the environmental impacts of magnesium production and to determine the accumulative environmental performances of three different scenarios. System boundary included the cradle-to-gate life cycle of magnesium production, including dolomite ore extraction, ferrosilicon production, the Pidgeon Process, transportation of materials, and emissions from thermal power plant. The life cycle assessment (LCA) case study was performed on three different fuel use scenarios from coal as the overall fuel to two kinds of gaseous fuels, the producer gas and coke oven gas. The burden use of gaseous fuels was also considered. The procedures, details, and results obtained are based on the application of the existing international standards of LCA, i.e., the ISO 14040. Depletion of abiotic resources, global warming, acidification, and human toxicity were adopted as the midpoint impact categories developed by the problem-oriented approach of CML to estimate the characterized results of the case study. The local characterization and normalization factors of abiotic resources were used to calculate abiotic depletion potential (ADP). The analytic hierarchy Process was used to determine the weight factors. Using the Umberto version 4.0, the emissions of dolomite ore extraction were estimated and the transportation models of the three scenarios were designed. The emissions inventory showed that both the Pidgeon Process of magnesium production and the Fe–Si production were mainly to blame for the total pollutant emissions in the life cycle of magnesium production. The characterized results indicated that ADP, acidification potential, and human toxicity potential decreased cumulatively from scenarios 1 to 3, with the exception of global warming potential. The final single scores indicated that the accumulative environmental performance of scenario 3 was the best compared with scenarios 1 and 2. The impact of abiotic resources depletion deserves more attention although the types and the amount of mineral resources for Mg production are abundant in China. This study suggested that producer gas was an alternative fuel for magnesium production rather than the coal burned directly in areas where the cost of oven gas-produced coke is high. The utilization of “clean” energy and the reduction of greenhouse gases and acidic gases emission were the main goals of the technological improvements and cleaner production of the magnesium industry in China. This paper has demonstrated that the theory and method of LCA are actually helpful for the research on the accumulative environmental performance of primary magnesium production. Further studies with “cradle-to-cradle” scheme are recommended. Furthermore, other energy sources used in magnesium production and the cost of energy production could be treated in further research.

  • characterization and normalization factors of abiotic resource depletion for life cycle impact assessment in china
    Science China-technological Sciences, 2009
    Co-Authors: Zhi Hong Wang, Xianzheng Gong
    Abstract:

    The availability of resources for economic activities differs between regions, and the importance of the resources is consequently observed to be different within regions compared to a global scale. With the current situation in Chinese mining industry and its statistic characteristics, the characterization procedures of abiotic resource in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) have demonstrated certain limitations in the Chinese materials industry. The aim of this paper is to propose new characterization and normalization factors for abiotic resource depletion categories such as metals and non-renewable energy resources in a Chinese context. The actual production of abiotic resources calculated by a modified model is compared to the reserve base in line with the new national standard to determine characterization factors in equivalence units, with antimony as the reference mineral. The normalization factors are based on the total base reserves of the most important minerals in China. A case study on primary magnesium production using the Pidgeon Process is used to compare LCIA results for abiotic resource categories that are between current LCIA factors and the new Chinese factors. These factors not only reflect the importance of abiotic resource with respect to region-specific resource depletion, but also can compare with the global factors.

  • Assessing environmental impact of magnesium production using Pidgeon Process in China
    Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 2008
    Co-Authors: Zhi Hong Wang, Xianzheng Gong
    Abstract:

    Based on the practice of magnesium production in China, a quantitative evaluation of the environment impact was carried out according to the theory and framework of life cycle assessment(LCA) study. The major gaseous pollutants including CO2, SO2, NOx, CH4, HF and particulates were calculated. The accumulative environmental performances of different energy use strategies and the characterization results, including abiotic depletion potential(ADP), global warming potential(GWP), acidification potential(AP) and human-toxicity potential(HTP) were compared. The results show that the direct emission of fuel combustion in the Process is the major contributor to the pollutants emission of magnesium production. Global warming potential and acidification potential make the main contribution to the accumulative environmental impact. The different fuel use strategies in the practice of magnesium production cause much different impacts on the environmental performance. The accumulative environmental impact of coal burned directly is the highest, and that of producer-gas comes to the next, while that of coke-oven gas is the lowest.

Zhi Hong Wang - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • life cycle assessment of primary magnesium production using the Pidgeon Process in china
    International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2009
    Co-Authors: Zhi Hong Wang, Xianzheng Gong
    Abstract:

    Background, aims, and scope China has been the largest primary magnesium producer in the world since year 2000 and is an important part of the global magnesium supply chain. Almost all of the primary magnesium in China is produced using the Pidgeon Process invented in the 1940s in Canada. The environmental problems of the primary magnesium production with the Pidgeon Process have already attracted much attention of the local government and enterprises. The main purposes of this research are to investigate the environmental impacts of magnesium production and to determine the accumulative environmental performances of three different scenarios. System boundary included the cradle-to-gate life cycle of magnesium production, including dolomite ore extraction, ferrosilicon production, the Pidgeon Process, transportation of materials, and emissions from thermal power plant. The life cycle assessment (LCA) case study was performed on three different fuel use scenarios from coal as the overall fuel to two kinds of gaseous fuels, the producer gas and coke oven gas. The burden use of gaseous fuels was also considered.

  • life cycle assessment of primary magnesium production using the Pidgeon Process in china
    International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2009
    Co-Authors: Feng Gao, Xianzheng Gong, Zhi Hong Wang, Zuoren Nie, Tieyong Zuo
    Abstract:

    China has been the largest primary magnesium producer in the world since year 2000 and is an important part of the global magnesium supply chain. Almost all of the primary magnesium in China is produced using the Pidgeon Process invented in the 1940s in Canada. The environmental problems of the primary magnesium production with the Pidgeon Process have already attracted much attention of the local government and enterprises. The main purposes of this research are to investigate the environmental impacts of magnesium production and to determine the accumulative environmental performances of three different scenarios. System boundary included the cradle-to-gate life cycle of magnesium production, including dolomite ore extraction, ferrosilicon production, the Pidgeon Process, transportation of materials, and emissions from thermal power plant. The life cycle assessment (LCA) case study was performed on three different fuel use scenarios from coal as the overall fuel to two kinds of gaseous fuels, the producer gas and coke oven gas. The burden use of gaseous fuels was also considered. The procedures, details, and results obtained are based on the application of the existing international standards of LCA, i.e., the ISO 14040. Depletion of abiotic resources, global warming, acidification, and human toxicity were adopted as the midpoint impact categories developed by the problem-oriented approach of CML to estimate the characterized results of the case study. The local characterization and normalization factors of abiotic resources were used to calculate abiotic depletion potential (ADP). The analytic hierarchy Process was used to determine the weight factors. Using the Umberto version 4.0, the emissions of dolomite ore extraction were estimated and the transportation models of the three scenarios were designed. The emissions inventory showed that both the Pidgeon Process of magnesium production and the Fe–Si production were mainly to blame for the total pollutant emissions in the life cycle of magnesium production. The characterized results indicated that ADP, acidification potential, and human toxicity potential decreased cumulatively from scenarios 1 to 3, with the exception of global warming potential. The final single scores indicated that the accumulative environmental performance of scenario 3 was the best compared with scenarios 1 and 2. The impact of abiotic resources depletion deserves more attention although the types and the amount of mineral resources for Mg production are abundant in China. This study suggested that producer gas was an alternative fuel for magnesium production rather than the coal burned directly in areas where the cost of oven gas-produced coke is high. The utilization of “clean” energy and the reduction of greenhouse gases and acidic gases emission were the main goals of the technological improvements and cleaner production of the magnesium industry in China. This paper has demonstrated that the theory and method of LCA are actually helpful for the research on the accumulative environmental performance of primary magnesium production. Further studies with “cradle-to-cradle” scheme are recommended. Furthermore, other energy sources used in magnesium production and the cost of energy production could be treated in further research.

  • characterization and normalization factors of abiotic resource depletion for life cycle impact assessment in china
    Science China-technological Sciences, 2009
    Co-Authors: Zhi Hong Wang, Xianzheng Gong
    Abstract:

    The availability of resources for economic activities differs between regions, and the importance of the resources is consequently observed to be different within regions compared to a global scale. With the current situation in Chinese mining industry and its statistic characteristics, the characterization procedures of abiotic resource in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) have demonstrated certain limitations in the Chinese materials industry. The aim of this paper is to propose new characterization and normalization factors for abiotic resource depletion categories such as metals and non-renewable energy resources in a Chinese context. The actual production of abiotic resources calculated by a modified model is compared to the reserve base in line with the new national standard to determine characterization factors in equivalence units, with antimony as the reference mineral. The normalization factors are based on the total base reserves of the most important minerals in China. A case study on primary magnesium production using the Pidgeon Process is used to compare LCIA results for abiotic resource categories that are between current LCIA factors and the new Chinese factors. These factors not only reflect the importance of abiotic resource with respect to region-specific resource depletion, but also can compare with the global factors.

  • Assessing environmental impact of magnesium production using Pidgeon Process in China
    Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 2008
    Co-Authors: Zhi Hong Wang, Xianzheng Gong
    Abstract:

    Based on the practice of magnesium production in China, a quantitative evaluation of the environment impact was carried out according to the theory and framework of life cycle assessment(LCA) study. The major gaseous pollutants including CO2, SO2, NOx, CH4, HF and particulates were calculated. The accumulative environmental performances of different energy use strategies and the characterization results, including abiotic depletion potential(ADP), global warming potential(GWP), acidification potential(AP) and human-toxicity potential(HTP) were compared. The results show that the direct emission of fuel combustion in the Process is the major contributor to the pollutants emission of magnesium production. Global warming potential and acidification potential make the main contribution to the accumulative environmental impact. The different fuel use strategies in the practice of magnesium production cause much different impacts on the environmental performance. The accumulative environmental impact of coal burned directly is the highest, and that of producer-gas comes to the next, while that of coke-oven gas is the lowest.

Tieyong Zuo - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • life cycle assessment of primary magnesium production using the Pidgeon Process in china
    International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2009
    Co-Authors: Feng Gao, Xianzheng Gong, Zhi Hong Wang, Zuoren Nie, Tieyong Zuo
    Abstract:

    China has been the largest primary magnesium producer in the world since year 2000 and is an important part of the global magnesium supply chain. Almost all of the primary magnesium in China is produced using the Pidgeon Process invented in the 1940s in Canada. The environmental problems of the primary magnesium production with the Pidgeon Process have already attracted much attention of the local government and enterprises. The main purposes of this research are to investigate the environmental impacts of magnesium production and to determine the accumulative environmental performances of three different scenarios. System boundary included the cradle-to-gate life cycle of magnesium production, including dolomite ore extraction, ferrosilicon production, the Pidgeon Process, transportation of materials, and emissions from thermal power plant. The life cycle assessment (LCA) case study was performed on three different fuel use scenarios from coal as the overall fuel to two kinds of gaseous fuels, the producer gas and coke oven gas. The burden use of gaseous fuels was also considered. The procedures, details, and results obtained are based on the application of the existing international standards of LCA, i.e., the ISO 14040. Depletion of abiotic resources, global warming, acidification, and human toxicity were adopted as the midpoint impact categories developed by the problem-oriented approach of CML to estimate the characterized results of the case study. The local characterization and normalization factors of abiotic resources were used to calculate abiotic depletion potential (ADP). The analytic hierarchy Process was used to determine the weight factors. Using the Umberto version 4.0, the emissions of dolomite ore extraction were estimated and the transportation models of the three scenarios were designed. The emissions inventory showed that both the Pidgeon Process of magnesium production and the Fe–Si production were mainly to blame for the total pollutant emissions in the life cycle of magnesium production. The characterized results indicated that ADP, acidification potential, and human toxicity potential decreased cumulatively from scenarios 1 to 3, with the exception of global warming potential. The final single scores indicated that the accumulative environmental performance of scenario 3 was the best compared with scenarios 1 and 2. The impact of abiotic resources depletion deserves more attention although the types and the amount of mineral resources for Mg production are abundant in China. This study suggested that producer gas was an alternative fuel for magnesium production rather than the coal burned directly in areas where the cost of oven gas-produced coke is high. The utilization of “clean” energy and the reduction of greenhouse gases and acidic gases emission were the main goals of the technological improvements and cleaner production of the magnesium industry in China. This paper has demonstrated that the theory and method of LCA are actually helpful for the research on the accumulative environmental performance of primary magnesium production. Further studies with “cradle-to-cradle” scheme are recommended. Furthermore, other energy sources used in magnesium production and the cost of energy production could be treated in further research.

P. Koltun - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • global warming impact of the magnesium produced in china using the Pidgeon Process
    Resources Conservation and Recycling, 2004
    Co-Authors: S. Ramakrishnan, P. Koltun
    Abstract:

    China is the largest producer of magnesium in the world, and supplies currently 40–50% of the world demand for magnesium. The current growth in the demand for magnesium is primarily driven by automotive industry for light weighting automobiles to reduce emissions. Magnesium production in China is based on a thermal Process, known as the Pidgeon Process that was originally invented in Canada in the 1940s. The raw material used is dolomite, which is initially calcined, and the calcined dolomite is reduced using the Pidgeon Process by supplying ferrosilicon and thermal energy to produce pure magnesium crowns. The magnesium crowns are then melted and cast as pure magnesium ingots, which are then exported from China to meet the growing world demand. With a focus on the global warming impact, a cradle-to-gate life cycle study is conducted using averaged data for magnesium production in China. Calculations show that the cradle-to-gate global warming impact of Chinese magnesium ingots is 42 kg CO2 eq/kg Mg ingot, within an uncertain range of 37–47 kg CO2 eq/kg Mg ingot. The value of impact for the magnesium produced in China is ∼60% higher than the global warming impact of aluminium, a competing material that is also produced in China in abundance. The calculated impact for magnesium is discussed in the context of the future magnesium products value chain that may have a strong dependence on the magnesium produced in China. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  • Global warming impact of the magnesium produced in China using the Pidgeon Process
    2003
    Co-Authors: S. Ramakrishnan, P. Koltun
    Abstract:

    China is the largest producer of magnesium in the world, and supplies currently 40–50 % of the world demand for magnesium. The current growth in the demand for magnesium is primarily driven by automotive industry for light weighting automobiles to reduce emissions. Magnesium production in China is based on a thermal Process, known as the Pidgeon Process that was originally invented in Canada in the 1940s. The raw material used is dolomite, which is initially calcined, and the calcined dolomite is reduced using the Pidgeon Process by supplying ferrosilicon and thermal energy to produce pure magnesium crowns. The magnesium crowns are then melted and cast as pure magnesium ingots, which are then exported from China to meet the growing world demand. With a focus on the global warming impact, a cradle-to-gate life cycle study is conducted using averaged data for magnesium production in China. Calculations show that the cradle-to-gate global warming impact of Chinese magnesium ingots is 42 kg CO2 eq/kg Mg ingot, within an uncertain range of 37–47 kg CO2 eq/kg Mg ingot. The value of impact for the magnesium produced in China is ∼60 % higher than the global warming impact of aluminium, a competing material that is also produced in China in abundance. The calculated impact for magnesium is discussed in the context of the future magnesium products value chain that may have a strong dependence on the magnesium produced in China

Bo Chen - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • updated co2 emission from mg production by Pidgeon Process implications for automotive application life cycle
    Resources Conservation and Recycling, 2015
    Co-Authors: Wenjuan Zhang, Bo Chen
    Abstract:

    A contradiction exists between high CO2 emissions from primary Mg production and emission mitigation by Mg applications in the life cycle of automobiles. Previous studies have not completely considered the technological improvements and energy switching of the Pidgeon Process in China in the calculation of the Mg production stage. In the current study, the estimation of CO2 emissions from the Pidgeon Process is conducted by using updated on-site data and four energy scenarios. Moreover, three allocating methods are employed because of the utilization of waste gases generated in the symbiosis system of Mg ingot and coke/semi-coke. Depending on the allocation methods, calculated CO2 emission from the Pidgeon Process is 21.6-26 t/t-Mg, which is 38-48% less than the previous estimation. To clarify the CO2 emission reducing effect of Mg application in automobiles, the calculated results are applied in a generic car and compared with other data sources of the Pidgeon Process. Furthermore, the mitigation gap between Mg and Al substitutes for steel in automobile is discussed. Result shows that an improved Pidgeon Process will facilitate the substitution of Mg for steel in automobile application in terms of life cycle CO2 emission but will remain inferior to Al application in automobiles. Nevertheless, with the further improvement of technologies in the Pidgeon Process, CO2 emission with regard to primary Mg production is estimated to decrease by 18%, thus resulting in a further CO2 emission reduction of 0.388 t in the automobile life cycle. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.