Environmental and Economic Assessment of Recycled Aluminum Alloy Production -A case study of China

A life cycle assessment was carried out to estimate the environmental and economic impacts of recycled aluminum alloy production. The impact seen from non-carcinogens, respiratory inorganics, terrestrial ecotoxicity, global warming and non-renewable energy categories played an important role to overall environmental impacts. The impact seen from carcinogens and aquatic ecotoxicity played relatively small role, while the impact seen from the rest categories affect the environment was ignorable. Specifically, the emissions from the aluminum and silicon production stages involved played an important role due to high energy consumption, while potential impact generated from other elements was quite small. Similarly, the cost of old aluminum scrap represented the dominant contribution to overall economic impacts. Accordingly, choosing natural gas based electricity production technology and improving old aluminum scrap consumption efficiency are the efficient way to minimize the overall environmental and economic impact, respectively.