Comparison of environmental performance of modern copper smelting technologies

The fight against climate change has emphasized the importance of understanding the environmental performance of metal production technologies. This is especially true for copper whose consumption will increase significantly due to electrification and, therefore, understanding the associated footprint becomes essential. This study uses simulation-based life cycle assessment (LCA) together with a commercial flowsheet simulation program to compare several copper smelting technologies against each other when producing metallic blister copper from sulfide copper ore. The lowest LCA values for three concentrate compositions and three capacities were obtained for Flash Smelting technology with Peirce-Smith converting (FSF-PSC). The unit CO2 emissions decreased with increasing capacity. The reduction obtained when the capacity was doubled was 1-9%, depending on the technology. The main source of CO2 emissions was electricity generation, including the use for oxygen production. For instance, for FSF-PSC it accounted for 91% of the climate change when global data source was used for electricity, translating into an 80% reduction if non-fossil electricity was introduced. A reduction of up to 85% in climate change can be achieved by changing from the highest emission producing technology, the Side Blowing Furnace Top Blowing Converter (SBF-TBC), to the lowest (FSF-PSC) and by using non-fossil electricity.