Sustainability
print this page make fonts smallermake fonts bigger

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF Nickel Products

Prepared for: Nickel Industry LCA Group
Prepared by: PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP / Ecobalance, Inc.
7101 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 700, Bethesda, MD 20814

The full text PDF version of the report is available HERE.
Reproduced below is the complete table of contents.

  • INTRODUCTION AND GOAL
    • INTRODUCTION AND GOAL OF THE STUDY
    • GOAL AND INTENDED USES
      • Goal of the Study
      • Intended Uses
  • SCOPE DEFINITION AND METHODOLOGY
    • LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT PRINCIPLES AND TERMINOLOGY
    • FUNCTION AND FUNCTIONAL UNIT
      • Introduction to the Function
      • Function and Functional Unit
      • Nickel Products Defined
    • SYSTEM BOUNDARIES
      • General Process Overview
      • Cut-off Criteria
      • Final Product Packaging
      • Exclusion of Data from the System Boundaries
    • DATA CATEGORIES DISCUSSION: IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND DATA CATEGORIES
      • General ISO Background
      • Intrinsic Limitations of LCIA
      • General Environmental Values Associated with LCIA
      • Relationships Between the Inventory and Impact Assessment Phases
      • Conclusion on Category Indicators and Data Categories
    • IMPACT ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY
      • Introduction
      • Global Warming Potential
      • Acidification Potential
      • Stratospheric Ozone Depletion Potential
      • Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP)
      • Eco- and Human-Toxicity
      • Water Eutrophication
      • Solid Materials
      • Natural Resources Depletion
      • Alienation of Land
      • Biodiversity
      • Conclusion: Inclusion and Exclusion of Impact Indicator Categories
    • INVENTORY DATA CATEGORIES
      • Introduction to the Data Categories
      • Energy and Material Input Category
      • Air Emission Category
      • Water Effluent Category
      • Solid Material Category
      • Energy Accounting Category
      • Reporting Units
    • DATA QUALITY REQUIREMENTS
      • Source of the Data
      • Geographical, Technological and Temporal Requirements
      • Additional Data Quality Requirements
    • ALLOCATION
      • Dealing with Coproducts
      • Allocation Procedure
      • Allocation Decisions Made for this Study
    • CRITICAL REVIEW
      • Scope
      • Involvement
  • MODELING
    • PROCESS STAGE GROUPING TO DEFINE THE QUESTIONNAIRES
    • ALLOCATION RULES APPLIED TO THE NICKEL STUDY
      • "Mass" Coproducts found in Mining and Beneficiation
      • Metal Coproducts in Primary Extraction and Refining:
      • Non-Metal Coproducts in Primary Extraction and Refining
    • DATA CATEGORIES MODELING CONSIDERATIONS
      • Energy and Material Inputs
      • Air Emission Data Category
      • Water Effluents Data Category
      • Waste and Solid Materials Data Category (Non-recovered and Recovered)
      • Transportation
    • MINING UNIT PROCESS STAGE
    • BENEFICIATION UNIT PROCESS STAGE
    • ORE PREPARATION UNIT PROCESS STAGE
    • PRIMARY EXTRACTION UNIT PROCESS STAGE
      • Pyrometallurgy of Oxidic Ores
      • Pyrometallurgy of Sulfidic Ores
      • Hydrometallurgy of Oxidic Ores
      • Hydrometallurgy of Sulfidic Ores
    • REFINING UNIT PROCESS STAGE
      • Matte refining into Class I Nickel
      • Hydrosulfidic Refining
      • Caron Process
      • Carbonyl Process
      • Pyrometallurgical Refining of NiO
    • TREATMENT OF SHARED PROCESSES AT THE SAME FACILITY
      • Introduction
      • Allocation of Shared Processes to Each Unit Process
    • MODELING IN TEAM'
      • Modeling the Products in TEAMTM
      • Type of Averaging
      • Ferronickel
      • Nickel Oxide
      • Class 1 Nickel
  • DATA QUALITY EVALUATION
    • DATA COMPLETENESS AND REPRESENTATIVENESS
      • Geographical Representation
      • Temporal and Technological Representation
      • Upstream Materials Production
    • CUT-OFF CRITERIA
    • DATA CONSISTENCY
      • "Macro-level" Consistency
      • "Micro-level" Consistency
      • Questionnaire Exception
    • DATA AGGREGATION
      • Preliminary check
      • Data Summary Sheets
    • DATA CROSS-CHECKING
      • Nickel Balance
      • Energy Quantification
  • RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
    • RESULTS INTERPRETATION
    • EXPLANATION OF FLOW TYPES
      • Inflows
      • Outflows
      • Energy
    • PRODUCT OVERALL INVENTORIES
      • Inventory Tables
      • LCIA Results Presented with the Inventory Tables
      • Land Alienation
    • CLASS 1 NICKEL METAL
      • Gate-to-gate detailed breakdown results
    • NICKEL OXIDE
    • FERRONICKEL
    • ADDITIONAL RESULTS
  • SENSITIVITY ANALYSES
    • PACKAGING OF FINAL PRODUCTS
    • AMSUL ALLOCATION
    • ALLOCATION BY METAL VALUE: REASONS NOT PERFORMED
  • LIMITATIONS
    • MISCELLANEOUS NICKEL INPUT
    • MINING
  • APPENDIX
    • IMPACT ASSESSMENT WEIGHTING FACTORS
      • Global Warming Potential
      • Air Acidification Potential
      • Eutrophication Potential
      • Photochemical Ozone Formation Potential
      • Natural Resource Depletion Index
    • TRANSPORTATION MODELS
      • Truck
      • Rail
      • Sea (Tanker)
      • Diesel and Heavy Fuel Oil production and consumption
    • FIRST-ROUND DATA CHECKING OF QUESTIONNAIRES: MAIN CHECKLIST

Proprietary Information Statement
The information in this document is the property of the companies that collaborated in the development of the study and of the Nickel Institute. It may be duplicated, used, or disclosed in support of research activities. The owners of the document would appreciate appropriate citation being made in any published study.

Nickel