Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Resources, Conservation & Recycling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec

Full length article

Environmental benefits of secondary copper from primary copper based on T

life cycle assessment in China
Chen Jingjinga, Wang Zhaohuia, Wu Yufenga, Li Liquanb, Li Bina, , Pan De’ana, Zuo Tieyonga
⁎

a
Beijing University of Technology, 100124, Beijing, China
b
State Information Center, 100045, Beijing, China

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: China is the largest producer and consumer of refined copper in the world. The large amount of copper con-
Refined copper sumption not only creates added pressure surrounding resource availability but also causes prominent en-
Life cycle assessment vironmental problems. Although copper can be recycled to alleviate resource pressure, there are significant
Environmental impact differences between mining primary copper and recycling scrap copper in view of resources, energy consump-
Primary copper
tion, and pollution emissions. These factors were analyzed to better understand the total environmental effects of
Secondary copper
refined copper from extracting primary ore and recycling scrap copper. The results of this analysis showed that
the most serious environmental impacts of refined copper were human toxicity, abiotic depletion potential, and
global warming potential. The environmental impacts were mainly caused by the mining and smelting of pri-
mary copper by pyrometallurgy. For secondary copper, refining and electrolysis were the main factors. Thus,
these main processes, which cause major environmental impacts, should be promoted technologically. According
to the results, the total environmental impact of secondary copper was only 1/8 that of the primary copper
production process, which indicates that regeneration has better environmental benefits. Furthermore, the
sensitive analysis showed that electricity was the most sensitive factor of both technologies. By optimizing the
energy structure and increasing the proportion of regeneration, can also reduce the environmental impact. It was
suggested that energy structure should be improved and secondary copper should be given more attention and
be developed vigorously. Finally, ways to reduce the environmental impact of primary copper and secondary
copper industries were recommended.

1. Introduction
Copper, has many divergent properties, such as good ductility, high
thermal and electrical conductivity, and it plays a vital role in global
information, energy, electronics, and national defense (Li et al., 2017).
The dramatic increase in copper demand has driven an almost ex-
ponential increase in copper productivity (Northey et al., 2013). China
has been the largest refined copper consumer in the world since 2004
(Wang et al., 2017). As Fig. 1 shows, refined copper production in
China increased annually and reached 8.43 million tons in 2016. Fur-
thermore, China consumed more than 40% of the world’s refined
copper (ICSG, 2016). Currently, copper is a significant strategic re-
source with regard to national safety for both the economy and society
in China (Li et al., 2017).
After decades of rapid development, China has built a complete
copper production and processing system, including mining and mi-
neral processing, smelting, refining, processing, manufacturing and
recycling. Copper has many forms, such as copper concentrate, blister
copper, refined copper, and copper timber, as well as many copper-
containing products and other forms. Similar to other metals, refined
copper can be obtained from ores and scrap. Customarily, primary
production is the output from ores, and secondary production is pro-
duced from recycling scrap. (Gómez et al., 2007). To extract primary
copper from copper ore, there are two technologies, hydrometallurgy
for low-grade like oxidized copper ore and pyrometallurgy for sulfide
copper ore. Dominated by sulfide copper ores, China has obtained more
than 98% of refined copper from pyrometallurgy technology (Wang
et al., 2015). However, higher production and a limitation of resource
reserves, with the addition of declining ore grades, are increasing the
pressure on the sustainability of the copper industry. Fortunately,

Abbreviations: LCA, life cycle assessment; FU, functional unit; LCI, life cycle inventory; LCIA, life cycle inventory assessment; ADP, abiotic depletion; GWP, Global
Warming Potential; HTP, Human Toxicity Potential; AP, Acidification Potential; EP, Eutrophication Potential; POCP, Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: thlibin@sina.com (B. Li).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.03.020
Received 23 October 2018; Received in revised form 14 March 2019; Accepted 15 March 2019
0921-3449/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
J. Chen, et al.
Fig. 1. Refined copper production in China from 2005 to 2016 (CMRA, 2016).
copper has a property that can be 100% recyclable to alleviate the re-
source pressures on China (Bonnin et al., 2015). Therefore, the con-
tinuous depletion of primary resources has diverted us to recycle copper
from nonprimary sources, such as from industrial waste, e-waste and
scrap copper (Shuva et al., 2016). Currently, the secondary copper in-
dustry has grown rapidly and has occupied an important position. The
proportion of secondary copper production is approximately 30% of
refined copper in China. Scrap copper comes from production, circu-
lation, and consumption in society. Recycling technology is determined
by the grade of scrap copper, whether used directly or in further pyr-
ometallurgical smelting.
The large amount of consumption and production has led to in-
creasingly serious environmental issues. The production of refined
copper emits substantial harmful gas and consumes substantial amounts
of energy and water resources. In 2016, the production of copper tail-
ings was 1.603 billion tons in China, while the comprehensive utiliza-
tion rate of tailings was only 7% (CACE, 2017). The storage of these
mine tailings is a waste of land, and it has a risk of the dam breaking (Li
et al., 2017). Recycling is beneficial from the perspective of energy
consumption, mineral conservation, etc. However, recycling also causes
many secondary pollutions. During copper smelting processes, poly-
chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) can be
formed, which have been listed as persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
POPs from the incomplete combustion of the resin has gradually be-
come a threat to human health. It has reported that the recycling pro-
cess produced more POPs than primary process (Hung et al., 2015; Nie
et al., 2012). Moreover, informal sectors, illegal workshops, and in-
creasingly complex and low-grade scrap copper present more chal-
lenges for the secondary copper industry (Fogarasi et al., 2013).
With the growing awareness of environmental protection, an in-
creasing amount of recognition has been paid to the copper industry.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an internationally recognized environ-
mental assessment tool that first emerged from the packaging industry
and has gradually spread into many other sectors, including the me-
tallurgy industry (Lasvaux et al., 2016). Currently, LCA has become an
important tool for environmental authorities and policymakers to make
environmental strategies. LCA quantifies and evaluates the energy
consumption and environmental impacts of products, technologies or
services from design to final disposition (from cradle to grave) (Chen
et al., 2018). The LCA in the copper industry was carried out from
approximately 2006 by Chinese practitioners (Jiang et al., 2006a;
2006b; Wang et al., 2015). Since then, the environmental impact of
refined copper was further analyzed based on LCA. The studies cover
energy consumption, carbon intensity, and environmental impacts of
different smelting technologies of primary copper (Han et al., 2009;
Wang et al., 2015; Zeng et al., 2012), a comparison of the
36
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44
hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy technologies of primary copper
(Ruan et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2014), the environmental coordination
of secondary copper (Jiang et al., 2006a; 2006b; Song et al., 2014), and
so on. These studies have propelled the promotion of energy con-
servation and environmental protection of the copper industry.
How to reduce the environment impact of the refined copper in-
dustry is still a major problem. As much progress has been made in
recent years, such as the update of technical data and improvement of
the LCA method, it is imperative to determine the differences between
mining primary copper and recycling scrap copper in view of resources,
energy consumption and pollution emissions to propose the direction of
technical improvement and ways to reduce the environmental impact.
In this paper, an LCA was applied to assess environmental impacts and
identify the pollution process during the production of primary copper
and secondary copper and find ways to improve environmental bene-
fits.
2. Methodology
As defined by the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, an LCA is structured by
four stages, which are the goal and scope, the life cycle inventory (LCI),
the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), and interpretation (Miah et al.,
2017; Yu et al., 2014).
2.1. Goal and scope
The goal and scope is first step, which is to clarify the purpose and
background of LCA analysis, and point out the research functional unit
(FU), system boundary, environmental impact type, constraint and as-
sumed conditions. The goal was to assess the potential environmental
impact of primary copper and secondary copper production technolo-
gies in this study. The production of 1000 kg of refined copper (99.99%
cathode copper) was selected as the FU in this paper. All air, water
emissions, raw materials, energy consumption, and waste disposal
measurements were based on this FU.
The system boundary for both technologies covered the major
production process, including mining (mining and beneficiation),
smelting (smelting and converting), fire refining and electrorefining for
primary copper, and pretreatment (disassembling and separation), fire
refining and electrorefining for secondary copper, as shown in Fig. 2.
The assumptions were as follow. Refined copper produced from
different technologies has the same quality. Upstream production only
considered the main complements, such as electricity, natural gas,
limestone and quartz. As for Equipment and infrastructure, e.g. pro-
duction machines, factory buildings, and transport vehicles were be-
yond the scope. In addition, research integrated some complex
J. Chen, et al.
Fig. 2. System boundary.
processes as one to simplify the calculation. For example, flash smelting
and converting were collectively called smelting. Pretreatment in sec-
ondary production included dismantling and separating.
2.2. Life cycle inventory
LCI includes data collection and calculation, which main content
was to calculate the energy and resource consumption of each unit and
the emission amount of various pollutants in the whole research pro-
cess, and then make a summary calculation of the data (Goulart Coelho
and Lange, 2018).
Table 1
Data sources of life cycle inventory.
Data categories
Resource consumption of copper ore mining
Resource consumption of flash smelting
Resource consumption of secondary copper
Energy production (coal, heavy fuel oil, electricity, etc.)
Resource production (limestone, quartz sand, soften water, etc.)
The goal of LCI was to determine the mass flows of the inputs and
outputs of two technologies in this study. For primary copper, the
average grade of copper ore was about 0.68% in China, and the copper
concentrate had a grade of 21.50% after flotation in this study. The
sulfur content of the copper concentrate was relatively high which was
suitable for flash smelting. As a byproduct of pyrometallurgy, sulfur
dioxide can be further purified and prepared into industrial sulfuric
acid. It was assigned to allocate environmental burdens in the smelting
processes. The allocation factors were 97% in copper matte and 3% in
byproduct, which was calculated based on economic values.
However, there was some waste were not considered in the allo-
cation, such as tailings can make building materials and anode slime
37
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44
can further recycle the precious metals. For secondary copper, the scrap
copper included leather cable, electronic scraps, and so on. After dis-
mantling and separating, the anode furnace was used for fire refining.
The core of life cycle thinking is to consider the input and output
from a life cycle aspect, which means that the upstream production of
input should be taken into account. The data sources of life cycle in-
ventory was shown in Table 1. Resources, energy consumption and
pollution data of primary copper production were collected mainly
from the survey of production technology and typical enterprises in this
study. The upstream date was from GaBi (ts vision) and Ecoinvent da-
tabase.
Primary copper Secondary copper
Primary date
Primary date
Primary date
Gabi ts datebase Gabi ts datebase
Gabi ts datebase, Gabi ts datebase,
Ecoinvent database Ecoinvent database
As a product, the upstream production of electricity mix was con-
sidered. And the structure was based on the average of China’s elec-
tricity mix with thermal power of about 78.41%, and hydro electricity
was about 14.82%, others occupied 6.77% only. All major energy input
was converted into the consumption of basic resources, such as crude
oil, hard coal, and natural gas. In the production of FU of primary
copper, the electricity was totally about 1868 kW h, and 129 kg of coal,
21 kg of diesel, 56.5 m3 of natural gas. In the secondary copper, it the
consumption of electricity was about 383 kW h, the usage of coal was
about 72.5 kg, and 44.5 m3 of the natural gas. The detail input and
output for the production of 1000 kg refined copper from primary
mining and recycling were tabulated as shown in Table 2.
J. Chen, et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44

Table 2 Environmental Sciences of Leiden University (Fogarasi et al., 2014;

Life cycle inventory of producing 1000 kg refined copper. Zhang and Xu, 2016) that focuses on process characterization, also
Input and output Unit Primary Secondary known as the midpoint method (Goulart Coelho and Lange, 2018). It
has been widely used in the world since the LCA becoming popular. The
Energy Crude oil (resource) kg 4.00E+01 8.78E+00 CML method divides the environmental impact into12 types. To make
Hard coal (resource) kg 1.14E+03 1.62E+02
the results of the impact assessment universal and comparable, there
Natural gas (resource) m3 5.32E+01 4.92E+02
Resource Copper ore kg 1.97E+05 –
were six commonly used indicators, namely Abiotic Depletion Potential
Copper scrap kg – 1.86E+03 (ADP), Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential (EP),
Fresh water kg 2.96E+04 1.40E+03 Global Warming Potential (GWP), Human Toxicity Potential (HTP),
Butyl xanthate kg 7.93E+00 – Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP) were selected for
Pine camphor oil kg 4.96E+00 –
analysis in this paper.
Limestone kg 2.10E+02 8.46E+00
Quartz sand kg 5.18E+02 – For quantitative evaluation, the “equivalent factor method” was
Soften water kg 3.36E+03 – used, which aggregates life cycle inventory data based on a certain
Industrial oxygen m3 1.01E+03 9.14E+01 equivalent factor. In the case of the same quality, taking the main im-
Refractory material kg 1.33E+01 7.62E+00
pact factor of a certain type of environmental impact as a benchmark,
Hydrochloride acid kg 4.80E-01 –
Sulfuric acid kg 6.50E+00 6.80E+00
considering its impact potential as 1, i.e. kg-CO2 is the benchmark of
Gelatin kg 4.48E-02 – GWP, and then comparing the same amount of other pollutants with
Thioureas kg 3.50E-02 – benchmark, and obtaining the each characterization factor (CF) ac-
Casein kg 2.50E-02 – cording to the equivalent relationship between the various impact
Spray mold kg – 5.08E+00
factors. Finally, through summation, the potential environmental im-
Sodium hydroxide kg – 4.00E-02
Sodium chlorite kg – 4.54E-01 pact potential based on benchmark can be obtained (Esnouf et al.,
Sodium hypochlorite kg – 3.74E-01 2018). The classification process classifies the various items of life cycle
Production Refined copper kg 1.00E+03 1.00E+03 inventory into one or more environmental impact types (Iannicelli-
Effluent Carbon dioxide kg 3.18E+03 2.78E+02 Zubiani et al., 2017). The environmental impact indicators and related
Sulfur dioxide kg 1.37E+01 7.83E-01
Nitrogen oxide kg 7.85E-01 8.32E-02
environmental factors were shown detailed in following Table 3.
Carbon monoxide kg 3.17E+00 3.66E-01 To further generalize the environment impact, normalization and
Methane kg 8.33E+00 1.32E+00 weighting were obtained after characterization result in this paper.
Nitrous oxide kg 4.91E-02 5.88E-03 Comparing with standardization reference values to obtain a di-
Sulfuric acid mist kg 5.53E-01 3.40E-04
mensionless value, and then weight to each index and sum up. It be-
NMVOC kg 8.08E-02 2.02E-02
Particulate matter kg 1.05E+01 2.62E+00 came a single total environmental impact, which was conducive to
Mercury kg 2.05E-03 1.42E-03 comparison of whole environment impacts of both technologies. This
Lead kg 2.05E-03 1.17E-03 study used Gabi software (ts version) as the calculation software and
Zine kg 4.11E-03 1.01E-03 the model was built for both technologies. The software was developed
Nickel kg 6.15E-03 5.93E-04
Arsenic kg 1.03E-02 1.36E-04
by the IKP Institute of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and is one
Chemical oxygen demand kg 1.64E-02 2.31E-01 of the more versatile software in the world. It has a large number of
Biochemical oxygen demand kg 1.59E-02 2.41E-03 data embedded in it, which facilitates the research. Through this as-
Solid suspension kg 1.26E+00 1.77E-01 sessment tool, the results in terms of input resources utilization and
Ammonia nitrogen kg 3.76E-01 1.64E-07
environmental emissions can obtained and analyzed.
Solid waste kg 1.06E+05 1.33E+03

2.3. Life cycle environmental impact
LCAI is the core step of the LCA, which associates inventory data
with specific environmental impact categories and category indicators
and transforms into a potential of consumption on the resource, human
health effects, ecological impacts, and other environmental impacts. In
this process, it is essential to build the characteristic model, choose the
influence type and parameter, conduct the classification and char-
acterization. While, it is optionally to perform standardization, nor-
malization, weighting, data quality analysis, etc.
Combined with the characteristics of refined copper production in
China, the CML2001 method (2016 revision), was selected for en-
vironmental impact accounting in this study. The CML2001 method is a
problem-oriented approach proposed by the Netherlands Institute of
3. Results
3.1. Characterization results
3.1.1. Primary copper
The environmental impact of primary copper from pyr-
ometallurgical processes was characterized, The characterization result
of primary copper was shown in Fig. 3. Generally, mining and smelting
process were occupy the major impact. As for ADP, EP, GWP and POCP
indicators, the rank of contribution rates were mining, smelting, elec-
trorefining and fire refining respectively. While the AP and HTP in-
dexes, the highest percentage was smelting. The detail analysis of each
indicator was show in following.
For ADP, the characterization value was 34,154.61 MJ eq in total,
and the mining, smelting, electrorefining processes were occupied at

Table 3
Environmental impact indicators and related environmental factors.
Indicators Abbr. Unit Impact range Related environmental factors

Abiotic Depletion ADP MJ eq global mineral consumption, fossil fuel consumption, etc.
Acidification Potential AP kg SO2 eq region SO2, NOX, HCl, HF, etc.
Eutrophication Potential EP kg PO43− eq region Ammonia, phosphate, nitrate, etc.
Global Warming Potential GWP kg CO2 eq. global CO2, NO2, CH4, CF6, CH3Br, halogenated organic matter, etc.
Human health damage HTP kg 1,4 DB eq local Toxic substances entering air, soil and water: As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb, V, dioxins,
zndichlorobenzene, etc.
Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential POCP kg Ethene eq region Ethylene, non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), etc

38
J. Chen, et al.
Fig. 3. Characterization result of refined copper (primary copper).
57.37%, 26.42%, and 12.68%, respectively. Copper mining required
substantial ore resources and energy due to the low grade copper ore.
The usage of coal, gas and oil was the major contributor to ADP in-
dicator of primary copper production.
For AP, it was 20.30 kg SO2 eq in characterization that mining and
smelting accounted for 49.22% and 38.64%, respectively. Sulfide
copper ore, which contains sulfur, is a reactive component that could
react with oxygen during smelting to form SO2. Furthermore, coal for
smelting contains sulfur compounds that can form SO2 when burned. By
enriching and purifying the flue gas, sulfuric acid can be prepared. The
important factors of SO2 and H2SO4 causing AP were concentrated
during the smelting process, resulting in a higher contribution rate.
For EP, the characterization result was 1.19 kg PO43− eq, which was
mainly due to mining and smelting in proportions of 53.14% and
31.80%, respectively. In summary, mining and smelting were major
contributors to each impact indicator at all stages of the life cycle.
The characterization value of GWP was 3417.528 kg CO2 eq, of which
mining and smelting contributed the most, accounting for 56.23% and
29.02%, respectively. The CO2 came mainly from the usage of energy,
while the mining and smelting processes required higher energy con-
sumption. In addition, the large amount of CO2 emission was also due to
the upstream production of electricity, limestone, and industrial oxygen.
For HTP, the result was 1790 kg 1,4-DB-eq, and the main con-
tribution came from mining and smelting, with ratios of 39.10% and
38.37%, respectively. Copper ore is associated with arsenic, cadmium,
nickel, zinc and other metals, which can cause heavy metal pollution to
endanger human health if emitted into the air or discharged directly
into the water and soil.
For POCP, it was 1.44 kg ethene eq. The main substance was non-
methane volatile organic compounds emitted into the air, which were
concentrated in mining and smelting.
3.1.2. Secondary copper
The environmental impact of secondary copper from pyr-
ometallurgical processes was characterized, and the result is shown in
Fig. 4.
For ADP, the characterization result was 7.33E + 03 MJ eq during
the life cycle. Fire refining and electrorefining were the key processes
that accounted for 42.43% and 43.38% of the total environmental
impact, respectively. In terms of the life cycle inventory, these two
processes required a large amount of energy.
For AP, the characterization result was 20.36 kg SO2 eq, and the
emission of NOx and SOx had an effect on the value. In the
39
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44
electrorefining process, sulfuric acid mist was generated, which caused
a high AP of the electrorefining process.
For EP, the value was 0.224 kg PO43− eq, with a contribution rate of
57.14% for the refining process. Ammonium nitrate and ammonia were
the main substances that caused eutrophication.
The GWP of scrap copper regeneration was 316 kg CO2 eq, and the
contribution rates of the pretreatment, refining and electrorefining
processes were 27.24%, 33.53% and 39.23%, respectively. The emis-
sion of CO2, which was the most important factor leading to climate
change, depended mainly on the amount of electricity consumed.
For HTP, the characterization result was 219 kg 1,4-DB eq, of which
72.47% came from the refining process. Scrap copper has diverse types
and complex components and contains many metals and organic in-
clusions. The HTP of the refining process depended on the degree of
separation of metal from nonmetal during the pretreatment process to
some extent because the emission of organic matter was crucial to
human toxicity.
For POCP, the characterization result was 1.44 kg ethene eq, and the
environmental impact of electrorefining, fire refining, and pretreatment
was ranked from high to low. The main component of POCP was
nonmethane volatile organic compounds.
3.2. Results of total environmental impact
Normalization synthesized the environmental factors and eventually
formed an integrated environmental impact index. Firstly, normalization
result, a dimensionless value, was obtained by comparing characteriza-
tion results of primary copper and secondary copper with standardiza-
tion reference values. Then, based on the normalization result and the
weighting value, the total environmental impact was further calculated.
Fig. 5 present the environmental impact values of each production
process. As shown above, the total environmental impact of primary copper
was 7.05E-09.The influential process of primary copper was mining, which
accounted for approximately 41.91% of the total value, followed by
smelting 37.88%, electrorefining 17.03%, and fire refining 3.11%. The
largest impact of primary copper on the environment was HTP, which ac-
counted for 68.66%, followed by GWP and ADP, which occupied approxi-
mately 10.71% and 8.92% of the total environmental impact. Other in-
dicators, AP, POCP and EP, was 7.38%, 3.62%, 0.71%, respectively.
As Fig. 6 shown, the total impact of secondary copper was 8.76E-10,
which was only 12.43% that of primary copper. The environmental
impact value of fire refining was nearly 61.52%, and electrorefining
followed, about 26.66%. The environmental impact of HTP was
J. Chen, et al.
Fig. 4. Characterization result of refined copper (secondary copper).
particularly high at approximately 69.04%. The ADP and GWP were
15.40% and 7.95%, respectively. Other indicators for AP, POCP and EP
were below 5% of the total environmental impact.
Result showed that regeneration has an environmental advantage.
Therefore, from an environmental perspective, recycling copper scraps
might be a better choice than mining copper ore. According to the
analysis, the major environmental impacts were HTP, ADP, GWP and
for both primary and secondary copper from a comprehensive point of
view, especially, HTP was the maximum of all indicators.
Fig. 7 presents a comparison of secondary and primary copper based
on the environmental indicators. The ADP of secondary copper was
21.46% that of primary copper. For EP and HTP, secondary copper
accounted for 18.80% and 12.5% that of primary copper. For the rest of
the impact, secondary copper was below 10% of primary copper. In
summary, the regeneration process showed an environmental ad-
vantage over all indicators.
4. Discussion
4.1. Identification of pollutant
The pollution of primary copper was different from that of sec-
ondary copper, showed in Table 4.
Fig. 5. Environmental impacts of refined copper (primary copper).
40
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44
The typical air pollutants of primary copper were particulate matter,
sulfur dioxide, acid mist, and heavy metal-containing flue gas. Typical
air pollutants in the production of secondary copper were persistent
organic pollutants, which were highly toxic to human health. As China
has become the third-largest acid rain area, it’s of significance to have
effective desulfurization treatment of flue gas that reduces the acid rain
pollution caused by SO2 emissions in the atmosphere.
Waste acid and heavy metal effluents were typical liquid pollutions
in both technologies. After several cycles, the heavy metal was con-
tained in the electrolytic solution. The electrolyte should be extracted
for purification during electrorefining, otherwise the concentration of
impurities such as As, Sb, and Bi in the electrolyte will gradually in-
crease (Peng et al., 2012).
The solid waste of primary copper included beneficiation tailings,
smelting slag, smoke, dust, etc. The storage of sulfide tailings may
result in a higher environmental impact than copper concentrate
production (Beylot and Villeneuve, 2017). Usually, there are 40% Fe
and 1% Cu in the copper slag, as well as SiO2, and other elements
including Zn, Mo, Pb, and As (Sarfo et al., 2017). Effective long-term
management of copper slag storage is an important issue. The solid
waste of secondary copper was smelting slag and dust containing
heavy metals.
J. Chen, et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44

Fig. 6. Environmental impacts of refined copper (secondary copper).

Fig. 7. Proportion of the environmental impact of the secondary copper of

Fig. 8. Electricity consumption decrease by 10%.
primary copper.

4.2. Sensitivity analysis
The environmental benefits of refined copper are influenced by
many factors. In order to find the key factors that cause environmental
impact, it is necessary to conduct a sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity
analysis, which is a systematic analysis method to study the degree of
influence on the system representation index when the system perfor-
mance correlation coefficient is restricted. Sensitivity analysis, which is
a systematic analysis method for analyzing the degree of influence on
indicators when specific changes occur in correlation coefficients. For
primary copper, there were four factors, hard coal, electricity, diesel
and natural gas been analyzed, by reducing 10% of the consumption of
these four factors. For secondary copper, it were hard coal, electricity,
natural gas been analyzed, by reducing the consumption of factors by
10%. It was find that, electricity and hard coal changed more obvious
on the impact both for primary copper and secondary copper, shown on
Figs. 8 and 9. While the influence of other factors were relatively small
in each indicator. By reducing 10% of diesel, the ADP was decreased by
0.309%, and other indicators all below 0.02%. By reducing 10% of
natural gas in primary copper, the ADP was decreased by 0.312%, and
other indicators all below 0.03%. By reducing 10% of natural gas in
secondary copper, the ADP was decreased by 2.8%, while other in-
dicators were below 0.02%.
Fig. 8 presents the sensitive of electricity for both technologies. As it
shown, when electricity consumption decreased by 10%, ADP, EP,
GWP, HTP were decreased by 7.95%, 6.72%, 5.68%, 8.05%, respec-
tively, which was more than that of secondary copper. While for AP and
POCP, the secondary copper was more sensitive than primary copper.
As Fig. 9 shown, each indicator of secondary was decreased vary
from 0.03% to 2.90%, which all surpass the primary copper. Since the
steam in the electrorefining process was obtained by burning hard coal,

Table 4
Main pollutant in the production process.
Types Primary copper Secondary copper

air pollutant sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, flue gas containing As, Cd, sulfuric acid mist, etc. dioxins, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, etc.
liquid pollutant electrolyte, contaminated acid containing fluorine, chlorine, arsenic, acidic wastewater electrolyte, contaminated liquid containing heavy metals such as
containing heavy metals, washing water, etc. Cu, Pb, Sn, and Ni, etc.
solid pollutant dust, smelting water-quenched slag, beneficiation tailings, leaching slag, sewage treatment non-metallic scrap, smelting slag, anode mud, dust, etc.
slag, etc.

41
J. Chen, et al.
Fig. 9. Hard coal use decrease by 10%.
with the addition of the usage of electricity was less than that of the
primary copper, which made the sensitivity of hard coal was slightly
higher than primary copper.
By analyzed, it can be find that the consumption of electricity and
hard coal were key effects of the overall environmental impact of re-
fined copper. In particular, the reduction in electricity consumption has
a significant effect on reducing the environmental impact (Swart and
Dewulf, 2013). Therefore, decreasing electricity consumption is critical
for reducing the overall environmental impact of refined copper (Hong
et al., 2015).
4.3. Impact oriented analysis of energy structure
As a result, the environmental impact of primary copper was ap-
proximately 8 times that of secondary copper. The production of pri-
mary copper consumed more material and energy from regeneration
because the production of secondary copper eliminates mining, con-
centration and other processes that effectively avoid the stage of high
energy consumption and high pollution during the production of copper
products from copper ore. It is of great importance to reduce the con-
sumption of resources and energy, which in turn reduces environmental
pollution.
From the sensitive analysis, we can conclude that electricity con-
sumption has a significant effect on the environmental impact. On the
one hand, the decrease of consumption can result in less impact, while
the structure of electricity may also can be. This calculation was based
on the electricity mix structure with thermal power of about 78.41%,
and hydro electricity was about 14.82%, others occupied 6.77% only.
With the development of technology, the proportion of clean energy
is going to grow. In order to analyze the effect of electricity structure,
assumption was made that it can be reduced to 70% of thermal power,
and other clean energy increase accordingly. The major environment
factors CO2, CO, SO2, NOx were chose. In that case, the CO2, CO, SO2,
NOx were decreased by 9.49%, 8.23%, 10.01%, 10.39% of the emission.
Which meant that it can reduce the emission of CO2 46.44 kg, CO
0.48 kg, SO2 0.17 kg, and NOx 0.32 kg of the production of tons primary
copper when the energy structure was changed. And for the production
of tons of secondary copper, it can reduce 6.46 kg CO2, 0.09 kg CO,
0.04 kg SO2, 0.06 kg NOx. Therefore, optimizing the power structure
and increasing the proportion of clean energy will help to reduce the
environmental impact.
4.4. Impact oriented analysis of regeneration rate
In 2015, the proportion of secondary copper was 27.6% that of total
refined copper. Based on the results above, the environmental impact of
42
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44
Table 5
Environmental impacts of different scenarios.
Scenario Primary copper Secondary copper Environmental impact
ratio ratio
FUP 100% 0 7.05E-09
FUS 0 100% 8.76E-10
BS 72.40% 27.60% 2.42E-10
S1 65% 35% 4.89E-09
S2 60% 40% 4.58E-09
FU refined copper (scenario BS) should be, on average, 2.42E-10 by
calculation. To investigate the environmental benefit of recycling the
scrap copper, the scenarios were set up as shown in Table 5.
Table 5 shows that when the proportion of secondary copper is in-
creased to 35% in scenario S1, assuming that the current technical level
is maintained, the environmental impact will decrease to 8.55% that of
scenario BS. At the same time, when the proportion reaches 40% in
scenario S2, the environmental impact will reduce to 14.32% that of
scenario BS. These findings indicate that increasing the proportion of
secondary copper has a positive effect on reducing the environmental
impact. Especially, for indicators HTP, ADP, GWP were significant.
As the quality of life improves, people become more and more
concerned with health issues. The hazards to humans in scenario FUP
were far greater than those in scenario FUS. It will decrease 8.54% from
scenario BS in S1, and S2 will decrease by 14.31%. This means that
increasing the proportion of secondary copper plays an important role
in human health.
The ADP decreased by 1343.32 MJ eq in S1 compared to that of
scenario BS. When the regeneration ratio was increased by 40%, as in
S2, it will decrease to 2668.64 MJ eq. This reduction can make an im-
portant contribution to energy savings due to the large annual pro-
duction of refined copper.
For GWP, scenario FUP was more than ten times that of FUS.
Compared with scenario BS, S1 decreased to 155.20 kg CO2 eq, and S2
decreased to 310.41 kg CO2 eq. It is essential to reduce greenhouse gas
emission, as global warming has become a major problem all over the
world. Therefore, recycling scrap copper might be a better choice than
mining copper mineral from an environmental perspective.
5. Recommendation
The life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied successfully in this
study, and the results showed that the production of primary copper has
a serious environmental impact. Quantitative analysis indicated that
mining and smelting were the major processes causing serious en-
vironmental pollution. Thus, mining and smelting have great potential
for energy saving and emission reductions, and there is still a long way
to go. Before mining, the management and utilization of copper mines
should be rationally planned. The environmental impact is related to
the grade of ore (Norgate and Jahanshahi, 2010). Integrating spatial
information and environmental information from copper resources is
critical to building a mining simulation system for the intelligent ana-
lysis of the best mining options during the mining process.
Copper tailing, in particular, are an important form of solid waste
after mining. Copper tailing can be used for mine backfilling or to make
cement, non-burnt bricks, glass ceramics and other building materials.
Only by reducing the amount of copper slag produced and reusing it
into a useful product can the copper slag problem be solved (Gyurov
et al., 2017). Jinchuan Shenwu Company has built the world’s first line
of comprehensive utilization copper tailing, which can make full use of
nonferrous metal mineral resources and solid waste efficiently. This
method is an example of future techniques for the recycling of tailing.
With the advancement of science and technology, a network platform
technology will be constructed to interconnect production factors and
optimize production processes and production targets in the smelting
J. Chen, et al.
process.
It is worth mentioning that the secondary copper industry shows a
better environmental benefit is one of the prerequisites for recycling.
Recycling scrap copper can not only save natural resources and energy
but also reduce environmental pollution. Eco-design should be con-
sidered for varies of copper products, to be better recycle and re-
fabricate. The Chinese government should attach great importance to
the scrap copper recycling industry, vigorously develop the industry,
and actively prepare for the explosive growth of scrap copper.
Technical equipment used in the secondary copper industry has
been greatly improved over decades of development (Zhang and Xu,
2016). However, the secondary copper industry is dominated by small
and medium-sized enterprises, and there is a gap in advanced countries
on the recycling technology level. In fact, some informal sectors and
illegal workshops burned scrap copper and other electronic waste di-
rectly to obtain the valuable metal. Therefore, the Chinese government
should regulate behaviors of enterprises through laws and institutions,
and then optimize and upgrade the scrap copper recycling industry step
by step. First of all, the planning and layout of industrial parks should
be as rational as possible. Second, for better reducing environmental
pollution, enterprises should be encouraged to make technological in-
novations and improvements especially in the smelting pretreatment
and scrap copper refining stage. Furthermore, extended producer re-
sponsibilities (EPR) should be enforced to recycle the scrap copper
more efficiently.
In addition, effective removal of the organic composition of scrap
copper would help reduce particulate matter and toxic waste.
Moreover, intelligent robots can be used to disassemble electronic
waste components in place of manual operation in harsh environments.
Also, it is essential to improve energy efficiency to reduce environ-
mental impacts.
6. Conclusion
The production of copper by employing primary ores and secondary
resources was analyzed in detail. The results showed that the most
serious environmental impacts of refined copper were the ADP, GWP
and HTP. Mining and smelting were the main processes that caused
environmental impacts on primary copper by pyrometallurgy. For
secondary copper, refining and electrorefining were the main processes.
According to the analysis, primary copper was about 8 times greater
environmental impact than secondary copper, and the total environ-
mental impact indicated that regeneration has better environmental
benefits.
Furthermore, differences in resource consumption and pollution
emissions between primary copper and secondary copper were identi-
fied. From the sensitive analysis, the consumption of electricity was
most sensitive factor for both, and the usage of coal follows. The opti-
mization of energy structure was analyzed, the result indicated that
increasing the clean energy has a significant impact on ADP, GWP, and
HTP. By increasing the proportion of secondary copper, the environ-
mental impact decreased dramatically.
Finally, based on the results, recommendations for reducing the
environmental impacts of the primary and secondary copper industries
were suggested.
Funding
The authors are grateful to the National Key R&D Program of China
[grant numbers 2018YFC1902803, 2018YFC1902504] and Beijing
Natural Science Foundation [grant numbers 2174065].
References
Beylot, A., Villeneuve, J., 2017. Accounting for the environmental impacts of sulfidic
tailings storage in the Life Cycle Assessment of copper production: a case study. J.
43
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44
Clean. Prod. 153, 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.03.129.
Bonnin, M., Azzaro-Pantel, C., Domenech, S., Villeneuve, J., 2015. Multicriteria optimi-
zation of copper scrap management strategy. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 99, 48–62.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2015.03.013.
CACE, 2017. Report on Development of Circular Economy in China. Social Sciences
Academic Press, China.
Chen, X., Griffin, W.M., Matthews, H.S., 2018. Representing and visualizing data un-
certainty in input-output life cycle assessment models. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 137,
316–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.06.011.
CMRA, 2016. Report on the Development of China’s Recycling Industry in 2015.
Esnouf, A., Latrille, É., Steyer, J., Helias, A., 2018. Representativeness of environmental
impact assessment methods regarding Life Cycle Inventories. Sci. Total Environ. 621,
1264–1271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.102.
Fogarasi, S., Imre-Lucaci, F., Ilea, P., Imre-Lucaci, Á., 2013. The environmental assess-
ment of two new copper recovery processes from Waste Printed Circuit Boards. J.
Clean. Prod. 54, 264–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.04.044.
Fogarasi, S., Imre-Lucaci, F., Imre-Lucaci, Á., Ilea, P., 2014. Copper recovery and gold
enrichment from waste printed circuit boards by mediated electrochemical oxidation.
J. Hazard. Mater. 273, 215–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2014.03.043.
Gómez, F., Guzmán, J.I., Tilton, J.E., 2007. Copper recycling and scrap availability.
Resour. Policy 32, 183–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2007.08.002.
Goulart Coelho, L.M., Lange, L.C., 2018. Applying life cycle assessment to support en-
vironmentally sustainable waste management strategies in Brazil. Resour. Conserv.
Recycl. 128, 438–450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.09.026.
Gyurov, S., Marinkov, N., Kostova, Y., Rabadjieva, D., Kovacheva, D., Tzvetkova, C.,
Gentscheva, G., Penkov, I., 2017. Technological scheme for copper slag processing.
Int. J. Miner. Process. 158, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.minpro.2016.11.008.
Han, M., Sun, Q., Qiao, Q., Yang, X., 2009. Pollutants emission scenario analysis of
China’s copper smelter industry. Environ. Sci. Manag. 34, 40–44.
Hong, J., Shi, W., Wang, Y., Chen, W., Li, X., 2015. Life cycle assessment of electronic
waste treatment. Waste Manag. 38, 357–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.
2014.12.022.
Hung, P.C., Chang, C.C., Chang, S.H., Chang, M.B., 2015. Characteristics of PCDD/F
emissions from secondary copper smelting industry. Chemosphere 118, 148–155.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2014.07.064.
Iannicelli-Zubiani, E.M., Giani, M.I., Recanati, F., Dotelli, G., Puricelli, S., Cristiani, C.,
2017. Environmental impacts of a hydrometallurgical process for electronic waste
treatment: a life cycle assessment case study. J. Clean. Prod. 140, 1204–1216.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.040.
ICSG, 2016. ICSG World Copper Factbook.
Jiang, J.L., Xu, J.C., Y.P, W., 2006a. LCA study of secondary copper. J. Lanzhou Univ.
Technol. 32, 4–6.
Jiang, J.L., Dai, J.F., Wang, J.W., Xu, J.C., 2006b. Life cycle assessment of metallic copper
produced by the pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes. J. Lanzhou
Univ. Technol. 32, 19–21.
Lasvaux, S., Achim, F., Garat, P., Peuportier, B., Chevalier, J., Habert, G., 2016.
Correlations in Life Cycle Impact Assessment methods (LCIA) and indicators for
construction materials: what matters? Ecol. Indic. 67, 174–182. https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.ecolind.2016.01.056.
Li, L., Pan, D.A., Li, B., Wu, Y., Wang, H., Gu, Y., Zuo, T., 2017. Patterns and challenges in
the copper industry in China. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 127, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.resconrec.2017.07.046.
Miah, J.H., Koh, S.C.L., Stone, D., 2017. A hybridised framework combining integrated
methods for environmental Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing. J. Clean.
Prod. 168, 846–866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.08.187.
Nie, Z., Liu, G., Liu, W., Zhang, B., Zheng, M., 2012. Characterization and quantification
of unintentional POP emissions from primary and secondary copper metallurgical
processes in China. Atmos. Environ. 57, 109–115.
Norgate, T., Jahanshahi, S., 2010. Low grade ores–smelt, leach or concentrate? Miner.
Eng. 23, 65–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2009.10.002.
Northey, S., Haque, N., Mudd, G., 2013. Using sustainability reporting to assess the en-
vironmental footprint of copper mining. J. Clean. Prod. 40, 118–128. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.09.027.
Peng, Y., Zheng, Y., Chen, W., 2012. The oxidation of arsenic from As(III) to As(V) during
copper electrorefining. Hydrometallurgy 129-130, 156–160. https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.hydromet.2012.06.009.
Ruan, R., Zhong, S., Wang, D., 2010. Life cycle assessment of two copper metallurgical
processes: bio-heapleach and flotation-flash smelter. China Nonferr. Metall. 39,
30–33.
Sarfo, P., Das, A., Wyss, G., Young, C., 2017. Recovery of metal values from copper slag
and reuse of residual secondary slag. Waste Manag. 70, 272–281. https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.wasman.2017.09.024.
Shuva, M.A.H., Rhamdhani, M.A., Brooks, G.A., Masood, S., Reuter, M.A., 2016.
Thermodynamics data of valuable elements relevant to e-waste processing through
primary and secondary copper production: a review. J. Clean. Prod. 131, 795–809.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.04.061.
Song, X., Yang, J., Lu, B., Li, B., Zeng, G., 2014. Identification and assessment of en-
vironmental burdens of Chinese copper production from a life cycle perspective.
Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 8, 580–588.
Swart, P., Dewulf, J., 2013. Modeling fossil energy demands of primary nonferrous metal
production: the case of copper. Environ. Sci. Technol. 47, 13917–13924.
Wang, H.T., Liu, Y., Gong, X.Z., Wang, Z.H., Gao, F., 2015. Life cycle assessment of
metallic copper produced by the pyrometallurgical technology of China. Mater. Sci.
Forum 814, 559–563. https://www.scientific.net/MSF.814.559.
Wang, M., Chen, W., Zhou, Y., Li, X., 2017. Assessment of potential copper scrap in China
and policy recommendation. Resour. Policy. 52, 235–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
J. Chen, et al.
resourpol.2016.12.009.
Yang, X., Hao, X., Li, H., Sun, S., 2014. The life cycle assessment of copper metallurgical
process. TMS Annual Meeting.
Yu, X., Sekhari, A., Nongaillard, A., Bouras, A., Yu, S., 2014. A sensitivity analysis ap-
proach to identify key environmental performance factors. Math. Probl. Eng. 1–9.
Zeng, G., Yang, J., Song, X., Lv, B., 2012. Energy consumption and carbon emissions
44
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 146 (2019) 35–44
scenario analysis of pyrometallurgical copper based on LCA. China Popul. Resour.
Environ. 22, 46–50.
Zhang, L., Xu, Z., 2016. A review of current progress of recycling technologies for metals
from waste electrical and electronic equipment. J. Clean. Prod. 127, 19–36. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.04.004.