Accumulated energy consumption and emissions of CO2, SO2, and NOx during life cycle of stainless steel

The objective was to calculate the accumulated energy consumption in the production of stainless steel. Furthermore, emissions of SO2, CO2, and NO, accumulated throughout the life cycle of stainless steel were estimated. In this case the life cycle was from ore to semimanufactured article. Data have been collected relating to the production of stainless steel. These data are the energy consumption and emissions during production of stainless steel and the raw materials. For the raw materials the basis of the study is worldwide, whereas data for the steelmaking are European, All data are traced back to resource (e.g. natural gas, raw oil, or iron). These data are of importance when evaluating the environmental effect of an industrial product. The emissions are mostly due to the production of electricity. Energy consumption is dominated by the production of nickel and ferrochromium and the process energy. Reduction of energy consumption can be achieved by increased use of stainless steel scrap. (C) 1996 The Institute of Materials.