Green evaluation of microwave-assisted leaching process of high titanium slag on life cycle assessment

A greenness evaluation index and system of microwave-assisted leaching method were established. The effects of the life cycle assessment variables, such as the resource consumption, environment impact, cost, time and quality, were investigated, and the concept of green degree was applied in the production of synthetic rutile. An analytic hierarchy process was utilized to assess matrix of greenness evaluation. The Gauss-Seidel iterative matrix method was employed to solve the assessment matrix and obtain the weights and membership functions of all evaluation indexes. A fuzzy decision-making method was applied to build the greenness evaluation model, and then the scores of green degree in microwave-assisted leaching process was obtained. The greenness evaluation model was applied to the life cycle assessment of the microwave-assisted leaching process. The results show that the microwave-assisted leaching process has advantages over the conventional ones, with respect to energy-consumption, processing time and environmental protection.