Assessing environmental impact of magnesium production using Pidgeon process in China

Based on the practice of magnesium production in China, a quantitative evaluation of the environment impact was carried out according to the theory and framework of life cycle assessment(LCA) study. The major gaseous pollutants including CO2, SO2, NOx, CH4, HF and particulates were calculated. The accumulative environmental performances of different energy use strategies and the characterization results, including abiotic depletion potential(ADP), global warming potential(GWP), acidification potential(AP) and human-toxicity potential(HTP) were compared. The results show that the direct emission of fuel combustion in the process is the major contributor to the pollutants emission of magnesium production. Global warming potential and acidification potential make the main contribution to the accumulative environmental impact. The different fuel use strategies in the practice of magnesium production cause much different impacts on the environmental performance. The accumulative environmental impact of coal burned directly is the highest, and that of producer-gas comes to the next, while that of coke-oven gas is the lowest.