Environmental analysis for identifying challenges to recover used reinforced refractories in industrial furnaces

The results indicated that the environmental performance of these reinforced refractories can be improved by means of promoting the reuse or recycling of the materials and reducing the amount of landfill waste within an integrated waste management system. Greater environmental benefits were obtained when the recycling efficiency was increased and the transport distance was decreased, especially in the case of alumina/ZrO2. The research demonstrated that it was more sensible to use recycling. Consequently, efforts to consider these environmental results should be undertaken by the industrial sector to promote material recovery. In this sense, a matrix of additional actions is proposed to reduce the overall environmental impact of the system further.