Life cycle assessment and sustainable production evaluation of calcium carbide industry in China

With the rapid development of the calcium carbide (CaC2) industry in China, the growth in CaC2 demand is confronting an increasing pressure to reduce environmental emissions. However, the environmental impacts of CaC2 production remain poorly understood. Life cycle assessment is employed in this study to provide a comprehensive analysis of the environmental performance of CaC2 production in China. The results show that the environmental load of the semi-closed furnace process is higher than that of the closed furnace process. Electricity supported by thermal power is the most sensitive factor. A significant regional layout of CaC2 production, adjoining the coal-electricity-intensive areas, has been observed in China. The sustainable scenarios are developed to evaluate the environmental reduction potential in terms of technical progress and electric grid improvement. It is noted that increasing the proportion of renewable power in the electric grid has obvious environmental benefits for CaC2 production. The average energy conservation and emission reduction index of CaC2 production in the northwest China is 1.81-2.10 times higher than that in the southwest China. The findings of this study will give a reference for the decision-makers to take conducive emission reduction measures for the sustainable development of the CaC2 industry in China.

Automated summary

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the environmental performance of CaC2 production in China using life cycle assessment. It finds that the semi-closed furnace process has a higher environmental load than the closed furnace process, with electricity supported by thermal power being the most sensitive factor. Developing sustainable scenarios and increasing the proportion of renewable power in the electric grid have obvious environmental benefits for CaC2 production.