Application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyze the environmental loads of heavy machinery components

Abstract

The heavy machinery used in mining and mineral processing generates significant environmental burdens that cause global warming and also negatively affect human health. This is caused by the use of large amounts of energy by these machines, including the amount of process heat, which generates negative environmental changes. As part of sustainable development, it is necessary to look for more friendly solutions, e.g., life cycle assessment (LCA). Therefore, the objective was to analyse the main environmental loads that arise during the extraction and processing of the component materials used in mining machines. In this case, the subject of the research was a reduction gear with a high utilisation rate in excavators and forklifts used in mining. The environmental impact criteria taken into account in the analysis were ozone depletion, human toxicity, and eutrophication. The analysis was carried out using the OpenLCA programme with the ecoinvent database. The results of the analysis showed that in the extraction and processing phase of the reduction gear materials, the main environmental loads arise for selected criteria arise, among others: during coke production, oil and gas extraction, natural gas transport, and hard coal exploitation. The results of the analysis may contribute to the sustainable development of machines in the mining industry and may be useful in the production of new mining machines in order to eliminate their negative impact throughout their life cycle.