Study on the life cycle evaluation of the controlled enrichment process of scattered metals in the solid waste of multisource nonferrous smelting solid waste—taking tellurium enrichment as an example

In order to study the resource consumption and environmental impact of the controllable enrichment process of scattered metals in non-ferrous smelting solid wastes such as leaching residue, black copper mud and copper arsenic residue generated from various non-ferrous metal smelting processes, life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to evaluate the environmental load of the process. The corresponding LCA model was established on eFootprint, and the research scope, inventory data and environmental impact results were analyzed. The results show that the process has a great impact on primary energy consumption, water consumption, global warming potential, acidification and ecotoxicity. Enrichment of 1.46 kg tellurium powder from 1.00 tons of non-ferrous smelting solid waste consumes 8 089.53 MJ of primary energy and 11 645.43 kg of water resources, emits 803.45 kg of greenhouse gases and produces 5.10 kg of acidic substances. The ecotoxicity index value was 2.98. Combined with the process characteristics, through sensitivity analysis of LCA results and inventory data, a green improvement scheme is provided for the whole production process.