Questions & Answers
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT:
Some Questions you may have about the Life Cycle Assessment of Nickel Products:
What is Life Cycle Assessment?
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and especially it's most developed component, Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis, is a tool for quantitative and scientific analysis of the environmental impacts of products and their associated industrial systems.
There is an immense amount of technical literature on LCA. For further information, consult the International Standards Organization for its ISO14040 series of standards on LCA or, for an academic view, the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
What is the coverage of the LCA of nickel products?
The LCA includes all environmentally significant inputs and outputs involved in the mining, beneficiation (concentration and smelting), and refining of metallic nickel, nickel oxide and ferro-nickel. It is a cradle-to-gate inventory (LCI) with calculations for a number of impact assessment (LCIA) categories included.
What percentage of world nickel production does it reflect?
The data in the LCA represents approximately 55% of the total annual world production of primary nickel. Annual world production is approximately one million tonnes.
What is not captured by the LCA?
While metallic nickel, nickel oxide and ferro-nickel make up approximately 98% of the output of the participating companies, the LCI does not include data on a number of specialty nickel products and chemicals.
Nickel production from Russia and China -- both significant nickel producers -- is not included. Only a
portion of Cuba's nickel production is included and, as well, a number of smaller nickel producing companies
in Africa and elsewhere did not participate in the project. Lastly, there are a number of new nickel
producers -- particularly in Australia -- some of which are only now coming into production using new
hydro-metallurgical processes. These are not represented in the LCA.
Although referred to as the nickel LCA, it is not a true LCA: it is a cradle-to-gate study. It does not
include the use or end-of-life (including recycling) phases of nickel-containing products. It is an essential
building block, however, for any complete LCA that might be done on nickel-containing products such as
batteries, catalysts, turbines, cutlery or automobiles.
What are the strengths of the LCA?
The LCA is by far the largest, most representative and modern data base on nickel, replacing dated and fragmentary information, information that was generated in a variety of ways that would not today be consistent with ISO standards. The nickel industry LCA, however, has been conducted to ISO standards and subjected to external peer review.
What are the weaknesses of the LCA?
While the data collection and quality was the best achievable at the time, the data quality is uneven and
includes estimates. As noted above, some small but significant nickel products fall outside this LCA and,
more importantly, nickel production from the largest nickel producer in the world -- Russia -- is not
included. It is reasonable to assume that the inclusion of Russian (and other) nickel production would change
the LCI and LCIA values presented in this LCA.
Work conducted under contract in 2003 revealed errors in how the input data was handled and this led to
revisions to baseline data for metallic nickel and oxidic nickel. As of June 2003, the review of data and
methodologies with regard to ferro-nickel were incomplete.
Does the primary nickel industry agree with everything in the LCA?
No. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) portion of the LCA is problematic in parts. This is not the fault of the report itself. Rather, it is a reflection of the relatively undeveloped state of methodologies associated with some LCIA categories (eg., toxicity, resource depletion), and these shortcomings are broadly understood in the LCA community. The LCIA values are nonetheless included in the report for the sake of completeness and transparency.
Some Questions you may have about those who participated in the Life Cycle Assessment of Nickel Products:
What companies in what parts of the world participated in the LCA?
Nine companies (see below) participated in the LCA project and data for all of their operations engaged in the production of metallic nickel, nickel oxide and ferro-nickel were included in the LCA. The companies collectively have operations in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Indonesia, Japan, New Caledonia, Norway, Sweden and Wales.
Participating companies:
Société Eramet
Falconbridge Ltd.
Inco Ltd.
Nippon Yakin Kogyo Company Limited
Outokumpu Oy
QNI Pty. Ltd.
Sherritt International Corporation
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.,
Ltd.
WMC Limited
Which consultancy conducted the LCA?
The nickel industry contracted Ecobalance Inc., part of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, for the design and conduct of the project.
Who were the members of the Peer Review Panel?
The Life Cycle Assessment of Nickel Products was peer reviewed by:
Carl-Otto Nevén, Assess Ecostrategy Scandinavia AB (Chair of the Panel); Ole Jörgen Hanssen, Stiftelsen Östfoldforskning; Staffan Malm, Avesta Sheffield; John Pullen, Alcoa World Alumina Australia; Stephen Young, Five Winds International.
Why did the participating companies undertake the LCA?
The environment is a priority for society, of which industry is part. The understanding of environmental impacts of products and processes will assist progress towards a sustainable future.
Although there are very few products that are made only of nickel, nickel goes into hundreds of materials and thousands of products. Understanding the environmental impacts of those products requires information on the constituents of those products, including nickel. The nickel LCI data is one of the necessary building blocks for that understanding.
How do the participating companies plan to use the LCA?
While nickel LCI data will be used by many stakeholders, the nickel industry itself will achieve internal benefits. The data and insights permitted by the data base will:
- assist nickel companies to identify opportunities for process and product improvement;
- assist nickel companies in supporting and improving their Environmental Management Systems;
- establish a means for internal company and industry-wide benchmarking of environmental performance;
- assist with improving data on environmental indicators;
- assist nickel companies with investment decision-making and the integration of environmental criteria in
corporate business plans;
- provide information that can be used with customers, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders in support of the sales and marketing of nickel products.
What are the future plans of the nickel industry for LCA?
The nickel industry, having completed its first life cycle inventory, has to absorb and make use of what it has developed. It also has to help others understand and put in context the values which they will find in the LCI and LCIA.
At the same time, LCA and, in particular, the comparison of different products, is still methodologically immature. The LCA community is aware of this and efforts continue to improve the tools and methods of their application.
The nickel industry encourages this work and looks to see more rigorous LCA and LCIA methodologies available to researchers in the future.
In the meantime, the companies that participated in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCI and LCIA) of Nickel
Products have developed a unique data base and are pleased to make it available to all.
Efforts continue to keep the data relevant and accurate. That has led to certain changes in the data first
reported in 2000, changes that are always prominently identified.
If you have additional questions concerning the Life Cycle Assessment of Nickel Products, contact us.
