Life cycle assessment of steel in the ship recycling industry in Bangladesh

Abstract The ship recycling industry in Bangladesh provides necessary scrap metal for domestic steel products, such as rebar for construction. These recycled products may represent a dramatic reduction in energy consumption and ecological footprint when compared to production from virgin iron ore. A life cycle assessment approach is used to evaluate energy use and emissions, from when the ships is transported from the originating country for dismantling of retired ships in Chittagong, to the end recyclers (rerolling mills and light engineering shops) in Dhaka. The secondary rebar produced from the scraps saves 16.5 GJ of primary energy per ton of rebar and 1965 kg of CO2eq greenhouse gas emissions per ton of rebar when compared to primary rebar. This study compared different unit operations of steel scrap processing to assess their relative environmental impacts, including Global Warming Potential (GWP), resource use in terms of MJ primary energy, human health, and ecosystem quality. This study finds that the rerolling activities that happen outside of the yards are responsible for the most damage. Adverse impacts in in-yard processing and beached ship cutting are generated by the use of liquid oxygen and the use of gas torches. Changes in cutting methods or use of protective gear during cutting will largely reduce the local environmental and health impacts.

[1]  Mohammed Ashraful Azam Khan,et al.  Trace Metals in Littoral Sediments from the North East Coast of the Bay of Bengal along the Ship Breaking Area, Chittagong, Bangladesh , 2003 .

[2]  David Pennington,et al.  Recent developments in Life Cycle Assessment. , 2009, Journal of environmental management.

[3]  Mohan Yellishetty,et al.  Environmental life-cycle comparisons of steel production and recycling: Sustainability issues, problems and prospects , 2011 .

[4]  Audrey L. Mayer,et al.  Policy compliance recommendations for international shipbreaking treaties for Bangladesh , 2016 .

[5]  Nasreen Akter,et al.  Territorial Agglomeration and Industrial Symbiosis: Sitakunda-Bhatiary, Bangladesh, as a Secondary Processing Complex , 2012 .

[6]  Jacqueline de Chazal,et al.  Climate change 2007 : impacts, adaptation and vulnerability : Working Group II contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2014 .

[7]  Sangwon Suh,et al.  Industrial Ecology: The role of manufactured capital in sustainability , 2015, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[8]  T. Nemecek,et al.  Overview and methodology: Data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version 3 , 2013 .

[9]  Gerald Rebitzer,et al.  IMPACT 2002+: A new life cycle impact assessment methodology , 2003 .

[10]  Audrey L. Mayer,et al.  How social ties influence metal resource flows in the Bangladesh ship recycling industry , 2015 .

[11]  Ernst Worrell,et al.  Energy intensity in the iron and steel industry: a comparison of physical and economic indicators , 1997 .

[12]  Chiharu Tokoro,et al.  Characterization of ship breaking industry in Bangladesh , 2015 .

[13]  M. Shahadat Hossain,et al.  Occupational Health Hazards of Ship Scrapping Workers at Chittagong Coastal Zone, Bangladesh , 2008 .

[14]  R. Frey,et al.  Breaking Ships in the World-System: An Analysis of Two Ship Breaking Capitals, Alang-Sosiya, India and Chittagong, Bangladesh , 2015 .

[15]  Andreas Jørgensen,et al.  Methodologies for social life cycle assessment , 2008 .

[16]  M. J. Goedkoop.  The Eco-Indicator 98 Explained , 1998 .

[17]  M. Crang,et al.  Following things of rubbish value: end-of-life ships, 'chock-chocky' furniture and the Bangladeshi middle class consumer , 2010 .

[18]  J. Edmé,et al.  Acute Respiratory Effects of Exposure to Stainless Steel and Mild Steel Welding Fumes , 2000, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[19]  Jeroen B. Guinee,et al.  Handbook on life cycle assessment operational guide to the ISO standards , 2002 .

[20]  Clair Gough,et al.  The Respectable Politics of Climate Change: The Epistemic Communities and NGOs , 2001 .

[21]  Walter Klöpffer,et al.  Life cycle assessment , 1997, Environmental science and pollution research international.

[22]  Anand M. Hiremath,et al.  Significant steps in ship recycling vis-a-vis wastes generated in a cluster of yards in Alang: a case study , 2015 .

[23]  Atit K. Tilwankar,et al.  A novel approach to estimating resource consumption rates and emission factors for ship recycling yards in Alang, India , 2013 .

[24]  Selina Parween,et al.  Heavy Metal Pollution in Sediments at Ship Breaking Area of Bangladesh , 2012 .

[25]  M. Hauschild,et al.  A Framework for Social Life Cycle Impact Assessment (10 pp) , 2006 .

[26]  Dursun Zafer Seker,et al.  Monitoring the drastic growth of ship breaking yards in Sitakunda: a threat to the coastal environment of Bangladesh , 2013, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

[27]  Amelia L. Craighill,et al.  Lifecycle assessment and economic evaluation of recycling: A case study , 1996 .