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A novel approach to investigate material resource depletion and recycling from a thermodynamic perspective: Case study steel industry in Iran

Abstract:

The technical changes in modern technologies have been eventuated in a considerable increase in the variety of material resource consumption. Considering resource scarcity and the increasing rate of consumption, there is an immediate need to overcome recycling shortages and move toward a circular economy. A special example is steel and Iron industry which has a significant role in development of the societies. Recent technical changes have increased the amount and number of impurity elements which should be rejected from or diluted in steel and Iron products. This paper presents an exergy-based analytical tools to investigate the loss of minerals, evaluate and prioritize material separation in this industry. In this study exergy replacement cost method is used to measure material depletion from a bottom-up perspective. The results show that: in Iran the steel production process has the highest influence on material dispersion. In this study, exergy replacement cost and exergy cost of Zinc production is compared with Zinc production from primary resources and draws a comparison between Copper recovery and the exergy replacement cost of diluting iron. The achievement, prioritize Copper separation before the steel recycling process to conserve primary Iron resources. The advantages of Zinc recycling is comparable in the case of considering exergy replacement cost of Zinc.