Resource depletion and environmental impact analysis of magnesium produced using pidgeon process in China

The study aims to reveal the characteristics of material-energy metabolism and environmental impacts for magnesium produced using the Pidgeon process in China. Life cycle assessment combined with materials flow analysis was used for this study.The results show that the total materials input and direct materials input of Chinese magnesium ingots is 76t/t Mg ingot and 24t/t Mg ingot,respectively.The quantity of ecological rucksacks reaches 3.1 times of that of direct materials input.The time series analysis shows that the direct emissions of CO_2 and SO_2 increase with the rapid development of the magnesium industry,although the consumption factor unit decreases with the time passing.The direct emissions of CO_2 and SO_2 mainly attribute to the consumption of fossil fuels and the protection of molten magnesium.Furthermore,the material consumption and environmental impacts generated by the ferrosilicon production may not be disregarded.