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<p>Copper production is highly energy-intensive, with comminution (crushing and grinding) accounting for a major portion of both energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study evaluates the environmental and economic performance of integrating carbon capture into the copper comminution process through a combined LCA and TEA. The improved scenario introduces a CO<sub><b>2</b></sub> pretreatment step into the grinding circuit and is benchmarked against a conventional baseline process. The LCA results show that integrating CO<sub><b>2</b></sub> pretreatment into the comminution process reduces grinding energy consumption from approximately 4,700 kWh to 3,900 kWh per ton of copper. Combined with the embodied carbon emissions of the carbon capture system, the net greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction is approximately 1.2 ton CO<sub><b>2</b></sub>-eq per ton of copper, corresponding to an overall reduction of approximately 35% relative to the baseline. Economically, the total production cost increases by approximately 480 USD per ton of copper, primarily due to the expenses associated with CO<sub><b>2</b></sub> procurement and compression. Although this increase exceeds typical cost margins for comminution, uncertainty analysis indicates that the CO<sub><b>2</b></sub> price remains the dominant. contributor to cost variability, while the GHG reduction benefit remains robust across parameter ranges. When CO<sub><b>2</b></sub> is instead sourced from flue gas streams generated by fossil-fuel combustion, the procurement cost is eliminated, resulting in a cost saving of roughly 90 USD per ton compared with the baseline scenario (without CO<sub><b>2</b></sub> pretreatment). Overall, these results demonstrate that CO<sub><b>2</b></sub> pretreatment represents a previously unexplored, yet technically viable and scalable decarbonization pathway for energy-intensive copper production systems.</p>

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Integrating Carbon Capture into Copper Comminution: A Combined Techno-Economic Assessment and Carbon Footprint Analysis

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月13日

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  • Xiaohan Wu,
  • Xu Wang,
  • Yi Wang,
  • Wencai Zhang,
  • Rick Honaker,
  • Fu Zhao

摘要

Copper production is highly energy-intensive, with comminution (crushing and grinding) accounting for a major portion of both energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study evaluates the environmental and economic performance of integrating carbon capture into the copper comminution process through a combined LCA and TEA. The improved scenario introduces a CO2 pretreatment step into the grinding circuit and is benchmarked against a conventional baseline process. The LCA results show that integrating CO2 pretreatment into the comminution process reduces grinding energy consumption from approximately 4,700 kWh to 3,900 kWh per ton of copper. Combined with the embodied carbon emissions of the carbon capture system, the net greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction is approximately 1.2 ton CO2-eq per ton of copper, corresponding to an overall reduction of approximately 35% relative to the baseline. Economically, the total production cost increases by approximately 480 USD per ton of copper, primarily due to the expenses associated with CO2 procurement and compression. Although this increase exceeds typical cost margins for comminution, uncertainty analysis indicates that the CO2 price remains the dominant. contributor to cost variability, while the GHG reduction benefit remains robust across parameter ranges. When CO2 is instead sourced from flue gas streams generated by fossil-fuel combustion, the procurement cost is eliminated, resulting in a cost saving of roughly 90 USD per ton compared with the baseline scenario (without CO2 pretreatment). Overall, these results demonstrate that CO2 pretreatment represents a previously unexplored, yet technically viable and scalable decarbonization pathway for energy-intensive copper production systems.