depositing it in a landfill. In 2005 the Power Plant used 133,628 MWh, for its own purposes. The missing electric energy, equivalent to 686495.027 MWh, required for production activity, was bought from ZEK S.A. (currently Enion S.A.). The Power Plant is equipped with on-site power, independent of the offsite power, coming from the on-site switching station, which receives its power from the main switching station, and is produced by the generators. Off-site power is used only in a situation when electric power shortages in the Power Plant occur (in the last 10 years such an occurrence happened twice, but not in the year 2005).

5.3Aim and Scope of the Analysis

The aim of the life cycle analysis of the monograph is to define the potential environmental impact of the management of waste, in an annual cycle, generated by the Power Plant’s facilities.

Waste management is currently one of the most difficult environmental and economic problems that need dealing with. It is not only the economic aspects that matter, but also the protection of human health, and the environment, from harmful effects caused by transportation, recycling, neutralisation, and storage of waste (Pietrzyk-Sokulska 2009). In this project, the LCA environmental management methodology (Life Cycle Assessment) is proposed with a view to conducting comprehensive environmental impact analysis of the management of waste, in an annual cycle, generated by the Power Plant’s facilities:

•The coke production facility – Coke Plant,

•The ore sintering facility – Sintering Plant,

•The pig iron melting facilities – Blast Furnaces,

•The steel melting facility – Converter Plant,

•The Continuous Steel Casting facility – CSC,

•The facility for hot rolling of ferrous metals – Hot Strip Mill,

•The fuel combustion facility – Thermal-Electric Power Station (Power Plant).

Each of the facilities is a source of different types of pollutant emissions: air, water, and solid waste. This analysis focuses on the waste management aspect of the problem. The waste production by the abovementioned facilities, in an annual cycle (based on 2005), is considered to be the chosen functional unit, and the boundaries of the analysed system are labelled as gate to gate. The carried out analysis is based on the balance of the waste produced.

The LCA environmental management methodology makes it possible to conduct the assessment from a holistic perspective, which allows to avoid the spreading of the environmental threats from one phase of the process to another (Kowalski et al. 2007). Moreover, the LCA environmental management methodology also makes it possible to determine the eco-points quantifying the environmental impact of individual production processes described above.

The aim of the life cycle analysis of the monograph is to define the potential environmental impact of the management of waste, in an annual cycle, generated by the Power Plant’s facilities.

5.4Waste Management Balance, Analysis Assumptions

The waste management balance in the MSP Power Plant has been drawn up using provided materials. The types of waste generated during the operation of the facilities, are included in Table 5.1, and divided into sections – each with an analysed facility.

For the purposes of the analysis some types of waste are grouped – e.g. one category with hazardous waste has been created, where all kinds of waste of this type, generated by the analysed facilities, are included.

The following types of waste have been grouped:

•Sludge, waste, and sediments from smelter gases cleaning,

•Construction waste,

•Electronic and electric devices along with their equipment,

•Quick coke from decanters, a mixture of molecular salts and autoclaving condensate, grinding materials, rubber, canvas covers, and other mentioned waste are categorised as the “remaining” waste,

•Slag-ash mixtures from liquid drainage of furnace waste are added to coal flyash, and based on the information found in the source materials, their chemical constitution is the same as the constitution of the ashes.

Due to the limitations of the life cycle assessment program’s database, the analysis is carried out by assuming that the majority of the generated waste is stored. It is assumed that hazardous waste is stored in an underground mine. However, the results, indicated in the analysis, may not be entirely correct, owing to the chosen sludge generated during the production of steel in electric furnace shops equipped with electric furnaces (as there is no other method of steel production available in the database). At present, there are two dominant steel production methods in the world. The first one is based on the production in, the so-called, integrated mills where pig iron is produced in blast furnaces and then is converted into steel using oxygen converters with the help of scrap metal (MSP). The second method of steel making is based on using scrap metal in an electric process in steel plants equipped with arc furnaces. The use of all-European data (the database found in SimaPro program) may further damage the credibility of the results, as this type of data is not always adequate to Polish conditions. Exchange of energy between the EU countries may be an example here. Western European countries are associated in the Union for the Co-ordination of Production and Transmission of Electricity (UCPTE), and in the database (mostly Ecoinvent) electric energy appears as Electricity HV use in UCPTE (see Figs. 4.11, 4.12, 4.13, 4.14).