Case Studies

LCA of Nickel

Life Cycle Assessment of Nickel Products

The Nickel Institute has also published a peer-reviewed Life Cycle Assessment of Nickel Products authored by Ecobalance Inc.

The Life Cycle Assessment of Nickel Products provides the only complete and recent measures of environmental inputs and outputs associated with the cradle-to-gate production of one kilo of nickel in metallic nickel, nickel oxide and ferro-nickel. The Nickel Institute performed an LCA of their products to understand the environmental impacts of its products throughout the lifecycle.

Several member companies of the Nickel Development Institute (NiDI) and Societe ERAMET commissioned Ecobalance to perform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on selected nickel products. Specifically, two components of an LCA, Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) and Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), were carried out on nickel products.

The goal of the study was “ to provide the Nickel Industry with a current LCA of three nickel products, using current, robust data on nickel production. The three products studied include: Class 1 nickel metal; Nickel oxide; and Ferronickel.”

The LCA study has assisted the Nickel Institute in the following:

-Improving data on environmental indicators

-Investment decision-making and the integration of environmental criteria to implement participating Steering Group   members’ industrial policies

-Providing information to customer, academic, authority, and other interested groups in order to support the sales and marketing of nickel products.

The LCA, including the contractor selection and contract negotiation, took two years. The study was fully ISO compliant and peer-reviewed.