Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy (2019) 21:1723–1737 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-019-01741-w ORIGINAL PAPER Environmental and economic impact assessment of the alumina–carbon refractory production in China Yuzhou Tang 1  · Yifei Shi 1  · Yue Li 1  · Xueliang Yuan 1  · Ruimin Mu 2  · Qingsong Wang 1  · Qiao Ma 1  · Jinglan Hong 3  · Shensong Cao 4  · Jian Zuo 5  · Jon Kellett 5 Received: 25 March 2019 / Accepted: 29 July 2019 / Published online: 5 August 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Continuous casting technology is extensively used in steel production. Refractory materials made from alumina–carbon (Al 2 O 3 –C) are integral to the continuous casting process to ensure high-quality steel product. However, the production of Al 2 O 3 –C refractory material itself is the source of a range of environmental problems. Life cycle assessment and life cycle cost methods are applied to compare and analyze the environmental impact and economic cost of the Al 2 O 3 –C refractory pro- duction process in a Chinese factory. The study analyzes the environmental impact and fnancial cost of Al 2 O 3 –C refractory production in the “cradle-to-gate” system boundary. Monte Carlo simulation was used in uncertainty analysis to ensure the credibility of the study. The results indicate that the key environmental impact categories of Al 2 O 3 –C refractory production are: freshwater eutrophication, human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, and natural land transformation. The batching and coal gas preparation processes are the key processes with remarkable environmental impact. They make up 69.5% and 13.5% of the environmental impact load of the Al 2 O 3 –C refractory production separately. Sintered corundum and coal are the key materials with signifcant environmental impact. They constitute 44.4% and 11.3% of the total envi- ronmental impact load, respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows that the batching process has a higher optimization priority than the coal gas preparation process. The fndings point toward more sustainable methods to manufacture for Al 2 O 3 –C refractory materials. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-019-01741-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Xueliang Yuan yuanxl@sdu.edu.cn * Ruimin Mu ruiminmu@163.com 1 School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, 17923 Jingshi Road, Jinan 250061, China 2 School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan 250100, Shandong Province, China 3 School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, 27 Shandanan Road, Jinan 250100, China 4 School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China 5 School of Architecture and Built Environment, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia