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Exergy cost allocation of by-products in the mining and metallurgical industry

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  • Valero, Alicia
  • Domínguez, Adriana
  • Valero, Antonio

Abstract

In the mining and metallurgical industry, with each ore, products, by-products and wastes appear. Allocations among products when one or more by-products come about in a mining or metallurgical process are based either on tonnage or on commercial prices. Both ways of allocating costs entails disadvantages that are analysed in this paper. Besides a rigorous way to allocate costs among non-fuel minerals through the exergy replacement costs is proposed. Particularly, 33 different mineral deposit models where 12 coupled products are obtained have been analysed. Results show that the average difference between the economic approach and the exergy approach range from 0% to 30%. The highest difference is presented in metals such as copper, nickel and cobalt. Therefore, as a case study, exergy cost allocation was applied to copper and nickel production with its respective by-product (cobalt). The results suggest that if exergy replacement cost is applied, cost allocation values are similar to those obtained via the price indicator. This supports the idea that the exergy replacement cost is very close to the value society places on minerals. That said, contrarily to prices, exergy replacement cost does not fluctuate with external factors linked to market mechanisms but remains constant.

Suggested Citation

  • Valero, Alicia & Domínguez, Adriana & Valero, Antonio, 2015. "Exergy cost allocation of by-products in the mining and metallurgical industry," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 128-142.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:102:y:2015:i:c:p:128-142
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2015.04.012
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    8. Valero, Antonio & Valero, Alicia, 2010. "Exergoecology: A thermodynamic approach for accounting the Earth's mineral capital. The case of bauxite–aluminium and limestone–lime chains," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 229-238.
    9. Humphreys, David, 2013. "New mercantilism: A perspective on how politics is shaping world metal supply," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 341-349.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Yuzhu & Xu, Jinzhao & Wang, Jun & Lund, Peter D., 2021. "Exergo-environmental cost optimization of a combined cooling, heating and power system using the emergy concept and equivalent emissions as ecological boundary," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    2. Jorge Torrubia & César Torres & Alicia Valero & Antonio Valero & Ashak Mahmud Parvez & Mohsin Sajjad & Felipe García Paz, 2024. "Applying Circular Thermoeconomics for Sustainable Metal Recovery in PCB Recycling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-23, October.
    3. Han, Zepeng & Wang, Jiangjiang & Cui, Zhiheng & Lu, Chunyan & Qi, Xiaoling, 2021. "Multi-objective optimization and exergoeconomic analysis for a novel full-spectrum solar-assisted methanol combined cooling, heating, and power system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).

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