Environmental assessment of refractories in the steel industry: A comprehensive LCA framework with an innovative data retrieval approach

Refractory materials are essential for sustaining high-temperature industrial processes, with the steel industry being the largest consumer. This study proposes a comprehensive life cycle assessment framework for refractories in the steel industry, addressing key methodological challenges, particularly those concerning various post-use refractory management strategies. Collecting inventory for refractory production is challenging due to confidentiality concerns and suppliers' reluctance to share information. To overcome this, an innovative method is developed to retrieve essential inventory data from the refractory's product definition. The framework is applied through a case study comparing two magnesia-carbon bricks used for steel ladle slag lining: one produced in China and the other in the Netherlands. Inventories for brick production are derived from the respective product definitions. Results reveal that the Netherlands brick performs better in climate change and acidification, while the Chinese brick shows lower impacts in other assessed categories. Electricity consumption during magnesia production and thermal energy demand for ladle heating are identified as the major environmental hotspots. Energy transition scenarios demonstrate the potential for significant improvements. Replacing national grid electricity and natural gas with renewable electricity and green hydrogen leads to more than 30 % reductions in most impact categories. Climate change impacts, for instance, decrease from 1.89 to 0.97 kg CO 2 eq for the Chinese brick and from 1.67 to 0.77 kg CO 2 eq for the Netherlands brick. Sensitivity analysis shows that magnesia production strongly influences environmental performance, while uncertainty associated with product-definition-derived data is generally minor. • A comprehensive LCA framework is developed for refractories in steelmaking. • An inventory retrieval method is proposed when primary data are unavailable. • Two magnesia-carbon bricks, from China and the Netherlands, are compared. • Electricity is identified as a major environmental hotspot. • Transition to green energy may reduce the overall impacts by at least 30%.