Carbon footprint based analysis for estimating the potential pollution of nickel production in Indonesia Available to Purchase

Nickel (Ni) is one of the mineral resources that currently have high market demand worldwide due to the electric cars policy and development. Total reserve of nickel worldwide is recorded about 89 million tons that mainly spread in tens countries and Indonesia is among of the top three highest nickel producers worldwide. Currently, nickel ores are being processed with various technologies such as ferronickel smelting, nickel matte smelting, electric furnace smelting, and high-pressure acid leach (HPAL). An application of these technologies requires the power plant as energy source. In addition, the mining activities that cover land clearing, soil salvage, overburden management, and nickel ore loading and hauling are also consuming fossil fuel as energy source. These two activities are two main activities that contribute to the carbon footprint of nickel production. The study aims to estimate the carbon footprint per ton of nickel (Ni) production and identify the environmental hotspots associated with the pollution reduction strategy. The method that applied for estimating the GHG emission is adapted from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In addition, a nickel mine site was used as a case study. The nickel mine site processes around 8.3 million tons nickel ore that consist of 90 percent limonite ore and 10 percent saprolite ore. The result showed that a total of 2.5 million tons CO₂−e was generated by mining operations and processing plant contributed about 1.4 million tons of CO₂−e per annum. In addition, the carbon intensity per ton of nickel (Ni) produced was 24.5 CO₂−e per ton Ni. The intensity value is lower than the processing plant that applying Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace (RKEF) technology. These carbon footprints were mainly generated by the utilization of fossil fuels, namely diesel fuel, and coal. Therefore, the further study for emission reduction strategy analysis such as utilization of biodiesel, coal with high calorific value, and introducing renewable energy should be conducted. The life cycle assessment should also be considered to capture the upstream process.