The Life Cycle Assessment Of The Magnesium Alloy

The world is experiencing a transition in the mode of development from the industrial civilization to the modern mode of development of ecological civilization's development model. With gradually increasing the consciousness of environmental protection increasing, green products become a growing consumer market.ISO14000 series of standards accelerate the formation of the trade barriers for the green products, a large number of enterprises carry out much invest to develop the green products and set a green image.At present, the consumption, life cycle assessment, design and manufacturing technologies for the green products have been more and more emphasized whether in business and academic circles at home and abroad. Such as the United States'PNGV plans, Germany MADICA plan, Japan Platform and so on. They all are the national research programs, which is addressed and conducted by the combination of enterprises and research institutions. These programmers are the combination of the research and development focusing on the green light metal manufacture and high-strength materials based on the green design and green manufacturing theoretical research.Under the impetus of global environmental protection and sustainable development strategy, magnesium alloy is increasingly applied many areas such as the transportation, electronics, communications and so on due to their excellent performance of magnesium alloy. Magnesium alloy would be rapidly developed in the 21st century. Owing to the large magnesium resource and the underlying explored market, our country holds some special advantages in the development of magnesium alloy.In china, the industry of magnesium alloy only is a new rising industry and from long-term considerations, we should combine the magnesium alloy forming technology with environmentally manufacturing technology to form a benign cycle involving environmental materials, environmental process and environmental reproduction. In doing so, we would establish a saving, environmental, efficient producing system of the magnesium alloys and then realize the good combination of economic benefit and environmental benefit.In this paper, the green design and manufacturing theory about magnesium alloy are primarily discussed. Based on the LCA theory, we carry out a set of evaluation on the production of magnesium alloy materials, the corresponding products, the use of life-cycle environmental impacts, and the green manufacture of magnesium alloy. In this theory, in order to study the environmental impacts of product life cycle, we propose the concept of energy products and non-energy products. A primary analysis is established in the automobile elemental components consisting of magnesium alloys serving as a representative. Importantly, we also solemnly consider the synthetically utilization of resources and the restore of environment in the industrial estate, which is brought into the theoretical frame-system system of LCA and simultaneously the corresponding evaluating index also is put forward.Based on the existing work, closely enclosing the center of green design and manufacture, we would further develop the production, recycling technology of the magnesium alloy along with the related equipment and develop the new high ratio of strength to weight magnesium alloy and that promote our country's industrialization process of magnesium alloy. Main research directions are as follows:1.Engineering research on magnesium alloy's green design, green manufacturing systems.Life cycle assessment is an important tool for the green design and manufacturing. Through studying on life cycle assessment of magnesium alloy, magnesium alloy green products, green technology evaluation system and model are established. The study on the ecological industries in magnesium alloy processing area should be well developed through analysis on raw and processed materials, manufacturing technology, using process as well as energy metabolism during recycling process and therefore to determine the source of magnesium secondary resources, the level of renewable economic assessment on the basis of secondary sources of magnesium circulatory system optimization.2.Regeneration Process and technology research for magnesium secondary resources.In present, the recovery for magnesium alloy is only limited to the clean materials from the furnace. Therefore we should recycle other waste materials. For example, for the handling magnesium debris, it is necessary to resolve the safety of re melting technology; a special equipment and technology are required to recycle those magnesium alloys with sprayed paint and coating. During the recycling process, various environmental standards also seriously considered. In addition, we also develop a good processing technology during recycling solid waste magnesium alloy to further make use of the slag from casting the production and try to develop new technology to reduce burning, metal recovery and improve the quality of secondary metals.3.Development on renewable equipment of magnesium secondary resources.Combining the characteristics of regeneration process in magnesium alloy scrap, emphasis work should be focused on the melting and heating system and that comprehensive develop the potential ability to save energy, which includes improving the thermal efficiency of equipment based on new technology and new materials, and extending stoves life expectancy; With the increasing demand for market, further developing waste pretreatment equipment for and highly efficient, safe, environmentally and friendly dust device for new magnesium alloy; developing the on-line measurement technology and equipment to achieve intelligent controlling and management information.4.Research on renewable technology standards and environmental policy for magnesium alloy.The application technology on magnesium alloy and the corresponding industrial development fast spread, but China's technical standards related to the research and construction is relatively backward and renewable technical standards of magnesium alloy scrap is still blank. It is necessary and significant that we carry out a set of study on the magnesium alloy waste classification standards and some environment policies favoring the second industrial development. Standard study should include the classification, preservation, transportation for magnesium alloy scrap and the corresponding quality standards for recycling magnesium alloy, such as chemical composition, purity, gas content, organization, and mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and surface quality and so on.It is sure that by all the efforts, we will achieve the above goals to promote our country's industrialization process of magnesium alloy.