Environmental impact investigation of ceramic kiln’s Kalina cycle under different operating strategies based on life cycle assessment

Recovering waste heat from ceramic kiln is an efficient approach to mitigate environmental pollution and energy crisis. In order to evaluate the environmental performance of Kalina cycle (KC) driven by flue gas of the ceramic kiln, the environmental model based on life cycle assessment are established, and the environmental performances of main component, each phase and the system under environmental and economic operation strategies are discussed and compared. The results indicate that under both operating strategies, the pump and evaporator units are the main components affecting 7 different environmental impact categories, the operation phase and manufacturing phase are the key factors contributing the most to environmental impact. In addition, the soot and dust potential and the solid waste potential have the greatest impacts on environmental impact load of the system.