Life cycle GHG emissions assessment of vanadium recovery from bitumen-derived petcoke fly ash

Petcoke generated during bitumen upgrading is a potential source of vanadium for the global market. Recovering vanadium from the fly ash originating from the combustion of petcoke appears to be a suitable route for commercial implementation, given its high extraction rate. Although the technical feasibility of the recovery process has been proven, the environmental impact should be addressed. Information on the greenhouse (GHG) emissions from the process is scarce in the public domain. Therefore, a framework was developed for assessment of life cycle GHG emissions for extraction of vanadium from petcoke-based fly ash. This framework was used to perform a life cycle GHG emissions assessment of a water leaching and salt roasting process to extract vanadium from fly ash. For the upstream GHG emissions, we collected direct emissions data and energy consumption from the literature, and, for the process emissions, we developed a model to estimate energy and material balances based on process conditions. The emission factors for electricity production, fuel combustion, production of consumables, and gas treatment were used to obtain the life cycle GHG emissions. The results show that the life cycle GHG emission of vanadium recovery are 26.6_-3.9^+0.9 kg CO₂eq/kg V₂O₅; 66% of these are direct GHG emissions. The process GHG emissions from fly ash decarbonization contribute the most to the life cycle GHG emissions. The air-to-fuel ratio for roasting and the GHG emission factors for petcoke combustion and the gas treatment operation are the inputs that most effect the model output. Compared with the production of V₂O₅ from vanadium titano-magnetite ore and bitumen upgrading spent catalyst, the petcoke fly ash pathway generates about twice the life cycle GHG emissions. This study's results can help determine areas of improvement in the upstream operations and the recovery process to reduce the life cycle GHG emissions to levels that can compete with primary and alternative routes to produce vanadium pentoxide. The results of this study can help in decision-making associated with vanadium extract from fly ash produced from combustion of petcoke.