Life Cycle Assessment Of Recycled WC-Co Through Zinc Processing

Up to date, the environmental benefits of recycling cemented carbides, such as tungsten carbide cobalt (WC-Co), in comparison to their primary production, have been addressed only by a few research groups globally. However, the recycling of key elements, tungsten and cobalt, is crucial for supply security, as they are identified as Critical Raw Materials (CRM) by the European Commission [1]. Primary production of WC-Co, besides relying on scarce raw materials, requires high amounts of chemicals and energy. In this study, we focus on the recycling of WC-Co through zinc processing, for which the environmental impacts have not been reported earlier in the open literature. This study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) for sintered WC-Co cemented carbide “bits” made from recycled WC-Co. The benefit of recycling WC-Co products is illustrated by comparing the LCA results to existing literature based on the primary production and alternative circular route of recycling.