Research On Boron Industry Ecologicalization In China

China’s boron industry was founded in1956and so it has over50years’development history. In the process of development it has made great progress, but many problems occurred also. Along with the development of our national economy, the demand of boron products is increasing while the boron ore can be used at present is scarce so that the sustainable development of boron industry is in face of crisis. If we want to increase the efficiency of utilizing boron resource, improve the environmental problems and realize the sustainable development ecologicalization must be carried out so that boron industry system can develop better. The purpose of this research is to search after the methods and ways to convert boron industry to ecological industry and provide theoretical basis for decision makers and governors so industry ecology is applied to this research.Some key problems on boron industry ecologicalization were analyzed at first. The definition of boron industry ecosystem was brought forward imitating the definition of industry ecosystem and the development level of industry ecosystem was analyzed. And then schematic diagram was constructed based on the theory of industry metabolism. The strategies of boron industrial development in the future along with the barriers which foreclose the process of ecologicalization were pointed out.The environmental impacts resulting from the technology of borax and boracic acid production and the pyrometallurgical separation of paigeite ore were assessed with the method of life cycle assessment. Firstly material consumption and pollution emission of production process were quantified and then environmental impacts were assessed based on the category of environmental impact and characterization factors. The results showed that the production process of borax and boracic acid impact surface water little. The environmental impacts resulting from borax production with the material of boron concentrate is the biggest except for mineral resources depletion and solid waste. The environmental impacts resulting from borax production with the material of szaibelyite and boron-rich slag are less than those with the material of boron concentrate. From the production of boracic acid we can see that the minimum total environmental impacts result from floatation technology with the material of szaibelyite, the secondary result from floatation technology with the material of boron concentrate, the tertiary result from two-step process and the maximum environmental impacts result from salting out technology with the material of paigeite ore. Of all the links of pyrometallurgical separation of paigeite ore most of the solid waste is created at the link of mining and processing. Except for acidification, photochemical ozone formation and solid waste other environmental impacts are great at the link of separation by blastfurnace. The acidification and photochemical ozone formation are the most important impacts at the link of borax production. Compare with the production process, impacts resulting from energy production are very important so reducing energy consumption is a good method to reduce the environmental impacts of whole industry system. Comparing the total environmental impacts resulting from the processing of every10000t raw ore after weighting and totaling we can see that the largest impacts come from the pyrometallurgical separation of paigeite ore while the smallest impacts come from borax production with szaibelyite and the impacts coming from boracic acid production with szaibelyite are in-between.Index system was constructed to appraise the ecologicalization level of boron industry and weights of each index were quantified by analytical hierarchy process. Fuzzy synthesis assessment was applied to appraise the ecologicalization level of Liaoning’s boron industry and the results showed that resource system plays an important role in the system hierarchy. The key indices are boron resource recoverable deposits, eco-environmental quality, boron ore quality, primary products proportion and the ability to invent advanced technology. It has a long way for Liaoning’s boron industry to realize ecological industry so it is a key phase now. The advantage is that it has abundant resource and local government constituted some advantaged measures. But at the meantime it has some disadvantages such as low level of factory’s cleaner production, high output of boron mud and dissatisfactory economic returns.Based on improving of boron iron separation technologies and the advantageous context of local boron industry the eco-industrial park for comprehensive utilization of paigeite ore should be constructed along with exploiting. In the eco-industrial park there should be three ecological industry chains which are boron industry chain, iron industry chain and boron mud industry chain. A virtual eco-industrial park may be constructed to content local context. Large companies should be fostered in order to keep ecological industry chains steady. Cleaner production measures must be carried out to construct ecological plants. Refined chemical products must be exploited to extend industry chains. Perfect information network must be set up to insure the eco-industrial park running steady. At last government should keep on regarding boron industry and supporting its development.