Potential Evaluation And Benefits Analysis Of Resource Recovery From End-of-life Ships

As an important part of the circular economy,the shipbreaking industry can recycle resources from end-of-life ships and promote the sustainable development of the shipping industry.However,there are few studies on the global shipbreaking industry based on the perspective of view of circular economy.The lack of data for resource,environmental and economic benefits of the shipbreaking industry makes it difficult to identify the sustainable development path of the shipbreaking industry,which hinders the development and growth of circular economy in the shipbuilding industry.Based on the collection of extensive data on global ship scrapping,resource recovery,environmental impact and relevant price,this study estimated the total amount of various resources recovered from global shipbreaking and its geographical distribution from 2013 to 2019;through combining dynamic material flow analysis and scenario analysis framed by Shared Socioeconomic Pathways(SSPs),this study forecasted the stock and flow of ships and related resource.The resource,environmental and economic benefits of resource recycling in the global shipbreaking industry from 2013 to 2019 were assessed using life cycle analysis and economic cost-benefit methods.In addition,this study also assessed the resource recycling potential and resource-environment benefits of the global shipbreaking industry in the next 3 decades.The results showed that:(1)From 2013 to 2019,a total of 8124 ships were dismantled globally,of which the cumulative total resources recovered from end-of-life ships were 55.9 million tons,including reroll plate(75.6%of the total recovered resources),melting scarp(9.7%),cast iron(3.8%),non-ferrous metals(1.4%),machinery and equipment(5.2%)and wood(4.3%).(2)The potential of resource recovery is huge.The stock of steel in ships would continue growing over the next three decades,reaching 1.11-1.64 billion tons,while the theoretical scrap volume of steel for ships would also increase year by year,with global steel generated from scrapped ships increasing approximately fourfold to 40.4-47.3 million tons/year by 2050.(3)According to the accounting of or study,the resources recycled between 2013 and 2019 have resulted in a 78.0%reduction in net energy consumption and saved of 69.7 million tons of iron ore.Recycling resources from end-of-life ships avoided CO2 emissions of 47 million tons.However,over 73%of end-of-life ships were dismantled through substandard shipbreaking methods in South Asia,which generated the 10 million tons CO2 and 2.4×1012 kg toluene eq non-carcinogenic.The price of end-of-life ships and the price of resources(e.g.steel and non-ferrous metals)were the main factors affecting the profitability of substandard shipbreaking methods,while the main influencing factors for standard shipbreaking methods are taxes and labor costs.The total revenue of the global shipbreaking industry is 31.8 billion dollars,of which 97.1%occurred in developing countries.At the same time,our results showed that the global shipbreaking industry would be able to recover more resources in the future,saving 1.1 billion tons of iron ore,560-580 million tons of coal and 0.9 billion tons of limestone by 2050.Based on the perspective of circular economy,this study compiled the resource recycling data of the shipbreaking industry which provided data support for the comprehensively assessment the resource,environmental and economic benefits of the shipbreaking industry.Based on the result,this study proposed targeted countermeasures for the recycling of resources in the shipbreaking industry,which promote the circular economy and sustainable development of the industry.