Accounting For Carbon Emissions In The Production And Grinding Applications Of Different Grinding Media

China has become one of the world’s largest emitters of CO₂ and is facing a serious challenge to reduce emissions.As a typical representative of the energy sector,the mining industry contributes more than 30%of the country’s GDP to the economy.Mineral extraction operations are accompanied by huge energy consumption,with mineral grinding consuming approximately 3%of the world’s energy.Reducing the energy consumption of grinding operations has become a consensus in mine processing plants.Therefore,it is important to clarify the real situation of carbon emissions in the mining industry,so as to reduce carbon emissions in the mining industry and help achieve the"double carbon"target.As the source of carbon emissions,the mining industry needs to account for its energy consumption and carbon emissions.The paper collects and analyses the basic data on energy consumption and energy structure of the mining industry in China from 2011 to2020,and converts the sub-energy into a unified standard quantity through the method of standard coal conversion.The results show that the average annual decline rates of coal products and petroleum sub-energy consumption are 3.38%and 5.85%respectively,and the average annual growth rate of electricity sub-energy consumption is 36.71%.At the same time,the contribution of carbon intensity,energy intensity,industrial structure and economic development to the CO₂ emissions of the mining industry was clarified by using the Laspeyres complete decomposition analysis between years.Grinding is an important process in the mining industry,and grinding media is essential for grinding operations.The raw material for steel ball media comes from steel rods.The carbon emission factor method is used to account for carbon emissions from the steel industry in China at the level of energy consumption.The results show that carbon emissions in the Chinese steel industry are increasing with steel production,but the carbon emission intensity shows a decreasing trend,with an average carbon emission intensity of1.97 t CO₂/t from 2011 to 2019.In addition,the carbon emissions from the production of steel and ceramic balls were accounted for by combining the annual data provided by steel and ceramic ball manufacturers.The results show that the carbon intensity of steel ball production is 2.09 t CO2/t steel ball and 1.22 t CO2/t ceramic ball.The carbon emissions of the grinding process based on the different grinding media were accounted for on the premise that the carbon emissions intensity of the grinding media production process has been accounted for.The results show that the optimized steel ball grinding process reduces the unit electricity consumption from 7.71 k Wh/t to 6.86 k Wh/t and the media unit consumption from 0.83 kg/t to 0.80 kg/t.The optimization can help the plant to save 22.25 million RMB per year in grinding costs and reduce carbon emissions by about 154.29 t.The results show that the optimized steel ball grinding process reduces the unit electricity consumption from 7.71 k Wh/t to 6.86 k Wh/t and the media unit consumption from 0.83 kg/t to 0.80 kg/t.The results show that the replacement of steel ball media with ceramic balls reduces the unit power consumption from 5.62 k Wh/t to 3.41k Wh/t and the media unit consumption from 0.46 k Wh/t to 0.13 k Wh/t.The replacement can help the plant save 1,478,500 yuan per year in grinding costs and reduce carbon emissions by approximately 1487.46 t.The ceramic ball can reduce CO₂ emissions while fully achieving the effect of steel ball grinding,which is a low carbon grinding technology that can be promoted in the future in response to the"double carbon"strategy.