Abstract
The copper mine sites in Indonesia usually manage their power plant to fulfill energy demands. Two main types of power plants that operate in mine sites are coal-fired power plant and diesel power plant. The operation of these two power plants would generate the wastes that potentially pollute the environment. This study focuses on coal-fired power plant operations that produce two common types of waste: fly ash and bottom ash. A 160 MW coal-fired power plant operated by a mine site was taken as a case study. The fly ash and bottom ash (FABA) are managed using three strategies, namely landfilling, shipment to the third-party, and internal utilisation. This study aims to assess the endpoint damage category of each strategy applied. A life cycle assessment (LCA) approach was used to compare those strategies using SimaPro software. The ReCiPe (Hierarchical) endpoint damage category method that consists of three elements, namely human health, ecosystems, and resources, was applied. The functional unit (FU) was one ton of FABA managed by a mining company using three different strategies. The result showed that the lowest endpoint impact was the FABA utilisation management strategy with the following values: human health (8.59 x 10-6 DALY), ecosystems (2.05 x 10-8 species.yr), resources (0.888 USD2013), and the highest endpoint impact was generated by FABA shipment to third party strategy due to fuel diesel consumed, hauling material distance, and landfill disposal management. The environmental hotspot is mainly generated by diesel fuel consumption of vehicles and vessels that are being operated by those three strategies. Fuel efficiency, hauling and transporting route options, and road alignment design should be considered to improve the environmental performance of those three FABA management strategies.
