Decarbonization of metal production is currently a unique challenge for the industry. To gain insights, environmental impacts of ferrochrome smelting technologies were estimated using simulation-based life cycle assessment. Two leading technologies: (1) Steel Belt Sintering-Submerged Electric Arc Furnace (SBS-SAF), and (2) Rotary Kiln-Submerged Electric Arc Furnace (RK-SAF) were investigated. Four environmental impact categories: climate change, acidification, particulate matter, and resource use (minerals and metals), were considered. Results showed that GHG emissions for producing high carbon ferrochrome vary to a greater extent depending on location of processing plant because of differences in electricity emission factors. For example, South African energy grid generates more GHG emission than Finnish energy grid. Furthermore, though prereduction reduced SAF energy consumption, it did not necessarily result in reduced net GHG emissions due to high coal consumption of RK. Acidification and particulate matter were higher when using RK-SAF technology. Ferrochrome production generally had low impact on resource use.

金属生产的脱碳目前是该行业面临的独特挑战。为了获得见解，使用基于模拟的生命周期评估来估算铬铁冶炼技术对环境的影响。两项领先技术：（1）钢带烧结-埋弧炉（SBS-SAF）和（2）回转窑-埋弧炉（RK-SAF）进行了研究。考虑了四个环境影响类别：气候变化，酸化，颗粒物和资源使用（矿物和金属）。结果表明，由于电排放因子的差异，生产高碳铬铁的温室气体排放量在很大程度上取决于加工厂的位置。例如，南非的能源网比芬兰的能源网产生更多的温室气体排放。此外，尽管预先减少减少了SAF的能源消耗，但由于RK的煤炭消耗量很高，不一定能减少净温室气体排放量。使用RK-SAF技术时，酸化和颗粒物含量较高。铬铁的生产通常对资源使用的影响很小。