Life Cycle Analysis: thyssenkrupp Rasselstein provides transparency on environmental data and supports its customers in the analysis of their production process.

Measuring and evaluating environmental impact data is more important now than ever. On the one hand, regulations concerning environmental sustainability are gradually becoming more demanding for companies; on the other hand, consumers are increasingly interested in knowing the CO2 footprint of the packaging they take off the shelf during their purchases. thyssenkrupp Rasselstein, Germany’s only tinplate manufacturer, offers its customers – the packaging manufacturers – its expertise in life cycle analysis (LCA). This method systematically analyzes the environmental effects (e.g. CO₂eq) of a product over its entire life cycle. In this way, thyssenkrupp Rasselstein’s customers gain valuable insight into the tinplate manufacturer’s emissions data. In addition, thyssenkrupp Rasselstein supports its customers in the LCA calculation of their own product.

“We have repeatedly observed that our customers want to know the CO2 footprint of their product and at which stage of their production process there are emission reduction potentials. We had already recognized the importance of taking into account the entire product life cycle in the production of tinplate long before, so we have adopted LCA as a fixed component of our sustainability strategy. Therefore, LCA is a permanent element from the early stages of our product development,” says Dr. Linda Kerkhoff, engineering engineer for the company. Linda Kerkhoff, development engineer for Materials, Applications and Technology at thyssenkrupp Rasselstein GmbH.

The development of an LCA offers companies a number of advantages. The rasselstein® packaging steel LCA is validated and certified by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a leading global certification body in the field of Business Assurance. The certification ensures a reliable database and calculation method, which enables communication to the end customer, is used to stand out in competition with other packaging and serves as a basis for LCAs of customers’ products. In general, LCAs provide greater transparency as well as insight into the product’s processes and their effect on the environment. In this way, they enable the development of more sustainable
packaging solutions.

An analysis based on an extensive energy management system
thyssenkrupp Rasselstein has continuously further developed its LCA capabilities over the past three years. The Andernach, Germany-based company has developed a detailed energy management system over the past few years, which now serves as the basis for LCA data in tinplate manufacturing. Through seamless communication with colleagues at the Duisburg steel mill, where the hot-rolled strip for tinplate manufacture comes from, an additional database is created. “We have access to all Steel Packaging Steel Acronyms of the department’s relevant data sets and thus achieve an accurate calculation of our product,” says Dr. Dr. Köhler.says Dr. Linda Kerkhoff. Linda Kerkhoff. Thus, the manufacturer of steel packaging

represents in its LCA the complete process from the creation of the steel in the Duisburg plant to the moment the tinplate crosses the Andernach gate for transport to the customer.

In an LCA, emissions fall into three scope types (categories). Scope 1 emissions are defined as emissions emitted at the production site. At thyssenkrupp Rasselstein these are the emissions that occur from the combustion of natural gas. Scope 2 and 3 emissions are defined as indirect emissions. Scope 2 emissions are emissions from the production of electricity, natural gas or steam. Scope 3 emissions include emissions from upstream processes in the value chain, including the extraction and transformation of raw materials such as tin, iron ore and steel or hot rolled strip.

LCA makes CO2 reduction potential visible
The LCA of thyssenkrupp Rasselstein yields a total CO2 footprint result of 2.45 t CO2eq/t of packaging steel. Most of the emissions can be attributed to the hot-rolled strip supplied as raw material from thyssenkrupp Steel Europe in Duisburg. Therefore, these emissions fall into Scope 3. Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions arise within the manufacturing process of packaging steel. Scope 1 and 2 emissions are continuously reduced at the Andernach plant through energy efficiency projects such as the construction of a more modern coating plant and the use of innovative recuperators in the annealing facilities.
Today, customers already have various options available to them to reduce their CO2 footprint in, for example, food or aerosol cans. “Manufacturers can use reduced CO2 bluemint® steel tinplate, which directly reduces their Scope 3 emissions from packaging steel by 62 %. For a further reduction in CO2 emissions, innovative products such as rasselstein® D&I Solid and rasselstein® Solidflex can be used, which enable corresponding reductions in thickness,” explains Dr. Dr. K. K. K. K. K. K. K. K. K. K., who is a member of the company’s R&D department.explains Dr. Linda Kerkhoff. Linda Kerkhoff.

To support its customers even further, thyssenkrupp Rasselstein evaluates the customer’s processes and products together with the customer and offers to perform an LCA. Based on this LCA, CO2 reduction potentials and optimization possibilities are determined, as well as the best way to implement them. “In contrast to other LCA providers, we know the needs of our customers and know in detail what packaging manufacturers value. Our goal is to produce, together with our customers, a tinplate as a sustainable packaging material that is suitable for future use.”says Dr. Linda Kerkhoff. Linda Kerkhoff.