THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Miloš D Đorđević

,

Nenad Đ ZrnićORCID

,

Milica M PerićORCID

,

Mirko S KomatinaORCID

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF A SHORT-FLIGHT BELT CONVEYOR

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a parametric life cycle assessment (LCA) of a short-flight belt conveyor installed on the bucket wheel excavator SchRs 1200 ×22/2. The primary objective of this study is to identify environmental hotspots linked to the manufacturing and use phases of the belt conveyor, introduce potential improvements in design, materials, and energy consumption, and establish a flexible parametric model applicable to various short-flight conveyor systems. The LCA was conducted using SimaPro 8 software, applying the CML-IA baseline method. In most analyzed impact categories, the production of the belting and pulleys exhibits the biggest impact, primarily due to the environmental impact of steel and rubber production. The environmental impact of the impact and return rollers is also noticeable for the same reason. The contribution of the electric motor is most prominent in the abiotic depletion category due to copper extraction. When the use phase is considered, the impact of electricity consumption for electric motor operating exhibits the highest impact results primarily because Serbia’s electricity is largely generated from lignite combustion. The resulting LCA model provides a robust foundation for decision-making in Ecodesign and sustainability optimization of short-flight belt conveyors.
KEYWORDS
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), short-flight belt conveyor, environmental performance, sustainability
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2025-05-16
PAPER REVISED: 2025-07-24
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2025-08-01
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2025-09-13
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI250516155D
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2026, VOLUME 30, ISSUE No. 2, PAGES [1361 - 1374]
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Life cycle assessment of a short-flight belt conveyor

© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence