Graduate School of Engineering
Department of Metallurgy

Advanced Materials Physical Chemistry
Materials Cycle and Resources Utilization

Research Topics

Sustainable management of ferrous material cycle and alloying elements utilization

Rapid economic growth of the BRIC countries has resulted in an increase in the demand for iron and steel products. For sustainable resource management, ferrous material flow must be one of the most important streams because of its amount and contained alloying elements. Scrap recycling, however, is subject to some problems, such as unstable supply conditions and contamination by impurities. Our study aims to develop the ideal system of scrap sorting from the resources conservation and life cycle emissions reduction perspectives.

Phosphorus governance based on material flow analysis

The increase in the world population will cause the food demand to increase, and hence the importance of phosphorus will be expected to grow in the future. In this context, securing supplies of phosphorus has considerable implications that extend beyond food and agricultural policy. The global production of agricultural products depends on a small number of ore-producing countries. Phosphorus mainly exists as an underground resource whose potential depletion has raised concerns. Phosphorus resource governance is now becoming targets of the global attention. For sustainable management of phosphorus resources, our study analyzes the global supply and demand network based on scientific knowledge from the life cycle perspective.

Life cycle analysis model development based on Input Output method

The conceptual advantage of Input Output analysis(IOA) method is its ability to consider all the inter-industry flows within the economy and to trace whole supply chains, from the mining of natural resources to the delivery of final products to end users. The application of IOA to material flow analysis(MFA) which could be considered the mass balance condition between inputs and outputs (physical inputs = physical outputs + process waste + emission) in the production of goods.
Our study aims to develop the appropriate analytical method and database which contributes to design sustainable material cycle and resource utilization society.