Water footprint assessment for iron and steel production based on life cycle and input-output method

The related researches about energy saving and emission reduction (ESER) of iron and steel products are mostly focused on power or raw material, such as carbon footprint assessment (CFS) and rarely involves water. According to the view of water environment protection, the main index for water footprint assessment (WFA) is proposed in this paper. The concept and methodology of the production water footprint is advanced into life cycle WFA. A life cycle assessment and economic input-output method (LCA and EIO) are introduced to analyse the WFA process, which is mainly depending on grey water footprint, blue water footprint. Finally, a WFA case of iron and steel products is studied and several ESER methods are suggested.