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Brief user guide - METGROW+ tool
How we do it:
Toolbox
The ICT-Toolbox produced gathering all the information from the decision support framework is the main METGROW+ project end-product. As reflected in the Grant Agreement, "a flexible new metallurgical systems toolbox that allows finding the best combination of processes for a selected low-grade resource will be produced".
Definition of the functionalities
Considering the definition in the grant agreement, the developed tool should be able to provide alternative processes for each raw material and these will be selected depending on the chosen criteria. Thus, several pathways for the same raw material have been assessed through the application of LCA, TEA and RA methodologies. The information produced in the assessment is treated and stored in a database, which feeds the web tool.
The web tool has been produced and hosted in the domain idener.es. The implementation of the first version of the METGROW+ toolbox has been done using ASP.net core, latest open source technology from Microsoft that ensures portability on different platforms. It uses Microsoft SQL standard version as databases. The whole system has been dockerized for ensuring fast deployment and easy maintenance of the solution.
The toolbox addressed the inclusion of new materials and processes and, therefore, the wide application of the tool in metallurgical processes. To that end, the selection of a specific resource would be replaced by the selection of material characteristics such as the content in key metals.
Functional requirements
The end-user would be able to select (1) the material among those indicated, (2) EU member state (3) the weight of each of the evaluation criteria. These criteria would be related to (1) environment assessment (LCA), (2) techno-economic (TEA) and (3) risk assessment (RA)) and would be calculated according to the methodology set in the multicriteria analysis step. The produced output would be the information about the process that best fits the selected criteria among those assessed for materials with similar characteristics
Multicriteria Analysis
The general methodology follows the following procedure:
- Values for each criterion for each process, which are outputs from LCA, TEA and other sources, are compared to a reference value and given a score.
- A weighting procedure is performed with local and regional stakeholders where each criterion are given weights (0-100 percent) depending on their relative importance (with the sum of all weights should equal 100).
- The score of each criterion for each process is multiplied with the weight chosen for that criterion, which gives a weighted score.
- The sum of all weighted scores for each process gives the final score for that process, which is the value that is used to compare different processes.
This methodology is presented graphically in the following figure:
| Score | Meaning | |||
| Environmental aspects | Hazards | Economic aspects | Legislation/Acceptance | |
| ++ | Large avoided impacts | No hazards idenfied | Very profitable | Very positive |
| + | Intermediate avoided impacts | No severe or high concern hazards, less than 3 minor hazards | Profitable | Positive |
| 0 | No net impacts (avoided or additional) | No high concern hazards, less than 2 severe hazards, and/or more than 3 minor hazards | Not profitable | No impact |
| - | Intermediate additional impacts | 1 high concern hazard, and/or more than 2 severe hazards | Unfavourable economically | Negative |
| -- | Large additional impacts | More than 1 high concern hazard | Very unfavourable economically | Very negative |
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 690088.