Carbon Dioxide Uptake by Cement-Based Materials: A Spanish Case Study

Miguel Ángel Sanjuán,Pedro Mora,Aniceto Zaragoza,Carmen Andrade

doi:10.3390/app10010339

Abstract

The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” on 28 November 2019. Given that, climate change is a clear strategic issue all around the world. Then, greenhouse gas emissions are reported by each country to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) every year. In addition, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the “2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories” give the procedure to calculate and manage the national greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. However, these guidelines do not provide any method to consider the net carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere (released in clinker fabrication minus those due to concrete carbonation) by the Portland cement clinker industry. This topic should be implemented in the climatic models of the next IPCC assessment report. This paper provides an easy procedure of estimating net CO2 emissions proposed in the “recarbonation project” (simplified method); that is to say, carbon dioxide uptake during the service-life stage is considered as the 20% of the CO2 released by the calcination (process emissions), whereas the end-of-life and secondary usage is only the 3% of the CO2 released by calcination. The outcome of this study reveals that 31,290.753 tons of carbon dioxide will be absorbed by the cement-based materials produced in Spain with the cements manufactured from 2005 to 2015.

Highlights

According to The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [1,2], from 1750 until 2011, the CO2 emissions coming from the use of fossil fuels and cement production released an average of about 375 GtC year−1
This paper provides an easy procedure of estimating net CO2 emissions proposed in the “recarbonation project”; that is to say, carbon dioxide uptake during the service-life stage is considered as the 20% of the CO2 released by the calcination, whereas the end-of-life and secondary usage is only the 3% of the CO2 released by calcination
The method followed to calculate the carbon dioxide uptake by the Spanish cement industry is the one proposed by the “recarbonation project” sponsored by The Portland Cement Association (PCA), The European Cement Association (CEMBUREAU), The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), and Cementa in 2018 [26]

Summary

Introduction

According to The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [1,2], from 1750 until 2011, the CO2 emissions coming from the use of fossil fuels and cement production released an average of about 375 GtC year−1 (from 345 to 405). Between 2002 and 2011, the average emission of fossil fuels and cement production stood at 8.3 GtC year−1 (from 7.6 to 9.0), showing an annual growth of 3.2%, which is greater than what was recorded in the 1990s, which was 1%. In 2011 alone, the fossil fuel emissions amounted to 9.5 GtC year−1 (from 8.7 to 10.3) [2]. It must be pointed out that the anthropogenic emissions.

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