Cement industry greenhouse gas emissions – management options and abatement cost

Abstract

Growing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and increasing global demand for cement are general drivers for managing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the cement industry. Overall CO2 dominates cement sector GHG emissions. The aim was to study how the management of GHG emissions in the cement production chain is related to (1) clinker substitutes, (2) primary source of energy, (3) electricity emissions, (4) technology in use and (5) geographic location. Therefore regional CO2 emissions in the cement industry were analyzed by applying a climate impact management matrix on a cradle-to-gate basis. The use of clinker substitutes in cement varied from 3% to 36.4%. The results show that the variation of process technology and thermal energy use related CO2 emissions is more significant than that of electricity emissions. The highest near term potential to avoid emissions is replacing clinker with mineral components (MIC). Increasing the global use of MIC to a level of 34.2%in cement would save 312 Mt CO2 with the 2013 level of annual cement production. Similarly, a 2.7% reduction in thermal energy use would save 28 Mt CO2 annually, and a 10% decrease of emissions from electricity use would save 26 Mt CO2. The best long term options from 2030 onwards are different carbon capture technologies and MgO and geopolymer cements. In addition, the CO2 abatement costs of different investment projects were compared by using a uniform capital recovery factor. The abatement cost of avoided emissions varied from US$4 to US$ 448 per ton of CO2 depending on the technology, geographical location and initial level of CO2 emissions.