Comparative study of cement manufacturing with different strength grades using the coupled LCA and partial LCC methods—A case study in China

Abstract

A life cycle assessment (LCA) and partial life cycle cost (LCC) were carried out to identify the environmental and economic burdens of six different strength grades of cement manufacturing in China. The comparative results show that the higher the strength grade of the cement, the greater the environmental impacts and the slightly better economic performance compared with cement with lower strength grade. Common cement has more environmental impacts and a higher economic cost than the early strength cement with the same strength grade. The mid-point LCA and partial LCC results indicated that high resource and energy consumption, direct emissions and the transport of raw materials during cement production are the main processes contributing to the majority of the environmental categories and the economic cost. The endpoint LCA results indicate that the impacts generated with respect to global warming and resource categories made dominant contributions to the overall environmental burdens. Effective approaches to reduce the environmental impacts and economic cost of the cement industry in China include promoting cement production technology, decreasing the consumption of limestone and energy and increasing the energy recovery rate, and optimizing the transport distance.