Abstract
Cement manufacturing is one of the most energy and CO2 intensive industries. With the growth of cement production, CO2 emissions are increasing rapidly too. Carbon capture and storage is the most feasible new technology option to reduce CO2 emissions in the cement industry. More research on environmental impacts is required to provide the theoretical basis for the implementation of carbon capture and storage in cement production. In this paper, GaBi software and scenario analysis were employed to quantitatively analyze and compare the environmental impacts of cement production with and without carbon capture and storage technology, from the perspective of a life-cycle assessment; aiming to promote sustainable development of the cement industry. Results of two carbon capture and storage scenarios show decreases in the impacts of global warming potential and some environmental impacts. However, other scenarios show a significant increase in other environmental impacts. In particular, post-combustion carbon capture technology can bring a more pronounced increase in toxicity potential. Therefore, effective measures must be taken into account to reduce the impact of toxicity when carbon capture and storage is employed in cement production. CO2 transport and storage account for only a small proportion of environmental impacts. For post-combustion carbon capture, most of the environmental impacts come from the unit of combined heat and power and carbon capture, with the background production of MonoEthanolAmine contributing significantly. In combined heat and power plants, natural gas is more advantageous than a 10% coal-saving, and thermal efficiency is a key parameter affecting the environmental impacts. Future research should focus on exploring cleaner and effective absorbents or seeking the alternative fuel in combined heat and power plants for post-combustion carbon capture. If the power industry is the first to deploy carbon capture and storage, oxy-combustion carbon capture is an excellent choice for the cement industry.
Highlights
Cement is one of the most abundantly produced building materials, and global production has been increasing steadily since the 1950s
The life cycle inventory (LCI) for cement production with and without CO2 capture was based on a new-build cement plant, which was designed based on specifications in the technical report discussed above [19]
Effective measures must be taken into account to reduce the impacts of toxicity when post-combustion carbon capture technology is employed in cement production
Summary
Cement is one of the most abundantly produced building materials, and global production has been increasing steadily since the 1950s. Since material or process replacement is not technically or economically feasible in the industrial sector [4,5], CCS is considered the technically feasible technology that can deeply reduce CO2 emissions from combustion and other major industrial processes. Post-combustion capture of MonoEthanolAmine (MEA), a popular chemical absorbent, is used to capture CO2 from flue gas, and considerable heat is required to regenerate the absorbent These new materials and additional energy, or energy penalty, will incur direct or indirect background environmental impacts from the perspective of LCA. Many studies have examined these additional environmental impacts derived from CCS for power plants and chemicals production coupled with an LCA method [27]. Ppoosstt--ccoommbbuussttiioonn ccaarrbboonn ccaappttuurree aanndd ssttoorraaggee of FFiigguurree33..SSyysstetemmbboouunnddaarryyooffcceemmeennttpprroodduuccttiioonnwwiitthhooxxyy--ccoommbbuussttiioonnCCCCSS.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
