Existing Cement Plants Research Articles

Early Opportunities for Onshore and Offshore CCUS Deployment in the Chinese Cement Industry

The promotion of deep decarbonization in the cement industry is crucial for mitigating global climate change, a key component of which is carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology. Despite its importance, there is a lack of empirical assessments of early opportunities for CCUS implementation in the cement sector. In this study, a comprehensive onshore and offshore source–sink matching optimization assessment framework for CCUS retrofitting in the cement industry, called the SSM-Cement framework, is proposed. The framework comprises four main modules: the cement plant suitability screening module, the storage site assessment module, the source–sink matching optimization model module, and the economic assessment module. By applying this framework to China, 919 candidates are initially screened from 1132 existing cement plants. Further, 603 CCUS-ready cement plants are identified, and are found to achieve a cumulative emission reduction of 18.5 Gt CO2 from 2030 to 2060 by meeting the CCUS feasibility conditions for constructing both onshore and offshore CO2 transportation routes. The levelized cost of cement (LCOC) is found to range from 30 to 96 (mean 73) USD·(t cement)−1, while the levelized carbon avoidance cost (LCAC) ranges from −5 to 140 (mean 88) USD·(t CO2)−1. The northeastern and northwestern regions of China are considered priority areas for CCUS implementation, with the LCAC concentrated in the range of 35 to 70 USD·(t CO2)−1. In addition to onshore storage of 15.8 Gt CO2 from 2030 to 2060, offshore storage would contribute 2.7 Gt of decarbonization for coastal cement plants, with comparable LCACs around 90 USD·(t CO2)−1.

Part-load analysis and preliminary annual simulation of a constant inventory supercritical CO2 power plant for waste heat recovery in cement industry

The present work investigates the part-load performance of a MW-scale sCO2 power plant designed as waste heat recovery unit for an existing cement plant located in Czech Republic, in the framework of the H2020 funded project CO2OLHEAT. The study first presents the selected power plant configuration and then focuses on the evaluation of its part-load operation due to variation of flue gas mass flow rate and temperature. The range of flue gas conditions at the outlet of the upstream process is retrieved from a preliminary statistical analysis of historical trends obtained through the cement plant monitoring. The numerical model developed for this study aims at providing realistic results thanks to the adoption of turbomachinery performance maps provided by the turbomachinery manufacturer of the project. Moreover, heat exchangers have been modelled through a discretized approach which has been validated against manufacturer data, while piping inventory and pressure losses have been assessed through a preliminary sizing that considers the actual distances to be covered in the cement plant. Performance decay is estimated for the whole range of flue gas conditions, reporting the most significant power cycle parameters, and identifying the main causes of efficiency loss. The part-load analysis is carried out considering a constant CO2 inventory, in order to reduce the system complexity and capital cost and simplify plant operation. Results show that the operation entails minor variation of the compressors operative points in the whole range of operating conditions of the cement plant, avoiding the risk of anti-surge bypass activation. Moreover, the plant is able to work close to the nominal thermodynamic cycle efficiency (20.5 %–23.0 %) for most of the year and benefits from part-load operation in terms of overall performance. In the last part of the work, a preliminary techno-economic analysis of the plant is also presented to highlight the potential advantages of sCO2 technology for waste heat recovery applications. The results of the part-load performance of the plant are combined with the flue gases data obtained from the preliminary statistical analysis and the cement plant historical monitoring. An annual electricity production equal to 13′909.7 MWh is obtained, corresponding to 6560 equivalent hours and a system capacity factor of 74.9 %. The investment cost of each CO2OLHEAT plant component is estimated by means of cost correlations obtained from literature and the non-discounted payback time is computed as a function of the electricity selling price. The results show that, even considering electricity prices before 2022, the payback time of the CO2OLHEAT plant is estimated to be lower than 8 years, justifying the industrial interest in the proposed technology.

Zero-Emission Cement Plants with Advanced Amine-Based CO2 Capture.

Decarbonization of the cement sector is essentially required to achieve carbon neutrality to combat climate change. Amine-based CO2 capture is a leading and practical technology to deeply remove CO2 from the cement industry, owing to its high retrofittability to existing cement plants and extensive engineering experience in industrial flue gas decarbonization. While research efforts have been made to achieve low-carbon cement with 90% CO2 removal, a net-zero-emission cement plant that will be required for a carbon neutrality society has not yet been investigated. The present study proposed an advanced amine-based CO2 capture system integrated with a cement plant to achieve net-zero CO2 emission by pushing the CO2 capture efficiency to 99.7%. Monoethanomaine (MEA) and piperazine/2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (PZ-AMP) amine systems, which are considered to be the first- and second-generation capture agents, respectively, were detailed investigated to deeply decarbonize the cement plant. Compared to MEA, the advanced PZ-AMP system exhibited excellent energy performance with a regeneration duty of ∼2.6 GJ/tonne CO2 at 99.7% capture, 39% lower than the MEA process. This enabled a low CO2 avoided cost of $72.0/tonne CO2, which was 18% lower than that of the MEA-based zero-emission process and even 16.2% lower than the standard 90% MEA process. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the zero-emission capture cost of the PZ-AMP system would be further reduced to below $56/tonne CO2 at a $4/GJ steam production cost, indicating its economic competitiveness among various CO2 capture technologies to achieve a zero-emission cement plant.

Techno-economic assessment of retrofitting indirect-heated calcium looping using coal and biomass as fuels into an existing cement plant for CO2 capture

The indirect-heated calcium carbonate looping (IH-CCL) process is an advanced carbon capture technology. It eliminates the need of an energy-intensive air separation unit that is required in the conventional oxy-fired calcium carbonate looping process, thereby potentially leading to lower energy consumption and cost. The IH-CCL process has not been well studied for application in the existing cement industry with minimized modification to the current plant. This paper presents a techno-economic feasibility assessment of retrofitting IH-CCL into an existing cement plant to better understand the CO2 emission reduction, energy performance, and economic costs. Solid waste-derived fuel (SWDF) containing 90–95% of wood is burnt for pre-calcination. Thermal coal is applied in the rotary kiln at which clinker is formed at a higher temperature. A model for process simulation using Aspen Plus and techno-economic analysis was established to supply options to the current cement plant based on different targets in CO2 capture (>80%) and the capital cost. Three integration scenarios, including the downstream integration, tail-end integration, and the full integration, were analyzed. A sensitivity analysis of the cost of CO2 avoided (CCA) was also performed, which revealed that the IH-CCL tail-end integration is recommended for retrofitting to existing cement plants due to the lowest CCA and very minor impact on the existing cement manufacture process. It was also concluded that although the full integration scenario offers the lowest specific primary energy consumption for CO2 avoided (SPECCA) and clinker cost, it may better suit greenfield cement plants as this option requires significant modifications.

Preconditions for achieving carbon neutrality in cement production through CCUS

Cement production needs to reduce its contribution to climate change urgently. This industry is, however, difficult to electrify and decarbonize and is yet expected to increase its output to accommodate the need of an increasing population. CCS and, more recently, CCU have been presented as promising solutions to align with the Paris Agreement objectives. Given the lack of application of these technologies at scale in cement production, it remains dubious under which conditions they can deliver the expected reductions. In this study, we answer this question by developing a prospective Life Cycle Assesment model for an existing cement plant in Denmark. Results show that the extensive use of biomass in the fuel mix combined with decarbonized electricity are necessary conditions for CCS and CCUS. CCUS could allow the cement plant to mitigate up to 106% of its operational emissions and deliver up to 90′000 tons of synthetic kerosene annually to Denmark in 2050. Considering direct and indirect CO2-eq. emissions, such savings would bring the cement to near climate-neutrality. A variation test was run to illustrate how the results change when assuming different values for relevant parameters.

The digitization work of cement plant in China

This article is to introduce the digitization work of smart cement plant in China. To save power and promote the product quality, delicacy management in variety ways of digital transformation is the best tool for the new built, or existing cement plants. New technologies, such as special integrated robots, online equipment, information plant form, cement process digital applicant (SAAS), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Process Control (APC) are implemented to approve the traditional ways of operation.This paper introduces the application of intelligent factory technology in China, and focuses on the intelligent optimization control system. The system has self-learning and global optimization functions, with strong adaptability and robustness. In combination with quality prediction, kiln condition identification and quantitative identification of fire watching TV video images, the kiln system is feed-forward controlled to solve the control problem of long time delay, large inertia and strong coupling of the burning system. The system gives the global optimal recommended value of the control target through calculation, with which to ensure the best control and operation of the system.With the application of comprehensive intelligent construction, the cement plant will usually save 2–5 % of energy and 20 % staff simplification, and make the management mode more concise and efficient. Meanwhile, the cement groups are also developing the production information plat form, by merging the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data, sales business to lower down the total cost. This paper tries to introduce the digital efforts that are carried out in the smart cement plants and shows the methodology of implementation.

Solar Hybridization Paths for Cement Production Processes

Cement industry is responsible for a significant portion of global carbon dioxide emissions leading to global warming and climate change. A substantial part of these emissions is due to burning fossil fuels to supply heat to the kiln at a high temperature. Concentrating solar collectors can be used for preheating the air supplied to the kiln or directly preheating the ingredients in the pre-calciner before feeding them into the kiln. Based on an existing cement plant’s available energy audit, a MATLAB model of the plant with its sub-processes has been developed. After verifying the model results by checking against the available energy audit’s mass and energy balances, the model is used to identify the possible solar hybridization paths and other energy-saving approaches. Considering the year-round solar resources in the region where the plant is located and other possible locations, it is shown that there are hybridization paths leading to significant carbon dioxide emission savings.

Studies on advanced configurations of post-combustion CO2 capture process applied to cement plant flue gases

This study used ProMax® 5.0 process simulator to develop three innovative configurations for cement plant flue gases specifically. A detailed evaluation of three innovative configurations was presented, and the advanced technical and economic benefits of the three innovative configurations were compared with the conventional configuration. The simulation consisted of three cases of flue gas compositions. The major case was simulated based on the published design parameters from an existing cement plant in Quebec, Canada. The other two cases of flue gas compositions were two assumptions for higher CO2 content of the cement plant flue gases, including 20 vol.% CO2 and 28.6 vol.% CO2. This research provided a comparison of the solvent regeneration energy using a single aqueous Monoethanolamine (MEA) solution and the solution activated with 1-(2-Aminoethyl)piperazine (AEP). The evaluations showed that the innovative configurations were able to reduce regeneration energy up to 22% and solvent demand up to 10%. The savings towards variable CO2 content of the flue gases were also discovered.

Організація контролю викидів шкідливих речовин цементного заводу

The increase in cement production at the existing cement plants of Ukraine may lead to an increase in emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere due to the intensification of technological processes. The second way to increase cement production is to design and build new cement plants. In this case, at the stage of project development, it is important to take into account the requirements for the control of air pollution during the operation of the cement plant. The issues of organization of control of air pollution by industrial dust of cement plant by creation of new and operation of the existing fixed points and route posts of control of concentration of industrial dust in atmospheric air are considered in the work. The number and location of the fixed checkpoints for the concentration of industrial dust depends on the number of people living close to the enterprise, and in the case of construction of new plants, it may be necessary to organize additional fixed points. As a result of the reorganization of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of Ukraine, the abolition of some regulations, some functions of sanitary supervision were transferred to the State Food and Consumer Service of Ukraine and the State Environmental Service of Ukraine, so there is a need to consider the organization of project of organization of construction of new enterprises. The author considers the requirements of the current State Sanitary Rules for Atmospheric Air Protection of Settlements (from chemical and biological pollution), the method of calculating concentrations in the air of harmful substances contained in emissions of enterprises, standards of Ukraine for air quality control. Conclusions: intensification of technological processes at cement plants leads to an increase in emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere, which requires constant monitoring of air pollution. Due to the abolition of some regulations and standards, it is necessary to consider the organization of control of emissions of harmful substances from cement plants in accordance with current standards of control bodies. To take into account the development of the project of organization of construction of the cement plant system of external control over emissions of harmful substances at stationary and route checkpoints.

Retrofitting partial oxyfuel and Integrated Ca-Looping technologies to an existing cement plant: a case study

Retrofitting partial oxyfuel and Integrated Ca-Looping technologies to an existing cement plant: a case study

Suitability of the Carbonate Rocks of the Bekhme Formation for Cement Industry, Hareer Mountain, North Iraq, Kurdistan Region

The main lithological composition of different formations in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region is the carbonate rocks; some of those rocks are suitable for cement production; such as Qamchuqa Bekhme, Sinjar, Pila Spi and Anah formations. However, the six existing cement plants in are using limestone beds, five of those plants are using limestone from the Sinjar Formation, and one plant is using limestone from the Anah Formation. Recently, performed research works confirmed that the limestone beds within the Qamchuqa, Bekhme and Pila Spi formations are very suitable for cement production. The current research work deals with studying the exposed limestone beds within the Bekhme Formation at Hareer Mountain in the central part of IKR to check their suitability for the cement industry. Accordingly, we collected 12 rock samples from a section within the Bekhme Formation at an almost constant sampling interval (5 m); however, for two samples the sampling interval was 6 and 8 m (sample No. 2 and 12, respectively). Each sample represents a channel sample for the concerned sampling interval to be representative for the thickness of the sampled interval. The total thickness of the sampled section is 64 m with a covered interval of 30 m, totaling up to 94 m. The collected 12 samples were prepared at the laboratory of the University of Kurdistan Hewler and were subjected to XRF test at Mass Cement Plant (Sulaimaniyah) to check the concentration of certain oxides that are used in the Iraqi Standard for cement production. The acquired concentrations of the main oxides (CaO, MgO, Al2O3, Fe2O3, Na2O, K2O, SO3), and Cl and L.O.I. at each sample were changed to weighted averages and the results were compared with the Iraqi standards for cement industry. The result was the sampled rocks are excellent for cement production.

Decarbonizing cement production

Paul Fennell is a professor of clean energy at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London. His work encompasses the decarbonization and re-thinking of industrial processes, including the production of iron and steel and cement manufacture. He also works in the broader field of industrial decarbonization, including synergies between industry and power generation. Steve Davis is a professor of Earth system science and civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine, where he researches trends and drivers of GHG emissions, net-zero emissions energy systems, and the environmental impacts of energy production, climate change, and international trade. Aseel Mohamed received an MSc in advanced chemical engineering from Imperial College London. Her research focused on investigating the various decarbonization technologies used to capture CO2 emissions in order to mitigate climate change effects.

Role of CCS for Emission Reduction from Fertiliser and Cement Industry

Role of CCS for Emission Reduction from Fertiliser and Cement Industry

Impact of utilizing solid recovered fuel on the global warming potential of cement production and waste management system: A life cycle assessment approach

Cement production is responsible for a significant share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A potential option to reduce the cement production emissions is to use alternative fuels which can have also an impact on emissions from the waste management sector. This work investigates the change in global warming potential (GWP) of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) production and affected waste management systems when conventional fuels are partially replaced by solid recovered fuel (SRF) made from commercial and industrial waste (C&IW). A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted with a functional unit of 1 metric tonne of OPC production and treatment of 194 kg of C&IW. Data from an existing cement plant have been used, where the share of SRF from total fuel energy demand increased from 0% to 53% between 2007 and 2016. Four scenarios were established with varying waste treatment methods and SRF share in the thermal energy mix of cement production. It was found that GHG emissions decreased by 20% from 1036 kg carbon dioxide (CO2), eq. (functional unit)-1 in Scenario 1 to 832 kg CO2, eq. (functional unit)-1 in Scenario 3. Furthermore, it is possible to reach a reduction of 30% to 725 kg CO2, eq. (functional unit)-1 in Scenario by increasing the share of SRF to 80%. In conclusion, significant GHG emissions reduction can be achieved by utilizing SRF in cement production. Especially in the middle-income and low-income countries where waste is dumped to the open landfills, emissions could be reduced without huge investments to waste incineration plants.

RESEARCH TO CREATE A BIODIVERSITY DATABASE IN THE AREA OF THE CEMENT PLANT «CASPIAN-CEMENT»

. The result of field studies the state of biological diversity, in order to create a database for monitoring the state of the animal world, on the territory of the existing cement plant. The following taxonomic groups were studied: birds (the largest numerous groups, easily identifiable), mammals (requiring special research methods), reptiles and amphibians. The identification of species that occurred in the study area of the chalk Deposit was carried out and the bio topic requirements for each of these species were studied. Along with the classical methods of environmental assessment and monitoring, a new method for studying biological diversity in the mining area is used. The method is based on geoinformation analysis and mapping data. All data on biodiversity were obtained using a map divided into grid squares (500×500 m), and were collected in a qualitative way (the number of representatives of animal species per grid square). The study area on the South Shetpe Cretaceous Deposit in the area of the plant "Caspian Cement" met with widespread desert species (mole lemming, tushkanchik). In the local fauna there are absolutely no true steppe species, and there are few semi-desert species (small gopher, korsak, saiga). A qualitative assessment of the importance of biodiversity was presented, taking into consideration the landscape-stabilizing factor, maps of "natural habitats". A map of the territory of the cement plant with the site of the chalk quarry with the indication of the natural habitats of biodiversity and their database was compiled.

Availability and Accessibility of Sugarcane Bagasse Ash for its Utilization in Indian Cement Plants: A GIS-Based Network Analysis

Sugarcane bagasse ash is an abundantly available waste material from sugar plants in India. Even though the beneficial properties of bagasse ash as a cement replacement material have been reported in several studies, its large-scale utilization in Indian cement plants is not yet achieved. This is partly due to a lack of proper quantification of the available sugarcane bagasse ash and its accessibility from sugar plants to the existing cement plants. A detailed sugarcane bagasse ash availability database in the five major sugar-producing states and their precise geographical distribution have been presented in this study. The proximity of the bagasse ash sources to existing cement plants in these five states is quantified using a GIS-based network analysis approach. Additionally, the accessibility of bagasse ash is compared with currently used fly ash and slag. Results from the study show that the probability of finding a bagasse ash source at near distances from cement plants is higher than the probability of having fly ash or slag sources in three out of the five states considered in the study.

Economic assessment of the swing adsorption reactor cluster for CO2 capture from cement production

Cement production is responsible for about 8% of global CO2 emissions. Most of these emissions originate from the process itself and thus cannot be avoided via clean energy, leaving CO2 capture as the only viable solution. This study investigates the prospects of decarbonizing the cement industry via the swing adsorption reactor cluster (SARC) – a new post-combustion CO2 capture technology that requires no integration with the host process, consumes only electrical energy and shows a competitive energy penalty. SARC operates by synergistically combining a temperature swing using a heat pump and a vacuum swing using a vacuum pump. In the present study, the SARC concept is evaluated economically and compared to several benchmarks. SARC achieves CO2 avoidance costs of €52/ton in the base case, which is higher than oxyfuel combustion, similar to calcium looping and lower than four other technology options. SARC can approach the cost of oxyfuel combustion with more optimistic assumptions regarding economies of scale, particularly for the vacuum pump. The local electricity mix is another important factor because SARC, as an electricity consumer, becomes more attractive when the price and CO2 intensity of electricity is low. Furthermore, the simplicity of retrofitting existing cement plants with the SARC process becomes increasingly valuable when rapid CO2 emissions reductions are targeted. SARC is therefore well positioned for a global decarbonization effort aiming to limit global warming well below 2 °C.

Effective utilization of sugar industry waste in Indian construction sector: A geospatial approach

Sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA), a by-product from sugar industry, has been evidently reported as a potential alternative cementitious material that can partially replace cement. In spite of its high valorization potential in cement production, the large quantity of bagasse ash generated from Indian sugar plants (44,220 tonnes/day) is entirely unutilized and disposed as waste. Lack of comprehensive SCBA availability and accessibility studies are the major deterrents for the effective utilization of SCBA in industrial scale applications. This study investigated the availability of bagasse ash, fly ash, and slag in India, and their accessibility to existing cement plants. A comparative network analysis using ArcGIS was adopted, to assess the benefits of using bagasse ash in cement plants. Bagasse ash was found to be a potentially viable supplementary cementitious material in three out of the five major sugar-producing states of India. It is shown that switching over to bagasse ash results in significant reduction of carbon emissions associated with logistics (5.41 million tonnes/year). Strategic locations for new cement plants were identified based on availability of bagasse ash, using location-allocation analysis. A practical framework has also been presented for the effective utilization and recycling of sugar industry wastes in the construction sector.

Co2 Capture Scenarios for a Cement Plant

A tecno-economic investigation into coupling two CO2 capture technologies, post-combustion MEA scrubbing and oxycombustion, to a cement plant under different scenarios was undertaken. The results show that with the assumptions made that oxy-combustion could be a promising technology. However, it has a considerable higher degree of coupling with the cement plant than post-combustion technologies. Due to this higher degree of uncertainty in retrofitting oxy-combustion to an existing cement plant it is believed that this technology is not applicable in the near future. Still, gradual modification of the cement plant during major revamps could reduce the risks, cost, and speed of implementation. The two major elements of oxy-combustion are electricity consumption and the complexity of modifications to the cement plant. A sensitivity analysis was performed were the cost of these two elements were doubled. For MEA scrubbing one of the major cost drivers is the steam consumption. The benefit of utilizing waste heat recovered from the cement plant is considerable. In addition, an effort was made to include the origin of CO2 for the cement plant fuel, electricity consumed, and onsite steam generation. To identify the actual fossil CO2 capture rate and the cost implication this has on the scenarios investigated.

Industrial dust control in cement production as a factor in significantly reducing the negative impact of cement plants on the environment

Nowadays environmentalization of plants is one of intrinsic elements of Ukrainian environmental security. Even the most modern cement plants are imperfect, they create certain risk of environment pollution and menace to human health at adjacent areas. The cement plants of Ukraine have morally and physically obsolete equipment, they pose a risk to the health of the population of the adjacent territories. The article proposes a highly reasonable way to reduce negative environment effect from cement plants, namely, environmentalization of their process cycles. The transformation of existing cement plants with their outdated equipment and technology into an environmentally friendly module is one of the methods of ecologization of production on operating plants on the production of cement. The developed concept of environmentalization of cement plants consists in turning plant into an environment-friendly module. This is achieved by the fact that each separate technological process becomes an autotrophic environmental module; technological processes within the technological complex are interconnected by intra-production links; internal links between modules ensure the use of waste from previous processes as a secondary raw material of subsequent processes; In the structure of the cement plant, there is an environmentally friendly process, which serves as "a module of internal relations" with minimal energy resources. The central element of this “internal communications module” is the system of suppressing and trapping cement dust. Analyzed the classification scheme of the system of combating industrial dust and gaseous emissions of cement plants. It is implemented by five main functional elements. Тhese are binding, retention, trapping, scattering of pollutants and air purification from pollutants. The most effective methods for combating industrial dust of cement plants are given: hydrodynamic, aerodynamic, and thermophysical method. Development recommendations for improving the process of dedusting process materials from cement plants foam. The mechanism of interaction of water droplets and dust particles in the air is analyzed depending on their size. An optimal fogging scheme is proposed to achieve maximum sanitary and hygienic and environmental efficiency. Methods of dust suppression at various sites of the cement plant are proposed, taking into account the specifics of technological processes, as well as ways to implement them.