Improving the CO2 performance of cement, part I: utilizing life-cycle assessment and key performance indicators to assess development within the cement industry

Abstract

Improving the CO2 performance of cement, part I: Utilizing life-cycle assessment and key performance indicators to assess development within the cement industry, 2015, Journal of Cleaner Production, (98) AbstractCement is a vital and commonly used construction material that requires large amounts of resources and the manufacture of which causes significant environmental impact. However, there are many different types of cement products, roughly ranging from traditional products with rather linear resource flows to more synergistic alternatives where industrial byproducts are utilized to a large extent. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies indicate the synergistic products are favorable from an environmental perspective.In co-operation with the global cement producing company CEMEX a research project has been carried out to contribute to a better understanding of the CO2 performance of different ways of producing cement, and different cement products. The focus has been on Cluster West, which is a cement production cluster consisting of three plants in Germany.This paper is the first in a series of three, all of which are included in this special issue. It has two main aims. The first is to carry out an attributional LCA and compare three different cement products produced in both linear and synergistic production setups. This has been done for cradle to gate, focusing on CO2-eq emissions for Cluster West. The second aim of this part is to develop and test a simplified LCA model for this production cluster, with the intention to be able to compare different versions of the production system based on the information of a few parameters.The attributional LCA showed that cement products that contain a large proportion of byproducts, in this case, ground granulated blast furnace slag from the iron and steel industry, had the lowest unit emissions of CO2-eq. The difference between the lowest emission product (CEM III/B) and the highest (CEM I) was about 66% per tonne. A simplified LCA model based on six key performance indicators, instead of approximately 50 parameters for the attributional LCA, was established. It showed that Cluster West currently emits about 45% less CO2-eq per tonne of average product compared to 1997. The simplified LCA model can be used effectively to model future changes of both plants and products (which is further discussed in part II and part III).

Environmental Benefits of the Integrated Alternative Technologies of the Portland Cement Production: A Case Study in Thailand

“…National pozzolan was derived from volcanic glass, zeolitic trass, rice husk ash and diatomaceous earth. The use of pozzolan was considered to substitute the amount of clinker consumption in the range of 10 − 75% [6], [14][15]. In scenario 3, it is important to note that the input amounts of raw material and energy used were linearly decreased in proportion to the amount of the additional of natural pozzolan in the clinker substitution rate from 19 to 29%.…”

“…The recycling of CKD exhibited the insignificant environmental saving over the traditional process. Feiz et al [15] examined the global warming potential (GWP) impact of five different clinker substitutions at rate of 0% (conventional process), 10%, 53%, 60, and 75% in cement manufacturing. Their results indicated that the clinker substitution rate significantly effects on the environmental impact.…”

Impacts of booming concrete production on water resources worldwide

“…This research used water withdrawals relative to renewable water resources to determine water stress; however, in considering mitigation strategies, changes in consumption and withdrawal are examined as they have different implications for water systems. Although electricity demand is often not considered a major factor of the GHG emissions from concrete 35 , the expected high water consumption values for electricity in this sector drives improvements that can potentially reduce water consumption for concrete production. For example, if electricity is generated using wind power, water consumption for the production of concrete could decrease by 25%, and water withdrawal could decrease by 46% (Fig.…”

Improving the CO2 performance of cement, part III: the relevance of industrial symbiosis and how to measure its impact

“…This paper is the third in a series of three, all of which are included in this special issue. The first introduces cement production and the selected case, and includes information about the LCA-based methodology (Feiz et al, 2013a) 3 . It provides results from a comparison of different cement products and production systems.…”