Abstract
Purpose
Cement production is associated with a considerable environmental load, which needs to be fully understood before effective measures can be taken. The existing literature did not give detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) study of China and had limited potential for investigating how best available techniques (BATs) would provide a maximum benefit when they are applied in China. Japan was selected as a good example to achieve better environmental performance of cement production. We identified potentials for reducing emissions and saving energy and natural resources in Chinese cement industry through the comparative analysis.
Methods
This paper follows the principal of Life Cycle Assessment and International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD). The functional units are “1 t of portland cement” and with 42.5 MPa of strength grade. The input (limestone, sandstone, ferrous tailings, coal, and electricity) and output (CO2 from limestone decomposition and coal combustion, NOx, PM, and SO2) of cement manufacturing were calculated by use of on-site measurements, calculation by estimated coefficients, and derivation by mass and heat balance principle. The direct (cement manufacturing) and indirect (electricity production) LCI are added to be total LCI results (cement production). The impact categories of global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), photochemical oxidant formation potential (POCP), and human toxicity potential (HTP) are used to calculate environmental impact.
Results and discussion
Only in GWP of cement manufacturing China has advantage. Japanese cement industry shows remarkable superiorities in the environmental impacts of AP, POCP, HTP, and EP due to advanced technologies. SO2 emissions make the corresponding AP and HTP. PM emissions result in part of HTP. The NOx emissions are the major contributors of POCP, AP, EP, and HTP in China. China emits fewer CO2 emissions (2.09 %) in cement manufacturing than Japan but finally makes higher total GWP than Japan due to more GWP of electricity generation in power stations. The waste heat recovery technology can save electricity but bring more coal use and CO2 emissions. The alternative fuel and raw materials usage and denitration and de-dust technologies can relieve the environmental load. Using the functional unit with the strength grade, the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results are affected.
Conclusions
LCA study allows a clear understanding from the view of total environmental impact rather than by the gross domestic product (GDP) unit from an economic development perspective. In an LCA study, the power generation should be considered in the life cycle of cement production.
Abbreviations
- AFRs:
-
Alternative fuels and raw materials
- AP:
-
Acidification potential
- BATs:
-
Best available techniques
- CCA:
-
China cement association
- cl:
-
Clinker
- CNMLCA:
-
China Centre of National Material Life Cycle Assessment
- DCS:
-
Distributed control system
- ELCD:
-
European Reference Life Cycle Database
- EP:
-
Eutrophication potential
- EPD:
-
Environmental product declaration
- ESP:
-
Electrostatic precipitator
- GDP:
-
Gross domestic product
- GWP:
-
Global warming potential
- HTP:
-
Human toxicity potential
- JCA:
-
Japanese Cement Association
- LCI:
-
Life cycle inventory
- LCIA:
-
Life cycle impact assessment
- LNB:
-
Low-NOx burner
- MSC:
-
Multistage combustion
- NSP:
-
New suspension preheater
- POCP:
-
Photochemical oxidant formation potential
- SCR:
-
Selective catalytic reduction
- SNCR:
-
Selective noncatalytic reduction
- XRD:
-
X-ray diffraction analysis
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Acknowledgments
This work is financially supported by the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2011BAE29B00). China National “863” Program (No. 2013AA031602), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 2141001). Thanks to JCA (Japanese Cement Association) for providing data.
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Li, C., Cui, S., Nie, Z. et al. The LCA of portland cement production in China. Int J Life Cycle Assess 20, 117–127 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0804-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0804-4