engleski

Potential for CO2 emission reduction in the cement industry

The cement industry is one of the largest carbon emitting industrial sectors in EU and in the world. It accounts approximately for 4.1% of EU’s, and around 5% of world’s anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In line with the EU commitment to combat climate change, cement industry, as the third largest carbon emitting industrial sector, needs a more sustainable future. Following the importance of the cement industry in Macedonia, a candidate country for EU membership, the present work analyses the potential of CO2 emission reduction in Macedonian cement industry. There are several effective measures which can be applied in cement manufacturing processes to achieve emissions reduction targets. Simultaneously these measures can reduce the local environmental impacts and improve the competitiveness of the cement industry. One of the most effective ways is to capture CO2 from the flue gases and store it. This can reduce carbon emissions by as much as 65–70%, but till now there are no industrial scale carbon capture and storage technologies available. By reducing clinker to cement ratio with various additives, CO2 emissions can be reduced substantially. Improving the energy efficiency of the clinker production process is also one of the possibilities for CO2 emissions reduction. However, it was found that the substituting fossil fuels with alternative fuels may play a major role in the reduction of CO2 emissions. All these measures have been analyzed in Macedonian conditions in order to identify their environmental and economic effectiveness. It has been shown that the implementation of the selected mitigation measures results in a significant decrease of CO2 emissions by 2020, contributing thus to a more sustainable cement production in Macedonia.

Cement industry; CO2 emission; Emission analysis; Mitigation measures

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