7.

0 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF CEMENT PRODUCTION

Portland cement manufacture can cause environmental impacts at all stages of the
process. These include emissions of airborne pollution in the form of dust, gases, noise and
vibration when operating machinery and during blasting in quarries, consumption of large
quantities of fuel during manufacture, release of CO2 from the raw materials during
manufacture, and damage to countryside from quarrying. Equipment to reduce dust emissions
during quarrying and manufacture of cement is widely used, and equipment to trap and
separate exhaust gases are coming into increased use.

The main environmental impacts of the manufacture of cement in general are related
to the following categories:

Dust from stack emissions and fugitive sources;

Gaseous atmospheric emissions of CO2, NOx, SO2, VOC and others;
Other emissions like noise and vibrations, odour, process water, production waste,
etc.

7.1 Gaseous atmospheric emissions

Gaseous emissions from the kiln system released to the atmosphere are the primary
environmental concern in cement manufacture today. Major gaseous emissions are CO2, NOx
and SO2. Other emissions of less significance are VOCs (volatile organic compounds), CO,
ammonia, and heavy metals. CO2 as the main greenhouse gas is released in considerable
quantities.

Carbon dioxide

CO2 reduction of some 30% in the last 25 years arising mainly from the adoption of
more fuel efficient kiln processes leaves little scope for further improvement. Potential is
mainly left to the increased utilisation of renewable alternative fuels or other waste derived
fuels and to the production of blended cements with mineral additions substituting clinker. ].
A Life Cycle Assessment of cement shows that 95% of this CO2 is released during the
production and only 5% in the transport of raw materials and nished products. Because of
the importance of the cement industry, many studies have dealt with its future prospects
mainly focussing on CO2 reduction potential and to comparing the energy efciency
improvement options to expected variations in cement production.[15]

In cement production, limestone is the major raw material used. It is burnt at 1450 C to
produce clinker and is then blended with additives. The nished product is nely grounded to
produce different types of cement. During cement production process, around 0.92 t of CO2
is released for each ton of clinker produced. This emission is mainly shared between
decarbonation of limestone (0.53 t), and the use of carbon-based fuels for heating (0.39 t).
Average CO2 emissions associated with grinding processes are of the order of 0.1 t of CO2
per ton of cement and are mostly associated with electricity production. Fabrication process,
with a specic interest in the CO2 emissions showed in figure 7.1.1. The thickness of the
arrows is proportional to the amount of material. [15]

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Figure 7.1.1 Figure Simplied cement fabrication process, with a specic interest in the
CO2 emissions [15]

Calcining limestone into lime releases as part of that chemical reaction very large
amounts of CO2. These knowledges shown in Table 7.1.1. That informa You can see the
combined CO2 emissions here, with the energy and the chemical reaction totaling about 631
pounds per cubic yard of concrete based on an ordinary concrete mix. That's a lot of CO2.
Another stat is that one ton of cement produces over one ton of CO2, and world cement
production was around 1.3 billion tons a few years ago, so we're putting an equal or larger
amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. This is about 8% of CO2 emissions worldwide, a huge
percentage for one industry.[15]

Table 7.1.1 Impacts of CO2 emission

Chemistry of CO2 Emissions

Limestone -> Lime + CO2

CaCO3 -> CaO + CO2

Quantity of CO2 Emissions

From Energy 381 lbs/CY

From Limestone 250 lbs/CY

Total 631 lbs/CY

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 The most significant way to reduce CO 2 emissions is improving the energy efficiency the
cement kiln operation. Indeed, dramatic reductions in energy use have been realized in recent
decades, as discussed above. Switching to lower-CO2 fuels such as natural gas and
agricultural waste (peanut hulls, etc.) can also reduce emissions. Another strategy, which
addresses the CO2 emissions from calcining limestone, is to use waste lime from other
industries in the kiln. Substitution of fly ash for some of the cement in concrete can have a
very large effect.

Other Air Emissions

Besides CO2, both cement and concrete production generate considerable quantities of
air-pollutant emissions. Dust is usually the most visible of these pollutants. Other sources of
dust from cement production are handling raw materials, grinding cement clinker, and
packaging or loading finished cement, which is ground to a very fine powderparticles as
small as 1 25,000 of an inch.

Other air pollution emissions from cement and concrete production result from fossil fuel
burning for process and transportation uses. Air pollutants commonly emitted from cement
manufacturing plants include sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrous oxides (NOx). SO 2 emissions
(and to a lesser extent SO3, sulfuric acid, and hydrogen sulfide) result from sulfur content of
both the raw materials and the fuel (especially coal). Strategies to reduce sulfur emissions
include use of low-sulfur raw materials, burning low-sulfur coal or other fuels, and collecting
the sulfur emissions through state-of-the-art pollution control equipment. Interestingly, lime
in the cement kiln acts as a scrubber and absorbs some sulfur. [9]

Nitrous oxide emissions are influenced by fuel type and combustion conditions
(including flame temperature, burner type, and material/exhaust gas retention in the burning
zone of the kiln). Strategies to reduce nitrogen emissions include altering the burner design,
modifying kiln and pre-calciner operation, using alternate fuels, and adding ammonia or urea
to the process. The cement industry claims to have reduced overall pollution emissions by
90% in the last 20 years.

volatile organic compounds (VOC): 13,204 tons per year

nitrogen oxides (NOx): 218,486 tons per year
hazardous air pollutants (HAPs): 61 tons per year

Heavy Metal emission in the air

In some circumstances, mainly depending on the origin and the composition of the raw
materials used, the high-temperature calcination process of limestone and clay minerals can
release in the atmosphere gases and dust rich in volatile heavy metals, thallium, cadmium and
mercury are the most toxic. Heavy metals (Tl, Cd, Hg, ...) are often found as trace elements in
common metal sulfides (pyrite (FeS2), zinc blende (ZnS), galena (PbS), ...) present as
secondary minerals in most of the raw materials. Environmental regulations exist in many
countries to limit these emission. [15]

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7.2 Resource consumption in cement production

Cement manufacturing is a high volume process and correspondingly requires large

quantities of resources.These consumptions are raw materials, fossil fuels,water and electrical
power.Consumptions resources of cement rates are shown in figure 7.2.1 clearly.

Table 7.2.1 Resource Use

Raw Material Use 30%

Energy Use 40%
Water Use 25%
Land Use 12%

Energy Consumption:

Energy consumption is the biggest environmental concern with cement and concrete
production. Cement production is one of the most energy intensive of all industrial
manufacturing processes. The industrys heavy reliance on coal leads to especially high
emission levels of CO2, nitrous oxide, and sulphur, among other pollutants. A sizeable portion
of the electricity used is also generated from coal. The amount of consumption energy for
cement manufacture is also shown below Table 7.2.2. [10]

Table 7.2.2 Embodied Energy for Cement and Concrete Production

The vast majority of the energy consumed in cement production is used for operating
the rotary cement kilns. The specific thermal energy consumption of a cement kiln varies
between 3000 and 7500 MJ per ton of clinker, depending on the basic process design of the
plant.
The dominant use of energy in cement manufacture is as fuel for the kiln. Fule rates
using for cement production as table shown in Table 7.2.3. The main users of electricity are
the mills (raw grinding, finish grinding, cement mills and coal mills) and the exhaust fans
(kiln/raw mill and cement mill) which together account for more than 80% of electrical
energy usage. On average, energy costs, in the form of fuel and electricity, represent 50% of
the total production cost involved in producing a tonne of cement. Electrical energy represents
approximately 20% of this overall energy requirement (IPPC, 2001). The theoretical energy
use for the burning process (chemical reactions) is about 1700 to 1800 MJ/tonne clinker
(IPPC, 2001). [10]

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Table 7.2.3 Fuel Use for Cement Production

7.3 Cement plants used for waste disposal or processing

Due to the high temperatures inside cement kilns, combined with the oxidizing
(oxygen-rich) atmosphere and long residence times, cement kilns are used as a processing
option for various types of waste streams: indeed, they efficiently destroy many hazardous
organic compounds. The waste streams also often contain combustible materials which allow
the substitution of part of the fossil fuel normally used in the process.

Waste materials used in cement kilns as a fuel supplement:

Car and truck tires steel belts are easily tolerated in the kilns
Paint sludge from automobile industries
Waste solvents and lubricant
Meat and bone meal - slaughterhouse waste due to bovine spongiform encephalopathy
contamination concerns
Waste plastics
Sewage sludge
Rice hulls
Sugarcane waste
Used wooden railroad ties (railway sleepers)
Spent Cell Liner (SCL) from the aluminium smelting industry (also called Spent Pot
Liner or SPL)

Portland cement manufacture also has the potential to remove industrial by-products
from the waste-stream, effectively sequestering some environmentally damaging wastes.
These include: Slag, fly ash (from power plants), silica fume (from steelmills), synthetic
gypsum (from desulfurisation). [7]

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