Energy Efficiency Improvement Opportunities for the Cement Industry

This report provides information on the energy savings, costs, and carbon dioxide emissions reductions associated with implementation of a number of technologies and measures applicable to the cement industry. The technologies and measures include both state-of-the-art measures that are currently in use in cement enterprises worldwide as well as advanced measures that are either only in limited use or are near commercialization.

This report focuses mainly on retrofit measures using commercially available technologies, but many of these technologies are applicable for new plants as well. Where possible, for each technology or measure, costs and energy savings per tonne of cement produced are estimated and then carbon dioxide emissions reductions are calculated based on the fuels used at the process step to which the technology or measure is applied. The analysis of cement kiln energy-efficiency opportunities is divided into technologies and measures that are applicable to the different stages of production and various kiln types used in China: raw materials (and fuel) preparation; clinker making (applicable to all kilns, rotary kilns only, vertical shaft kilns only); and finish grinding; as well as plant wide measures and product and feedstock changes that will reduce energy consumption for clinker making. Table 1 lists all measures in this report by process to which they apply, including plant wide measures and product or feedstock changes. Tables 2 through 8 provide the following information for each technology: fuel and electricity savings per tonne of cement; annual operating and capital costs per tonne of cement or estimated payback period; and, carbon dioxide emissions reductions for each measure applied to the production of cement.

This information was originally collected for a report on the U.S. cement industry (Worrell and Galitsky, 2004) and a report on opportunities for China's cement kilns (Price and Galitsky, in press). The information provided in this report is based on publicly-available reports, journal articles, and case studies from applications of technologies around the world.