CO2 emissions profile of the US cement industry

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cement production were approximately 829 million metric tons of CO2 (MMTCO2) in 20001, about 3.4 % of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production. The United States is the world’s third largest cement producer, with production occurring in 37 states. Cement production is not only a source of combustion-related CO2 emissions, but it is also one of the largest sources of industrial process-related emissions in the United States. Between 1990 and 2001, U.S. process-related emissions increased 24%, from 33.3 TgCO2 to 41.4 TgCO22. National estimates of process-related emissions are calculated based on methodologies developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)3,4. Combustion-related emissions from the U.S. cement industry were estimated at approximately 36 TgCO2 accounting for approximately 3.7 percent of combustion-related emissions in the U.S. industrial sector. in 2001,5 This paper explores, on a more disaggregated level, the geographic location of CO2 emissions sources from the U.S. cement industry. This paper begins by providing a brief overview of the U.S. cement industry, including national level estimates of energy use and carbon emissions. The focus of the paper is on the development of a cement industry profile for the United States. Based on facility-level capacity statistics, a bottom-up analysis was undertaken to identify sources of CO2 emissions in the U.S. cement industry in order to gain a better understanding of the geographic scope and concentration of this emissions source