A new CO2 concentration process integrated into cement plants

Introduction The worldwide CO22 emissions of the cement industry are around 2 Gt/y. In order to mitigate these emissions and to reduce the carbon footprint, four main usual levers are utilized by the cement industry: the C/K ratio, representing the quantity of cement made over the quantity of clinker used, the burning of alternative fuels – including biomass, the improvement of the specific heat consumption of the cement kilns and CCS (CO2 Capture & Storage). Although very efficient because they can be applied in nearly all the cement plants all over the world, the first three levers are limited in many ways: the lack of cementitious additions in some locations, the limitation in fuel sourcing and the theoretical limit of the heat consumption of the cement kiln to some 1.8 GJ/tclinker. All of them being limited by the quality standard to be met by the cement in its applications. CCS is thus worth being studied for the cement industry to reduce its CO2 footprint. The capture technologies mainly serve to purify and concentrate the CO2. Then the CO2 is compressed and liquefied and is shipped to a storage location, either in a depleted oil or gas field, or in a deep saline aquifer. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract