Emerging energy-efficiency and CO2 emission-reduction technologies for cement and concrete production: A technical review

Globally, the cement industry accounts for approximately 5 percent of current anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. World cement demand and production are increasing significantly, leading to an increase in this industry’s absolute energy use and CO₂ emissions. Development of new energy-efficiency and CO₂ emission-reduction technologies and their deployment in the market will be key for the cement industry’s mid- and long-term climate change mitigation strategies. This paper is an initial effort to compile available information on process description, energy savings, environmental and other benefits, costs, commercialization status, and references for emerging technologies to reduce the cement industry’s energy use and CO₂ emissions. Although studies from around the world identify a variety of sector-specific and cross-cutting energy-efficiency technologies for the cement industry that have already been commercialized, information is scarce and/or scattered regarding emerging or advanced energy-efficiency and low-carbon technologies that are not yet commercialized. This paper consolidates available information on eighteen emerging technologies for the cement industry, with the goal of providing engineers, researchers, investors, cement companies, policy makers, and other interested parties with easy access to a well-structured database of information on these technologies.

This paper was originally published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 16 (2012) Pages 6220–6238