Low carbon cement manufacturing in India by co-processing of alternative fuel and raw materials

Cement production consumes 9.10% of the total industrial energy, thus making it the third largest consumer of energy. Each ton of cement generates approximately 0.7-0.93 ton of CO2 depending on the kiln technology used. The top 10 cement producing countries along with the European Union emits 1445 million tonnes of CO2 each year. Therefore, increased focus is given on different strategies of carbon mitigation. Co-processing is seen as one of the most prominent methodologies for making the cement manufacturing a low carbon process. The study shows low carbon manufacturing potential of cement plant in India based on the available literature and two case studies, considering economical and environmental sustainability. Co-processing leads to low carbon cement manufacturing process as traditional fuel and raw materials are saved and simultaneously waste going to the landfill gets reduced, thus making co-processing a holistic methodology for resource recovery.