Thermodynamic and Environmental Impact Assessment of Calcium Oxide Formation in Clinker Production

In this research, energetic andexergetic analysis of calcium oxide formation, CO2 emissions, and environmental effects during the clinker production process in rotary kilnare investigated. First the energy and exergy analysis of rotary kiln were carried out according to the first and second law of thermodynamics based on dead state, respectively. Consequently, the amount of CO2 emissions associated with calcination and fuel combustion processes, improvement potential and sustainability index are determined. In this system, the energy efficiency is calculated to be higher than the exergy efficiency, e.g. 53.4% and 28.6% for the energy and exergy efficiencies. The exergy destruction due to irreversible calcination and fuel combustion processes is determined 33,884 kW which is 40.6% of inlet exergy. Results also shows that 18.4% of exergy input is lost by exhaust hotgases.Thetotalemissions are estimated 157,228 kg/hr, which 31.3 % of it isdue tocalcination and 0.9 % of it is due to fuel combustion. The improvement potential (IP) and sustainability index (SI) are calculated 24,193.176 kWand 1.4, respectively.