A review of energy efficiency and CO2 emissions in the US cement industry

Anthropogenic emissions of CO₂ account for one third of the entire CO₂ emissions across the world. Cement industry is considered to be one of the major sources of industrial CO₂ emissions which are about 1.8 Gt/y. These emissions are produced both from fuel combustion and cement production process. Coal as one the major fuels used widely by US cement industry, is considered to be a major source of CO₂ emissions. CO₂ emissions reduction can be achieved by either choosing an appropriate fuel processing technologies or capturing it post-processing from flue gas. This paper is a brief review of CO₂ emissions and their associated sources in the US cement industry. Conventional and modern approaches of increasing energy efficiency in the cement production process as well as CO₂ capture methodologies were studied. Effect of CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestration) methods integration to the cement plant costs was also reviewed.