Cement industry

Decarbonizing Cement Production

Cement production involves the preparation of raw materials (mainly limestone,  supplemented by smaller fractions of clay, shale, sand, blast furnace slag, fly ash, sludge and iron ore), followed by high-temperature calcination (up to 1,450°C) in a kiln to produce clinker. The clinker is then ground with additives to form cement.

Our superstructure model represents the full cement manufacturing process—from raw material preparation and clinker production to fuel use, electrification, carbon capture, and CO₂ handling—enabling a systematic comparison of all major decarbonization pathways within a single integrated framework.​

The model includes:

• Energy sources: Electricity, hydrogen, natural gas, coal, biomass, biomethane, and refuse-derived fuels (RDF)
• Kiln technologies: Conventional air-fired kilns, oxy-fuel kilns and electrification (partial and fully electrified kiln) configurations
• Carbon capture options: Post-combustion MEA absorption (MEA), cryogenic CO₂ purification (CPU), calcium looping (CaL), and MEA systems with integrated heat pumping (MEA(HP))
• CO₂ Storage: Compression, purification, and transport of captured CO₂ to geological storage
• Waste heat recovery: Electricity generation via supercritical CO₂ Rankine cycles (CRC) and thermal integration with carbon capture units

Superstructure of cement production

The following abbreviations are used for the decarbonization analysis:

• Coal-fired: Coal fired kiln 
• Coal-MEA: Coal-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture 
• Coal-MEA(HP): Coal-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture & heat pumps 
• Coal-Oxy: Coal-oxy-fired kiln with cryogenic CPU 
• Coal-CaL: Coal-fired kiln with CaL capture 
• NG-fired: Natural Gas-fired kiln 
• NG-MEA: Natural Gas kiln with MEA carbon capture 
• NG-MEA(HP): Natural Gas kiln with MEA carbon capture & heat pumps 
• NG-Oxy: Natural Gas-oxy-fired kiln with cryogenic CPU 
• NG-CaL: Natural Gas-fired kiln with CaL capture 
• BM-fired: Biomass co-fired kiln (50% biomass + 50% coal)
• BM-MEA: Biomass co-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture 
• BM-MEA(HP): Biomass co-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture & heat pumps 
• BM-Oxy: Biomass-oxy co-fired kiln with cryogenic CPU 
• BM-CaL: Biomass co-fired kiln with CaL capture 
• BioCH4-fired: Biomethane-fired kiln 
• BioCH4-MEA: Biomethane-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture 
• BioCH4-MEA(HP): Biomethane-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture & heat pumps 
• BioCH4-Oxy: Biomethane-oxy-fired kiln with cryogenic CPU 
• BioCH4-CaL: Biomethane-fired kiln with CaL capture 
• RDF-fired: Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF)-co-fired kiln (50% RDF + 50% coal)
• RDF-MEA: RDF co-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture 
• RDF-MEA(HP): RDF co-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture & heat pumps 
• RDF-Oxy: RDF-oxy co-fired kiln with cryogenic CPU 
• RDF-CaL: RDF co-fired kiln with CaL capture 
• H2-fired: Hydrogen co-fired kiln (50% hydrogen + 50% natural gas)
• H2-MEA: Hydrogen co-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture 
• H2-MEA(HP): Hydrogen co-fired kiln with MEA carbon capture & heat pumps 
• H2-Oxy: Hydrogen-oxy co-fired kiln with cryogenic CPU 
• H2-CaL: Hydrogen co-fired kiln with CaL capture 
• Plasma: Plasma Pre-calciner and Plasma kiln with CO₂ compression 
• Hybrid: Plasma Pre-calciner and Biomass oxy-fired kiln with CPU 
  

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