Industry Overview
Cement is manufactured through a closely controlled chemical combination of calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron, and other ingredients (refer to the blog “How Cement is Made” for more information). Materials used to manufacture cement include limestone, shells, and chalk combined with shale, clay, slate, silica sand, and iron ore. These ingredients, when heated at high temperatures form a rock-like substance that is ground into the fine powder that we commonly think of as cement. Cement mixed with sand, gravel, and water makes up concrete. Because of their abundant resources, easy operation, durability and versatility, cement and concrete are the most widely used construction materials. The soaring population growth and urbanization expected over the next few decades worldwide suggest that cement demand will keep growing. Globally, each year over 4 billion tonnes of cement is produced. While it helps to pave the way for modernization, the cement manufacturing comes with adverse impact on the environment, climate change and health:
- Most cement plants today use coal as fuel for the pyroprocessing. It takes 200-450 kg of coal to produce 1 tonne of cement;
- The cement industry is the largest source of PM (particulate matter) emissions, accounting for 40 percent of PM emissions from all industrial sources. During cement production the average emission is 0.13 kg of dust per ton of produced cement;
- Dust emissions from cement production cause serious respiratory illnesses. For example, China produces 60% of the world’s cement. While it helps to build China’s mammoth cities, sprawling roads, and other infrastructure, it comes at a dangerous cost: 1.6 million Chinese citizens die each year from respiratory illnesses linked to small particulate matter emissions, of which 27% come from cement production.
Dust filtration and collection measurements have to be implemented, and maintained at their optimal efficiency to mitigate the adverse impact of cement production.
