Decarbonization of cement production by electrification

This study presents the techno-economic assessment of four electrified cement plants: i) using direct electrification and plasma technologies (eC-pK case); ii) consisting of indirect electrification via H2 combustion and oxy-combustion of alternative fuels (OC-HK); iii) combining direct electrification, alternative fuels combustion and post-combustion CO2 capture (eC-afK); iv) consisting in the electrification of the hydraulic Calcium Hydro Silicate production process (e-hCHS). Process modeling in Aspen Plus is used to estimate mass and energy balances and calculate techno-economic key performance indicators. The study finds that all the electrified alternatives achieve high levels of equivalent CO2 emissions avoidance (87.2%–101.8%), with a trade-off between the electricity demand (604–1341 kWh/tclk) and the amount of captured CO2 to be handled by the transport & storage infrastructure (357–834 kgCO2/tclk). With an electricity price of 50 €/MWh, the partially electrified alternatives (OC-HK, eC-afK) showed competitive additional cost of clinker (87 €/tclk) and cost of avoided CO2 (101 €/tCO2) against a benchmark case, though higher than the cost of the best CO2 capture technologies from the literature. The eC-pK case resulted in lower economic performance associated mainly to the higher price of electricity per unit of final energy supplied compared to alternative fuels.