Volume 41: Energy Transitions toward Carbon Neutrality: Part IV

Techno-economic analysis on the integration of an electrified clay calcination process into a cement plant Bruno Laurini, Yi Zong, Chresten Træholt, Sebastian Andres Quevedo Parra, Meenakshisundaram Shanmugasundaram

Abstract

Calcined clay, as supplementary cementitious material (SCM), can potentially reduce the cement industry’s carbon footprint by partly avoiding CO2 emissions released from clinker production. Further reduction can be achieved through the electrification of the clay calcination process while coupled with increasing penetration of renewable energy sources (RES). This paper addresses the economic and CO2 emissions performance of an electrified clay calcination process integrated into a reference cement plant. An optimal sizing algorithm is developed to investigate how local renewable-based generation and high-temperature thermal storage can be exploited to improve the economic feasibility of electrification. Results show that even without optimization, the integration allows a reduction of the overall cost of cement for a given geographic area and considering a carbon price of 100 €/tCO2. When applying the optimal sizing algorithm, an additional decrease in costs is observed, primarily due to the lower energy costs achieved by installing a 41.18 MW PV plant and a 340 MWh thermal storage.

Keywords calcined clay, cement, techno-economic analysis, optimal sizing, electrification, renewable generation