Track: Environmental Engineering
Abstract
The production of Portland cement clinker is associated with substantial energy consumption and significant environmental consequences, driven by raw material extraction and Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, its production contributes to approximately 5-8% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, with each ton of Portland cement yielding about 1.0-1.2 tons of CO2. This paper used life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the environmental impact of three types of blended cement (CEM II A-S, CEM II/B-S and CEM III/A) that use ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) as a substitute for clinker in the South African cement industry using SimaPro 9.2.0.1 software developed by PRé Consultants, Amersfoort, Netherlands at ReCiPe2016 midpoint (H) V1.04. The study found that CEM III/A cement products with a high proportion of GGBFS had the lowest CO2-equivalent emissions per ton of cement compared to other blended cement with GGBFS substitution. The CO2-equivalent emissions of CEM III/A cement were about 74% lower than those of CEM I cement, which has the highest emissions. The global warming potential of CEM II A-S and CEM II/B-S cement was 30% and 24% higher than that of CEM III/A cement. CEM III/A cement is the most environmentally friendly option for cement production.