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The article evaluates the reduction of carbon dioxide emission due to the partial substitution of coal with alternative fuels in clinker manufacture. For this purpose, the calculations were performed for seventy waste-derived samples of alternative fuels with variable calorific value and variable share in the fuel mixture. Based on annual clinker production data of the Polish Cement Association and the laboratory analysis of fuels, it was estimated that the direct net CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion alone were 543 Mg of CO2 per hour. By contrast with the full substitution of coal with alternative fuels (including 30% of biomass), the emission ranged from 302 up to 438 Mg of CO2 per hour, depending on fuel properties. A reduction of 70% in the share of fossil fuels resulted in about a 23% decrease in net emissions. It was proved that the increased use of alternative fuels as an additive to the fuel mix is also of economic importance. It was determined that thanks to the combustion of 70% of alternative fuels of calorific value from 15 to 26 MJ/kg, the hourly financial profit gain due to avoided CO2 emission and saved 136 megatons of coal totaled an average of 9718 euros. The results confirmed that the co-incineration of waste in cement kilns can be an effective, long-term way to mitigate carbon emissions and to lower clinker production costs. This paper may constitute a starting point for future research activities and specific case studies in terms of reducing CO2 emissions.

The gaseous products emitted in the self-heating process constitute one of the parameters suggested for detecting coal spontaneous combustion in underground mining. The objective of the study is to investigate the changes of ethylene and propylene content in a gaseous mixture which flowed through a fixed bed column filled with bituminous coal of different grain size. The mixtures of fire gases were obtained from laboratory simulated heating of coal at the temperatures of 373 K, 423 K, 473 K and 523 K. Hydrocarbons of various initial concentrations were introduced to the adsorption column at the constant flow rate of 2∙10−7 m3/s. The experimental findings show that decreasing the adsorbent granulation and gases concentration causes an extended breakthrough and coal bed saturation times. In all the tests, the saturation time was gained faster for ethylene than for propylene. Thus, the content of tested hydrocarbons, which are some of the indicators for assessing the degree of the coal self-heating process, in mine air may change in time as a result of the adsorption phenomenon. It occurs particularly at the early stage of the self-heating process and in places where coal dust has been left.