Decrease of Cement Production Environmental Burden – LCA

Abstract

A big progress has been made in decrease of environmental impacts of cement production. Dust pollution around cement plants has been considerably decreased thanks to efficient dust separators. An intention of further emission reduction has been announced. The environmental burden of cement production is also decreased by substitution of cement by alternative binders. Hydraulic properties of energy by-products have been investigated for a long time to check their potential as a partial substitution of traditional cement binder. The paper will focus in examining the influence of variation of the concrete composition on the environmental impacts, identification of the most severe procedures in the cement production and analysis of meaningfulness of implementation of the proposed measures. The environment is a complex system. Potential modifications of concrete composition or production technology may bring benefits in certain areas and on the contrary cause environmental harm from another perspective. Hence, analysis of the cement production impacts cannot be based on one aspect, and a broad portfolio of impact categories will be assessed regarding concrete production environmental burden.