Title
Production of cement in Peru: Understanding carbon-related environmental impacts and their policy implications
Date Issued
01 March 2019
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
Cement production is one of the main drivers of the construction sector worldwide. While cement demand has plateaued in many developed nations recently, several emerging and developing economies have experienced important increases in demand. This is the case of Peru, a nation with a growing economy and a high demand for seismic-resistant infrastructures and housing. Recent estimates have shown that cement is responsible for approximately 5–10% of worldwide anthropogenic CO2 emissions, of which more than half are linked to the production of clinker, due to the use of fossil fuels and direct clinkering emissions. To face this concern in the Peruvian context, producing a more sustainable product with improved environmental performance, it is necessary to first understand the environmental profile of current production standards. Therefore, this study analyzed the environmental impacts, specifically climate change, of cement production in three relevant national cement plants to identify the main greenhouse gas mitigation strategies throughout the whole supply chain. Three different types of cement produced in the three different plants were analyzed: ordinary Portland cement, cement with added natural pozzolan and cement with added blast furnace slag. Life Cycle Assessment was used to quantify the GHG emissions linked to the production of one standard bag of cement. Although results were in the lower range as compared to the literature, these varied significantly across the cement plants, reaffirming that Portland cement tends to have higher global warming impacts than when blended cement is produced, although the energy carrier for the kiln or the import of clinker can have an influence on the final results.
Start page
283
End page
292
Volume
142
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencias del medio ambiente Ingeniería de la construcción
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85058685600
Source
Resources, Conservation and Recycling
ISSN of the container
09213449
Sponsor(s)
The authors would like to thank the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH for funding the project, as well as Sara Reyna Palacios and Roberto Prieto Sanchez for their valuable comments throughout the development of this research project. In addition, we thank Daniel Verán-Leigh for technical support and Mijail Padilla Guzmán for administrative support.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus