This year sees the start of Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, which will run until 2020. The best-practice benchmark set for CO2 emissions has generated plenty of discussion. Cement industry expert Phil Kerton looks at some of the detail.
Some recent discussions on internet forums have taken up the question of best-practice benchmarks, in particular the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) benchmark for CO2 emission of 766kg/t of grey cement clinker. There are many sound technical reasons to propose that this is totally unachievable, even for the most advanced modern kiln systems. For example, extra fuel needs to be used when the only available raw materials have a high moisture content and/or when a kiln bypass has to be used to cater for high levels of chloride or alkalis – perhaps arising from the introduction of alternative fuels that have an appreciable content of biofuel (zero-rated for CO2 emissions).
