Future Environmental Impacts of Cement Production in Germany and the Effects on Downstream Consumers

Abstract

To meet the German climate targets, greenhouse gas reductions are essential for the cement industry, which is responsible for 9 % of German industrial emissions. As an input material for many industries, cement and its environmental performance also influences downstream consumers. The same applies to metal and electricity supply. In this study, we first modeled decarbonization pathways for the German cement industry. Second, we performed a prospective Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of future cement production to evaluate the environmental implications of different decarbonization strategies. We based the evaluation on an emission model that distinguishes between process and energy-related emissions. Third, we incorporate our cement decarbonization scenarios as background scenarios into ecoinvent3 to assess their effects on downstream consumers, such as electricity generation from wind and hydropower. To improve temporal consistency, we considered background scenarios for metal and electricity supply. In our scenarios, we combined several technological options like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and an electrified precalciner. The scenarios imply that CCS is the best option to reduce greenhouse gases from cement production. The maximum reduction of climate change impacts of 61% is reached by combining the cement “CCS” scenario with the electricity “Mitigation” scenario. There are also reductions achieved for marine eutrophication impacts by 218 % and human toxicity impacts by 47 %. Only metal depletion impacts increase by 33 % as electricity consumption rises. Furthermore, we showed that the incorporation of cement scenarios into ecoinvent3 influences downstream consumers in Germany. The climate change impact of the electricity production from hydropower decreases by 8 %.