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By: Project Drawdown
June 4, 2024
Cement, the second-most-used substance in the world after water, is the source of significant greenhouse gas emissions. In 2016 alone, 1.46 gigatons of carbon dioxide were released as a result of cement production (Andrew, 2018).
To make portland cement, the most common form, crushed limestone and aluminosilicate clay are roasted in a kiln, producing calcium oxide (the desired product) and carbon dioxide (the waste). This carbon dioxide comprises roughly 60 percent of cement’s emissions. The rest results from energy use.
Project Drawdown’s Alternative Cement solution consists of making clinker, an intermediate product in the portland cement–making process, more efficiently and reducing the ratio of clinker to cement. To quantify the impact of the Alternative Cement solution, we collected demand forecasts from various global projections.
Adoption of the solution consists of two changes: reducing clinker intensity and improving the thermal and electricity intensity of production. Clinker intensity can be reduced by replacing portland cement with alternative materials that produce lower carbon dioxide emissions. Such alternative materials include industrial waste products such as fly ash from burning coal and slag from manufacturing iron, in addition to naturally occurring materials such as natural pozzolans, calcined clays, and limestone. Thermal and electricity intensity of clinker production can be reduced by upgrading cement kilns to modern standards, such as the use of pre-calciners and dry-kiln technologies.
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