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Long-term behaviour of CO2 emissions from cement production in Spain:

Scenario analysis using an energy optimisation model

Article  in  Journal of Cleaner Production · March 2015

DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.03.027

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 Journal of Cleaner Production 99 (2015) 101e111

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Long-term behaviour of CO2 emissions from cement production in

Spain: scenario analysis using an energy optimisation model
Diego García-Gusano*, Helena Cabal, Yolanda Lecho

n
Research Centre in Energy, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT), Energy Department, Energy System Analysis Unit, Av. Complutense 40, 28040 Madrid,
Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: During the past decade, the Spanish cement production industry has experienced constant techno-
Received 18 July 2014 logical updates. Nevertheless, meeting current and future environmental policy goals requires extra
Received in revised form efforts. The Spanish case is significant because cement production went down dramatically due to the
18 December 2014
last economic crisis. This brought an important, but temporary, reduction of CO2 emissions. Therefore,
Accepted 6 March 2015
Available online 14 March 2015
there is an interesting opportunity for cement producers and policymakers to adjust the long-term
targets. This work discusses the evolution of the cement industry in Spain from a realistic point of
view using recent cement demand projections and the TIMES-Spain energy optimisation model.
Keywords:
TIMES
Several environmental-friendly options were implemented in TIMES-Spain following a literature re-
Cement view. These measures, aimed at contributing to the decrease of emissions to meet the established
CO2 emissions policy goals, include energy efficiency improvements, substitution scenarios (both for fuel and ma-
Substitution terials) and CO2 capture (post-combustion and oxyfuel). From a policy approach, the deployment of
CO2 capture the EU ETS Directive entails that CO2 emissions from cement production will decrease by 8 Mt per year
from 2030 with respect to the case without Directive. In a more technology-specific analysis, a
remarkable decrease of 2e2.4 Mt CO2 was obtained in the material substitution scenario beyond 2030.
Additionally, taking into account current projections for cement demand, CO2 capture technology does
not emerge as a feasible option. Only if cement demand grew back to the pre-crisis level by 2050 and
the CO2 emission allowances remained fixed would the CO2 capture via post-combustion start to be a
reasonable alternative.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction production in Spain through a modelling exercise using the TIMES-

Since the beginning of the global financial crisis in September
2008, the Spanish cement industry has undergone a significant
reduction in production due to the contraction of the demand. This
contraction was mostly triggered by the withdrawal of public
administration investments and credit restrictions to private
developments.
The present work builds upon previous life cycle assessment
(LCA) studies carried out by García-Gusano et al. (2013, 2015). In
those works, the authors identified relevant hotspots in the Spanish
cement production processes and applied several environmental-
friendly solutions to reduce their environmental impacts. The
present study goes further by exploring the future of the cement
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 685849597.
E-mail address: diego.garcia@ife.no (D. García-Gusano).
Spain energy optimisation model (Labriet et al., 2010; Cabal et al.,
2012; García-Gusano, 2014). Said modelling exercise implements
Directive 2009/29/EC (EC, 2009a), adds a description of cement
production processes including the Best Available Techniques (BAT)
and proposes energy and material substitution scenarios, as well as
technology applications for CO2 capture. Finally, specific scenarios
concerning sectorial CO2 emissions and cement demands have
been built to go beyond the targets specified by Directive 2009/29/
EC. The year 2010 was established as a reference, and the time
horizon was set in 2050. Spain is one of the top cement producers in
Europe. For that reason, this work seems relevant as a way to assess
the evolution of the cement industry under the environmental
restrictions imposed by the European Commission (EC). Besides, its
originality is founded on the application of the TIMES methodology,
an energy optimisation modelling tool that can be used by policy-
makers and stakeholders to develop scenarios that support
decision-making processes.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.03.027
0959-6526/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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