Cement industry has already avoided emission of 2.8 million tonnes of CO2
The cement industry in Portugal has avoided the emission of 2.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the past 13 years by replacing fossil fuels with less polluting alternative fuels, a study released today shows.
According to a study by the company AVE – Environmental Management and Energy Valorization, waste coprocessing allowed cement companies in Portugal to avoid “2.8 million tons of CO2eq in the last 13 years and contributed around 4 million euros in Value Added Gross (GVA) to the national economy ” last year.
The study “13 Years of Coprocessing in Portugal” aims to evaluate the contribution of waste co-processing to the socio-economic and environmental development in the country and explains that the coprocessing method consists of the use of wastes – previously prepared and identified as viable – as fuel alternative in cement kilns and / or as a secondary raw material in the production of clinker, a component of cement manufacture.
The work also allowed us to know that the use of coprocessing by cement plants in Portugal resulted in the creation of 110 jobs last year.
He also points out that coprocessing has been “the main strategy to reduce environmental impacts,” replacing fossil fuels with alternative fuels with lower emission factors by incorporating alternative raw materials into the cement mix, thereby reducing the rate of incorporation of clinker.
Over the last 13 years, coprocessing has averted more than 210 thousand tons of CO2eq per year, translating into accumulated savings of 2.8 million tons of CO2eq.
CO2eq is the internationally accepted measure to express the amount of greenhouse gases in equivalent terms of the amount of CO2.
The use of alternative fuels by cement plants to replace Petcoque allowed 13 years to avoid the import of about 1.7 million tonnes of this fuel and corresponded to a saving of € 85 million in imports in this period.
Coprocessing could, according to the study, prevent the emission of 3.3 million tonnes of CO2 by 2023.
The work also states that the creation of employment related to the activity of coprocessing presents “a different pattern of the creation of GVA, namely by the low direct impact, but high indirect impact“.
In this sense, the direct creation of jobs is associated with commercial and laboratory activity, and for each direct job is created about 10 jobs upstream.
“It is estimated that by 2017 coprocessing has contributed to the creation of around 110 jobs throughout the supply chain,” the document points out.
The company AVE – Environmental Management and Energy Valorization was constituted in October of 2003 and is focused on waste management and its material or energy valorization by the cement industry, using the coprocessing method.
Cimpor – Cimentos de Portugal, Secil – Companhia Geral de Cal e Cimento and oSGVR – Waste Management and Valorization Services are the company’s three shareholders.
