The cement industry is facing the difficult challenge of green transformation. In 2023, China's total carbon emissions were 12.6 billion tons, of which 1.21 billion tons were from the cement industry, accounting for 9.6%, second only to the power and steel industries. It has become a reality for the cement industry to achieve carbon peak ahead of schedule, and the era of achieving carbon peak in an all-round way and moving towards carbon neutrality is coming. How should the cement industry achieve carbon neutrality?
Focusing on green transformation and promoting the upgrading
of industrial structure, the Special Action Plan for Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction in Cement Industry issued in June this year clearly pointed out that the industrial layout and capacity regulation should be optimized, and leading cement enterprises should be encouraged to carry out cross-regional and cross-ownership mergers and reorganizations. According to incomplete statistics, since the 14th Five-Year Plan, various ministries and commissions of the state have issued many documents to encourage leading building materials enterprises to carry out resource integration and merger and reorganization, improve industry concentration, optimize industrial structure and competition pattern, and promote high-quality development of the industry. Promoted by the "policy combination boxing" of the
state adopting mandatory standards to promote the withdrawal of low-quality and low-efficiency production capacity and strengthening the supervision of new and stock projects, cement enterprises are promoting joint restructuring through m & a, equity participation and other forms, curbing new production capacity from the source, reducing and eliminating backward production capacity from the stock, and adjusting the structure. Promote the sustainable development of the industry.
Promoting green goals and exploring carbon reduction paths
Fuel combustion, electricity consumption and carbonate decomposition of raw materials are the three main sources of carbon emissions in cement production. In view of this, the carbon emission reduction of cement industry can be summarized into three strategies: fuel substitution, energy efficiency improvement and low-carbon cement.
Cement enterprises, as the main body of carbon emission reduction, should purposefully and emphatically explore new ways of green carbon reduction, create a combination of transformation and upgrading, promote the use of non-fossil energy alternative fuels, develop carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology, expand new energy fields such as photovoltaic power generation, and promote green energy. We will increase investment in energy-saving technological transformation, waste heat power generation and raw material substitution, construct a low-carbon cycle development model, and accelerate the pace of green transformation.
In addition, the cement industry should carry out the ultra-low emission transformation of the whole industrial chain of "raw material and fuel input-production process-product output", sub-process, multi-pollutant sub-regional step-by-step promotion, strengthen the integrated promotion of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in the cement industry, and promote the green, low-carbon and high-quality development of the industry.
To build a green future, technological innovation enables cement manufacturing
to achieve the goal of "double carbon" without major breakthroughs in key technologies. Innovation is the first productive force leading development. The realization of the goal of "double carbon" in cement industry is inseparable from the innovation of science and technology. Cement enterprises carry out in-depth cooperation with universities and scientific research institutions, focusing on the path of carbon reduction at the source, carbon reduction in the process and carbon sequestration at the end, strengthen carbon emission reduction and new material technology research, promote the implementation of ultra-low emission transformation, accelerate the transformation of digital intelligence, and accelerate the research of low carbon, zero carbon and negative carbon technology.
Scientific and technological innovation guides enterprises to promote digital energy management and carbon emission management, and to coordinate the collection, analysis and management of energy use data and carbon emission data. We will deepen the application of digital technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain in the cement industry, and promote real-time optimization of process control of kilns and mills, automation of loading and unloading links, and intelligent quality control of the whole process.
Under the dual-carbon target, the joint efforts of supply-side reform and demand-side changes will provide impetus and new opportunities for the low-carbon transformation and carbon neutralization of the cement industry. On the journey of green and low carbon, cement enterprises are taking practical actions to interpret the "double carbon" commitment, through the construction of green industrial structure, explore effective carbon reduction paths, improve the scientific and technological innovation system, and go all out to race forward on the track of green transformation.
Calculate clinker production process emission, fuel combustion emission, power & heat consumption emission, total carbon emission & Carbon intensity and other related data, visit more cement industry carbon emission policies and data, please see: Cement Industry Carbon Emission Computing Center
The cement industry will soon be included in the carbon trading market, and the importance of green low-carbon transformation has become increasingly apparent. To this end, China Cement Network will hold the " 2024 China Cement Double Carbon Conference and the 12th Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Technology Exchange Conference " in Wuhu Conch International Hotel on October 24-25. The conference will focus on the core issues of low-carbon development and green upgrading in the cement industry, discuss the application of energy efficiency improvement and energy-saving and carbon reduction technologies, and how the cement industry can use the carbon trading mechanism to promote its low-carbon transformation.
