Browsing by Author "Herrera, Israel"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Life Cycle Assessment of applying CO2 post-combustion capture to the Spanish cement production(2015-10-01) García-Gusano, Diego; Garraín, Daniel; Herrera, Israel; Cabal, Helena; Lechón, Yolanda; PLANIFICACIÓN ENERGÉTICAAlthough cement production is a very energy-intensive industry which releases huge amounts of pollutants to the environment, there is a lack of environmental studies focused on applying CO2 capture technologies to mitigate global warming in this industry. Furthermore, other environmental and human health impacts are omitted or underestimated. This paper carries out a detailed Life Cycle Assessment of the Spanish cement production in order to analyse the effect of applying post-combustion CO2 capture technology using monoethanolamine as absorbent. Moreover, the work discusses the pros and cons of CO2 capture within the cement manufacture from an environmental point of view. On the basis of the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) 2011 midpoint method, results show improvements in global warming, ozone depletion and abiotic depletion potentials but acidification, photochemical ozone formation, eutrophication, human toxicities, ionising radiation, particulate matter, ecotoxicity, and land use potentials are increased by several times. Besides, the paper shows the decisive contribution of the cogeneration plant required to produce heat. It is necessary to carry out more research concerning how to face the energy penalty. Authors strongly recommend exploring natural gas or biomass CHP plants implementation as well as synergies between cement facilities and power plants.Item Life cycle assessment of the Spanish cement industry: Implementation of environmental-friendly solutions(2015-01) García-Gusano, Diego; Herrera, Israel; Garraín, Daniel; Lechón, Yolanda; Cabal, Helena; PLANIFICACIÓN ENERGÉTICAThis study tries to find out the hotspots of the Spanish cement sector in 2010 by the life cycle assessment (LCA) and evaluates some improvement scenarios where best available technologies and substitution measures are taken into consideration. The document presents an environmental LCA of the cement production using the 2011 International Reference Life Cycle Data System method recommended by the European Commission. Attending to the clinker production by stage, fossil fuel combustion is the most important source in terms of impacts. Besides, limestone’s calcination is crucial attending to the climate change. Electricity consumption is also relevant both in human toxicity with cancer effects and freshwater eutrophication (FE). Accordingly, solutions deployed lead to reductions in different impact categories. Fossil fuel substitution scenario achieves to reduce 33 and 37 % photochemical ozone formation and acidification (A), while material substitution scenario leads to reduce 10–13 % each impact category. On the other hand, fossil fuel substitution scenario entails an increase of 10 % in FE. Considering the ideal case of applying all these improvements together, reductions go from 15 % in FE to 49 % in A, respectively. To face the problems derived from fossil fuel combustion, a fuel shift is needed to reach less contaminant options such as biomass and bio-waste. Material substitution is another good solution for the industry, but it requires a change in the demand and further research to ensure the properties of cement. Authors recommend taking into consideration the collateral increase of the FE due to the phosphates increase coming from the alternative fuels combustion.