Utilization possibilities of CO2 from cement industry in different products

Abstract

CO2 can be considered as an abundant raw material and its utilization into a product provides a sustainable and profitable alternative to carbon storage. The objective of this work was to identify a feasible way for the utilization of CO2 emissions from the Finnish cement industry into a valuable product. Based on the literature research, 31 potential products have been identified in 6 categories: fuels, inorganic carbonates, polymers, chemicals, gas, and solid carbon. The information about the identified products and technologies has been gathered from the literature using the IBM artificial intelligence language processing tool. Comparative assessment basing on the gathered data determines that the most promising options are carbon nanomaterials, construction aggregates and production of gaseous CO2 for different purposes, such as greenhouses and concrete curing. The detailed evaluation of the chosen option shows that none of the chosen technologies completely satisfy all the requirements. Although the carbon nanomaterials can utilize all of the emissions, the technology is on an early stage of development and cannot be implemented in the near future. Production of the construction aggregates requires a significant amount of the materials and there is a lack of the available feedstock in Finland. Profitability of gaseous CO2 utilization highly depends on the capture technology and the transportation distance.