Technology Roadmap Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry

Figure 10: Global thermal energy mix in cement in the 2DS
Note: Waste includes biogenic and non-biogenic waste sources.
Sources: Base year data from CII, WBCSD and IEA (forthcoming), 
Status Update Project from 2013 Low-Carbon Technology for the Indian Cement 
Industry
; CSI (2017), 
Global Cement Database on CO
2
 and Energy Information
, 
www.wbcsdcement.org/GNR
; SNIC (forthcoming), 
Low-Carbon 
Technology for the Brazilian Cement Industry
; data submitted via personal communication by Sinoma Research Institute and China Cement 
Association 
(2016-17)
.
2050 - 2DS
2050 - 2DS
2040 - 2DS
2040 - 2DS
2030 - 2DS
2030 - 2DS
2014
Low-variability case
High-variability case
Waste
Biomass
Natural gas
Oil
Coal
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
KEY MESSAGE: The share of fossil fuels in the cement thermal energy demand decreases from 94%
to 67-70% in the 2DS by 2050 due to a greater use of waste and biomass.

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30
Technology Roadmap
Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry
Regional implementation to 2030
Making waste available as alternative fuel for 
industrial users has strong policy implications. It 
requires a policy-driven redirection of disposing 
waste at landfill sites towards processes that 
convert waste into heat and electricity. Introducing 
controlled waste collection, treatment and 
processing is critical for ensuring quality control 
of alternative fuels, to avoid emissions of basic and 
hazardous pollutants and an impact on productivity 
of cement plants through operation control and 
monitoring systems.
The use of biomass and waste as fuels in cement 
production varies greatly across different regions. 
Countries in which cement plants operate with 
high shares of alternative fuels have typically 
implemented policies that focus on setting 
emissions limits and preventing landfilling instead 
of restricting the characteristics of alternative fuels 
for industrial use. This approach allows cement 
plants or industrial operators the flexibility to treat 
the alternative fuel combination that they find 
most cost-competitive and suitable to meet the 
legislation. For instance, the alternative fuel share 
in the cement thermal energy demand in countries 
such as Germany or the Czech Republic is reported 
at more than 60% (Ecofys, 2017).
Reaching higher shares of alternative fuels in cement 
kilns, typically with greater moisture content and 
lower calorific content compared to conventional 
fossil fuels, could entail an increase of thermal 
energy demand (0.2-0.3 GJ/t clinker for up to a 65% 
alternative fuel share) and electricity (2-4 kWh/t 
clinker) consumption for drying (thermal energy) 
and handling (electricity) purposes (ECRA and 
CSI, 2017). No region reaches such high levels by 
2030 in the 2DS. The region with the highest share 
of alternative fuels in thermal energy for cement 
production on average is Europe, which reaches 
40% by that year, followed by America (26%) and 
Other Asia Pacific (24%). A redirection of waste to 
the cement sector and a strong growth of biomass 
use in kilns as a result of adequate supportive policy 
and cost-competitive access to sustainable biomass 
are needed to realise the levels of alternative fuels 
explored in the 2DS.
The 2DS considers efforts to integrate greater shares 
of biomass and waste in cement production. Strong 
urbanisation trends in developing countries put 
pressure on setting waste management policies 
that support sustainable development of either new 
urban areas or the expansion of existing ones. Some 
regions multiply many times over their current 
shares of alternative fuels of cement thermal energy 
by 2030 in the 2DS (e.g. China by 62, Eurasia by 33 
and the Middle East by 10). This enormous shift in 
relative terms also highlights the low starting levels 
in terms of substitution of conventional fossil fuels in 
cement production (below 2% in 2014 on average 
in these regions) compared to global practice (6% 
in 2014). However, despite these radical shifts in the 
fuel composition of cement production, biomass 
and waste demand for cement production jointly in 
these regions represent 0.5 EJ by 2030 in the 2DS or 
6% of the global cement thermal energy demand in 
the same year (Figure 11).