International best practices for pre-processing and co-processing municipal solid waste and sewage sludge in the cement industry

Panel: 2. Sustainable production design and supply chain initiatives

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Ali Hasanbeigi, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Lynn Price, Environmental Energy Technologies Division,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Hongyou Lu, Environmental Energy Technologies Division,, USA
Christopher Williams

Abstract

The cement industry accounts for approximately 5 percent of current anthropogenic CO2 emissions worldwide. Given increasing cement demand and production, the industry’s absolute energy use and CO2 emissions will continue to grow. Burning wastes in cement kilns, known as co-processing, can reduce the industry’s reliance on fossil fuels and decrease associated CO2 emissions. In addition, burning wastes in cement production can help alleviate the problems associated with the increase in waste generation around the world. Technologies and strategies to co-process municipal solid waste (MSW) and sewage sludge are emerging after many years of development and support in Europe. Many developing countries such as China and nations in Southeast Asia are initiating programs to promote co-processing of wastes in the cement industry. Regulations, standards, and the technical infrastructure in these developing countries are less mature than in countries that have a long experience with co-processing waste in the cement industry. The purpose of this paper is to describe international best practices for pre-processing and co-processing of MSW and sewage sludge in cement plants, for the benefit of countries that wish to develop co-processing capacity. We found that effective regulatory and institutional frameworks are critical to ensuring that co-processing practices in the cement industry are not harmful to health or the environment. An integrated solid waste management model and regulations and standards related to environmental performance, product quality, operations and safety, permitting, and monitoring and reporting are key elements in a regulatory framework for a sustainable co-processing industry. From the technological perspective, pre-processing and treatment of waste are often required to make the waste ready for co-processing in cement kilns. As much as possible, Best Available Techniques (BATs) should be applied to the pre- and co-processing processes in order to ensure that waste co-processing in the cement industry is environmentally sound.