Impact assessment of CO2 emissions caused by exergy losses in the cement sector

Abstract

In this study, global effects caused by exergetic inefficiency are examined for rotary kiln of the cement plant. For this purpose, a rotary kiln process of a cement plant in Turkey is modelled, and the annual operation data of this process is analysed. As a first step, an exergy analysis is carried out for all of the thermal processes of the cement plant. Then exergy losses and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the rotary kiln process taken exemplary according to annual dead state temperature changes are determined. Annual averages of the exergy efficiency of the kiln and its exergetic improvement potential are found as 48.5% and 110.58 GJ/h, respectively. In this system, CO2 emissions caused by exergetic losses are calculated for the coal mixture and the natural gas as an average of 38,004 kg/h and 12,668 kg/h, respectively. At the end of the study, some suggestions concerning reduction of the global effects for these systems are made.