Cement substitution with secondary materials can reduce annual global CO2 emissions by up to 1.3 gigatons
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Shah, Izhar
Miller, Sabbie
Jiang, Daqian
Myers, Rupert
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Population and development megatrends will drive growth in cement production, which is already one of the most challenging-to-mitigate sources of CO2 emissions. However, availabilities of conventional secondary cementitious materials (CMs) like fly ash are declining. Here, we present detailed generation rates of secondary CMs worldwide between 2002 and 2018, showing the potential for 3.5 Gt to be generated in 2018. Maximal substitution of Portland cement clinker with these materials could have avoided up to 1.3 Gt CO2-eq. emissions (~44% of cement production and ~2.8% of anthropogenic CO2-eq. emissions) in 2018. We also show that nearly all of the highest cement producing nations can locally generate and use secondary CMs to substitute up to 50% domestic Portland cement clinker, with many countries able to potentially substitute 100% Portland cement clinker. Our results highlight the importance of pursuing regionally optimized CM mix designs and systemic approaches to decarbonizing the global CMs cycle.
Date Issued
2022-09-30
Date Acceptance
2022-09-12
Citation
Nature Communications, 2022, 13
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Research
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
13
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Commission of the European Communities
Grant Number
EP/S006079/1
EP/S006079/2
958208
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 5758