This article was published in the June issue of International Cement Review in 2020.
Lowering logistics CO²
Carbon reduction in the cement industry mainly focusses around production processes. However, logistics and transport are also a relevant source of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. On the road to net-zero carbon emissions, CO2 reductions in logistics are a low-hanging fruit that allows cement producers to improve their overall carbon footprint.
What activity emits the most CO2: producing 1t of CEM II cement or delivering two full-truck loads of CEM II to a customer? It should not come as a surprise that for every tonne of CEM II, 550-650kg of CO2 are emitted. But if you hit the road with a 28t payload on your back and do two roundtrips of 300km each, your truck’s exhaust will have blown out the same amount of CO2 at the end of the day – 564kg.
■ by Dirk Schlemper and Thomas Bergmans, INFORM GmbH, Germany
Well to wheel
Calculating the CO2 footprint of a full-truck load is a fairly simple exercise: multiply the diesel consumption (per 100km) by the distance travelled (in km) and the specific CO2 emission factor of diesel. Divide the result by 100 to get the CO2 emissions of the journey in kilograms. The specific emission factor of a fuel is a nearlyconstant value and for diesel it is 2.629kg CO2, if just the actual combustion of the diesel in the tank is considered (tank-towheel). If the CO2 emissions caused during the production process of the fuel are included, the value is 3.138kg CO2. In the example above, assumptions included:
• 35l/100km for the loaded 150km trip to the customer
• 25l/100km for the empty return trip, resulting in 564kg CO2 for two round trips.
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