Economic evaluation of the industrial solar production of lime
Vishwanath Dalvi
neha22bhamre
Cement production is a source of emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). As much as 6% of global man-made carbon dioxide emissions originate from cement production. Approximately 50% of carbon dioxide emissions from cement production originate from the chemical reaction that converts limestone (CaCO3) to calcium oxide (CaO), the primary precursor to cement. About 40% of the industry’s CO2 emissions come from fossil fuel combustion during cement production. The remaining emissions come from the transport of raw materials (about 5%) and the combustion of fossil fuels required producing the electricity consumed by cement production (about 5%). (I have attached various graphs showing carbon di oxide emission trend in world and also norms related to CO2 emission in European countries)
The industrial solar lime production drastically reduces the CO2 emissions from burning of fossil fuel required in calcination and electricity generation, but the cost of installation and maintenance of the Solar Towers is very high. Thus it increases the cost of production as well as selling prices of pure lime produced in this process. But there are some industries which require pure lime for their process. Also the reduction in CO2 emission taxes and government subsidies can help to reduce the costs.
It may be difficult for an industry to switch to a solar lime production that runs full-fledged production of lime using fossil fuels as it requires lots of space and maintenance. Therefore a better alternative to fossil fuel can be using Bio-fuels which also reduce carbon di oxide emissions. (I have attached a pdf which describes lime production using bio fuels.)