Arash Khosravi

Energy transition in energy-intensive industries, including cement plants, is one of the key requirements for tackling global warming and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7, 9, 11, 12, and 13. In this study, a conceptual design for integrating various fuel-switching technologies to enable energy transition in a cement plant located in the Persian Gulf region was developed, focusing on environmental footprint reduction and assessment. First, mature and emerging technologies were identified through a literature review and analysis of global experiences. Then, ten selected scenarios were designed based on technical criteria using coal, natural gas, and hydrogen produced from natural gas via steam methane reforming (SMR), as well as direct and indirect seawater electrolysis powered by grid electricity, nuclear energy, and solar energy. In addition, the effects of integrating carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in the SMR process and the flue gas stream from cyclone No. 1 were investigated. Technical data were collected through field measurements at a coastal cement plant. The clinker production process—including combustion, calcination, rotary kiln operation, and related equipment—was simulated in Aspen Plus software for the ten designed scenarios. A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) was then conducted using SimaPro software to evaluate environmental impacts, including climate change, ozone depletion, soil acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, and fossil resource depletion. Furthermore, based on greenhouse gas emissions, a new color-based cement labeling standard was proposed. The coal scenario was considered the baseline (most polluting) scenario, and the other scenarios were ranked relative to it on a scale from 0 (low Pollution) to 1 (highly Polluting). Accordingly, the results were color-cod