Chinese Cement Companies to Reduce Their Carbon Footprint

July 7, an ambitious three-year project to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 10-15% by 2012 in over 40 large Chinese cement companies was launched in Beijing. "Clean development is an important component of restructuring in the Chinese cement industry, and this China-US bilateral project involving introduction of international best practices is designed to build capacity in this area," said Mr. Liu Ming, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), at an event to mark the project launch. "Energy today is a global issue, not a country issue. Both of us (US and China) need to work together through such collaborative efforts to deal with climate change," emphasized Martin Shoenbauer, Executive Director, US Department of Energy, Embassy of the United States of America.

"Looking forward, environmental protection is our focus. Cement sector in China is making progress through phasing out older capacities and adopting state of art technology but it is an arduous task as small and medium plants are affected in the process," said Mr. Kong Xiangzhong, China Cement Association (CCA). China's Energy Saving and Emission Reduction policy has set a target to reduce energy intensity by 20% during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010). Cement production is a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, accounting for five percent of the global total. And, China's cement sector accounts for nearly 50% of global cement production.

The 42 largest cement companies selected in the project produce approximately 400 million metric tons of cement per year, accounting for over 30% of Chinese cement production. "Decreasing energy consumption and increasing efficiency in the plant using demonstrated tools and technologies can cut costs and boost competitiveness," said Dr. Sui Tongbo, Vice President, China Building Materials Academy (CBMA). Nearly 40% of the cement production capacity in the country is based on outdated or inefficient technologies.

The project will begin with a four-day workshop that will train cement companies in using three complimentary tools to measure energy consumption and emissions, assess the causes of energy losses and develop technical solutions to operate more efficiently. An international team comprised of CBMA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), World Resources Institute (WRI), CCA, the Cement Industry Energy Efficiency and Environmental Protection Evaluation and Test Center, and E3M, Inc. will hold the training workshop. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of State, through the Cement Task Force of the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Energy and Climate.

Following the workshop, the 42 cement companies will implement these tools and develop comprehensive plans to reduce energy use and GHG emissions. The plants will be re-assessed at the end of the project to determine the savings realized through the use of the tools and implementation of measures. "The challenge is to demonstrate how to support Chinese modernization while delinking growth and GHG emissions. This project can contribute to policy debate, influence the architecture of sectoral, national and international instruments to deal with climate change, and present an example for similar efforts in other sectors," said Zou Ji, China country director, WRI.

The project will also design an economically-viable, environmentally-friendly alternative fuel and raw materials co-processing program, which will include conducting demonstrations in six Chinese plants, and developing, documenting, and disseminating technical guidelines for co-processing. "This is a comprehensive project that goes beyond measurement to benchmark cement plants against both Chinese and international best practice, as well as provide practical energy efficiency options that can be implemented in the plants," explained Lynn Price, Staff Scientist, China Energy Group, LBNL.

The tools, training materials, and results from the project will be disseminated to further enhance the capacity building of the entire Chinese cement industry. An integrated national database on energy efficiency and emissions for Chinese cement industry, using worldwide recognized methodologies and tools, will also be established.

Additional Information

The three tools that will be employed as part of the project were developed separately but are complimentary in providing information to aid energy and GHG management decisions. The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development has developed a CO2 Quantification Protocol Tool that enables companies to quantify emissions on corporate and plant levels. The Benchmarking and Energy Saving Tool for Cement (BEST-Cement), developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in collaboration with the Energy Research Institute, China Building Materials Academy (CBMA), and China Cement Association (CCA), benchmarks cement plants to both Chinese and international best practice in terms of energy consumption and then provides up to 50 energy-efficiency options to be employed in the plant. The U.S. Department of Energy's Process Heating Assessment and Survey Tool (PHAST), developed by E3M, Inc., provides a detailed assessment of the cement plant combustion efficiency.

All three tools have been used separately in China in recent years. In 2008, WRI held two training workshops on GHG accounting for Chinese cement companies and LBNL held four training workshops on energy benchmarking and identification of energy-efficiency measures for the Chinese cement industry. The PHAST tool was used to develop a heat balance for two cement plants in Shandong Province in 2007.