Enhancing sustainability in cement manufacturing through waste heat recovery and CCHP systems

Mahdi Mahmoudkhani, Alibakhsh Kasaeian, Narges Sadat Nazari, Fatemeh Afshari and Mehdi Esmaeili Bidhendi

Energy, 2025, vol. 318, issue C

Abstract: The cement industry's rapid expansion has resulted in heightened environmental and economic issues due to significant greenhouse gas emissions and energy losses. Conventional manufacturing methods, which often release waste heat, significantly increase carbon emissions. This paper proposes an innovative combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system that enables significant waste heat recovery. Through a Steam Rankine Cycle and a Li-Br absorption chiller, the system generates power, heating, and cooling, effectively repurposing thermal energy otherwise wasted. This study provides a comprehensive 4E (energy, exergy, economic, and environmental) analysis, demonstrating the system's potential to significantly improve sustainability in cement production by enhancing resource efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Our model, validated with accurate operational data and simulated through EES software, demonstrates significant improvements in energy and exergy efficiencies. Based on the input data and operational results, the proposed system recovers 3078 kW of helpful energy, including 945 kW of cooling and 2133 kW of heating. The system's energy and exergy efficiency are 30.2 % and 28.69 %, respectively, and with an initial investment of $661,803, the payback period is 6.183 years. Additionally, the sustainability index is 0.1216, and the exergoenvironmental index is 0.6928, reflecting the ecological and economic viability of the system.

Keywords: Waste heat recovery; Cement; CCHP; Steam rankine cycle; 4E analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:318:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225004876

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.134845

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