Environmental Impact Assessment of the Algerian Cement Industry: A Case Study with Life Cycle Assessment Methodology

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the energy consumption and global warming of Portland cement production in Algeria. A cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for the studied system was developed and conducted according to the LCA-ISO 14040 series. The results obtained were compared to that of a German production process extracted from the GEMIS 4.7 database. The results indicated that the energy requirement in the Algerian process, 5.716 MJ/FU, was higher than in the German process, 4.832 MJ/FU. However, the Green House Gas (GHG) from the Algerian process was less, 551.39 kg CO2 eq/FU, compared with 882.36 obtained for the German process. These could be attributed to the difference in quality of fuels used in the two processes. While the Algerian process was exclusively based on natural gas, the German process was based on a mixture of fuels.