The cement industry contributes about 5% of total global carbon dioxide emissions. Due to the dominant use of carbon intensive fuels, e.g. coal, in clinker making, the cement industry is also a major emitter of CO2 emissions. Hence growing algae next to these cement plants can be a fantastic opportunity to convert these stack gases to algae oil.<\/p>\n
From where does these carbon-dioxide comes from??<\/strong><\/p>\n Carbon dioxide emissions in cement manufacturing comes Roughly half of the emitted CO2 originates from the fuel and half originates from the conversion of the raw material. These carbon-dioxide emissions is very harmful and can be reduced by removing them from the flue gases and this is where our algae can be used!!<\/p>\n There are few efforts underway to capture these emissions one of which is a Canadian company called Pond biofuels has utilized this opportunity to capture the GHG emissions from the cement plants. In early April,2010, they planned to capture the emissions of the St. Marys Cement plant in southwestern Ontario. The company claims that it plans to capture the carbon dioxide and other emissions from the cement plant and will use it to create a nutrient-rich algae slime which can be dried and used as a fuel.<\/p>\n The algae will be grown at a facility adjacent to the stacks, harvested, dried using industrial waste heat, from the cement plant and then used along with the fossil fuels that are currently used in its cement kilns. The company says they hope to demonstrate the scalability of the industrial pilot project and to show that it can be employed on virtually any industrial stack.<\/p>\n More details of some efforts taken by other companies and the concept of algae cultivation near cement plants can be better understood from\u00a0 http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/algae\/cult\/cos\/cem\/cem.html<\/a><\/p>\n
\na.\tDirectly from combustion of fossil fuels
\nb.\tCalcining the limestone in the raw mix.
\nc.\tAn indirect and significantly smaller source of CO2 is from consumption of electricity assuming that the electricity is generated from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n