A Process-Step Benchmarking Approach to Evaluating Energy Use at New Cement Plants

Assessing the Environmental Impact of Energy-Efficient Cement Plants

Abstract

Energyefficiency projects in the industrial sector provide a source for reducinggreenhouse gas emissions under a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme as laidout in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. The CDM offers a mechanism for developed countries to meet greenhousegas (GHG)   reduction  requirements by  gaining  offsets from  projects  they fund  in  developing countries.  To receive these offsets – known as CarbonEmission Reduction Units (CERs) – the project should demonstrate “real,measurable, and long-term benefits” and the reductions should be “additional toany that would occur in the absence of the project.”(UNFCCC, 1997) In otherwords, energy-efficiency CDM projects must be compared against some baseline toquantify the carbon  reduction,  and this baseline  should reflect, as  closely as possible,  what  would have happened in the absence of the CDM project.