Cement Production LCI in China

Cement is a critical material in urban infrastructure construction, and the cement industry has played a pivotal role in the growth of China’s economy. However, as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases among the construction material industries in China, the cement industry presents a significant challenge for China’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. To address this challenge, it is a prerequisite to evaluate the environmental impacts and identify the key processes with large impacts throughout the life cycle of cement production. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool that can identify opportunities and assist in developing strategies to mitigate these impacts.

However, data availability presents a significant challenge for LCA for cement production in China. The most significant issue is the limited localized data for China, as only five industry average-level processes are available from the ecoinvent and Gabi databases. Untraceability is another factor impeding the applications. Another obstacle is the lack of traceability in existing data, with many records provided without accessible data sources, making it difficult for users to verify the numbers. This lack of data quality can result in unreliable LCA results, undermining the effectiveness of efforts to reduce environmental impacts and transition towards more sustainable production practices.

To address these data challenges, this study has collected LCA data for China’s cement production from peer-reviewed publications. The dataset includes 150 unit processes, compiled following strict rules to ensure data traceability and transparency. The resulting dataset provides more accurate and reliable information for LCA studies on the cement industry in China. It will also aid in making more informed decisions regarding the sustainable development of China’s cement industry and its downstream supply chains.