From CO2 emissions to resource efficiency: a new simplified methodology for assessing resource use in clinker manufacturing

Journal article

A new simplified methodology for calculating industrial exergy-based Resource Efficiency (RE), estimating clinker manufacturing RE from publicly available CO2 emissions data and existing technical knowledge, is proposed. The analysis builds on previous control-data exergy-based RE analysis of a real cement plant. The results of the two models tested follow the same trends found in the plant’s exergy-based RE analysis employing real-time control-data: fuels dominate total exergetic resource input; the clinker burning section is responsible for the higher consumption of energy and emissions; exhaust gases have significant exergy content, while dust losses are small. Estimation of the raw feed flow from reported CO2 emissions gives a good proxy of the real exergy content of both raw feed and clinker. The use of average EU28 data on fuels yields a fuel mix exergy content which differs by less than 10% of the one obtained employing control-data analysis. The RE results of the models compare well with both those from the control-data analysis and the values reported in the literature. The new proposed methodology is, thus, found to be capable of estimating a plant’s RE that constitutes a good proxy of its real value, using publicly available data.

Authors: Outeirinho Morgado, A; Cullen, JM

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer
• Journal: Journal of Industrial Ecology
• Publication date: 2026-02-18
• Acceptance date: 2025-11-07
• DOI: 10.1007/s44498-026-00022-2
• EISSN: 1530-9290
• ISSN: 1088-1980
• Language: English
• Keywords: Clinker (cement); Material flow analysis; Resource efficiency; Industrial ecology; Exergy; Resource (disambiguation); Raw material; Proxy (statistics); Exergy efficiency