The Main Culprit of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Cement Plants Is 'Old Talk'... Reasoned Decrease in Pollutants

To reduce fine dust emissions, Ssangyong Cement enclosed the limestone stockyard at the Donghae plant in December 2018. A contrasting view before and after enclosure.
[Photo by Ssangyong Cement]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The stigma that cement factories are the main culprits of greenhouse gas emissions is a thing of the past. This is because the amount of air pollutants emitted has been significantly decreasing every year due to the government's strong regulations to improve air quality and the cement industry's voluntary investment in eco-friendly facilities.

According to the industry on the 11th, the cement industry has been investing huge amounts annually in building eco-friendly facilities. Ssangyong Cement invested 110 billion KRW in 2018 to install the world's largest single cement plant waste heat power generation facility with a capacity of 43.5 MWh at its Donghae plant. The waste heat power generation facility is an eco-friendly system that recovers heat emitted into the atmosphere by installing separate boilers in the preheater and cooler to produce steam, which then drives turbines (generators) to generate electricity.

Additionally, dust collectors, devices that remove solid or liquid fine particles suspended in polluted gases, are being replaced with new equipment one or two units each year, and in December last year, the limestone stockyard at the Donghae plant was converted into an indoor facility. Since installing one dust collector costs about 7 billion KRW, Ssangyong Cement invests about 14 billion KRW annually just for dust collector replacement, spending hundreds of billions of KRW each year on maintaining and repairing eco-friendly facilities.

Hanil Cement completely enclosed the crusher facilities at the exposed Danyang plant, and Hanil Hyundai Cement fully enclosed the limestone storage facilities at the Yeongwol plant, also replacing covers on various conveyor belts to prevent dust from being exposed outside. Asia Cement and Halla Cement also fully enclosed their conveyor lines and installed dust-proof nets at aggregate stockyards. Sungshin Cement supplemented and expanded dust collection facilities in April last year to block dust from escaping outside.

Sampyo Cement has recorded emissions below the free allocation quota every year until last year since the government introduced the carbon emission trading system in 2015. They have strictly adhered to the greenhouse gas emission quotas allocated by the government annually. Sampyo Cement also earned profits by selling the remaining emission rights.

To reduce fine dust emissions, the industry has invested tens of billions of KRW annually in maintaining and managing pollution control facilities such as filtration dust collectors that remove general dust and selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) systems that purify nitrogen oxides. In 2018, they also installed the industry's largest energy storage system (ESS). ESS is a device that stores electricity and can be used when needed, and unlike fossil fuels such as oil, it produces no emissions, greatly contributing to air quality improvement.

Last year, the industry signed a business agreement with the Ministry of Environment for voluntary response to high-concentration fine dust, installing automatic control systems (SNCR) that reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, a major cause of fine dust, and actively promoting efficiency improvements to SNCRR, which has better reduction effects.

Furthermore, when high-concentration fine dust emergency reduction measures are issued, factory operating hours are reduced by more than two hours per day, and test operations of diesel generators are suspended. Pollution prevention facilities for cement production's calcining and cooling facilities are operated, cleaning and water spraying vehicles are increased inside and outside workplaces, and a two-day vehicle operation system is implemented.

These efforts by the industry are reflected in the reduction of air pollutant emissions from cement manufacturing. According to the Ministry of Environment's recent compilation and announcement of air pollutant emissions from 631 large-scale emission businesses nationwide last year, the total air pollutant emissions from these businesses last year were 277,696 tons, a 15.9% (52,350 tons) decrease compared to 2018 (330,046 tons).

Over the past five years, emissions of three major fine dust-causing substances?nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and dust (combined from power generation, cement manufacturing, and steel industries)?have steadily decreased: 400,892 tons in 2015, 398,992 tons in 2016, 358,313 tons in 2017, 326,731 tons in 2018, and 274,262 tons last year. This represents a 31% reduction in major fine dust-causing emissions compared to five years ago. Last year, the cement manufacturing industry emitted 62,546 tons of nitrogen oxides, about 5% less than the previous year.

A representative from the Korea Cement Association said, "Companies invest hundreds of millions of KRW annually to replace existing dust collectors with more efficient filtration dust collectors and to continuously carry out dust prevention construction to reduce dust generated during the cement manufacturing process. These efforts are bearing fruit, and the notion that cement factories are the main culprits of fine dust emissions is now a thing of the past."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.