Aranda Usón A., Ferreira G., López-Sabirón A., Sastresa E., De Guinoa A., 2012, Characterisation and Environmental Analysis of Sewage Sludge as Secondary Fuel for Cement Manufacturing, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 29, 457-462.
An evaluation of the environmental performance of clinker production using sewage sludge as alternative fuel has been conducted. To this end, the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology has been applied to estimate the main environmental impacts in four different scenarios considering conventional combustion with petroleum coke, the replacement of fossil fuel by sewage sludge and the variation of the moisture in the alternative fuel. The Recipe method, as midpoint and endpoint approach, has been used to calculate life cycle impact category indicators. Results have been classified into the main impact categories in each case, e.g. global warming, acidification or eutrophication. To obtain more real conclusions avoiding problems associated with subsequent scale factors, this research analyses the environmental performance of sludges as alternative fuel from the industrial point of view. The results show significant technical and environmental improvements in cement manufacturing when sludge is introduced although chemical composition of the studied sewage sludge as well as the moisture level affect notably to the final impacts.
