Claims have been made that it is necessary to promote the recycling of circular resources for carbon reduction in the domestic cement industry. This suggests adopting the use of waste as cement fuel and raw materials as a means of reducing greenhouse gases.
On the 10th, a discussion on the theme 'Direction for carbon neutrality in the domestic cement industry' was held as a special session of the 'Semtech Asia 2025' event at the Conrad Hotel Seoul in Yeouido, Seoul.
Semtech Asia is an international academic and technical exchange event hosted by Cemnet, a British cement industry organization. This year, it was held for the first time in Korea with the support of the Korea Cement Association.
During this discussion, Jean Michel, an executive at Sampyo Group, explained that using waste vinyl, waste plastic, waste concrete, and waste bricks as alternative fuels for cement production could establish a circular economy. Michel noted, 'When household waste is incinerated, 20-30% results in ash, which has to be landfilled, but if it is used as alternative fuel in the cement production process, no ash or fly ash is produced.'
Michel further stated, 'If 2,800 tons of waste are processed daily at four incineration plants in Seoul, 500 to 800 tons of ash is sent to landfills daily, but if 1 ton of household waste is co-processed in a cement kiln, about 0.5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced compared to landfilling or incineration.' He added that highly toxic harmful substances like dioxins can also be thermally decomposed.
The method of utilizing waste as alternative fuel for cement production has already been established in Europe. Thomas Armstrong, president of Cemnet, said, 'The proportion of alternative fuels in Korea is 30%, but in Europe, it has already reached an average of 60% (from waste, etc.). In contrast to Korea, Europe recognizes waste as a 'resource' and maximizes social benefits by using it.'
Michel also noted, 'In Europe, there are factories that operate entirely on alternative fuels,' stating that 'the French cement company Holcim produced 100% clinker using recycled materials through a pilot process.' Clinker is an intermediate product created through high-temperature chemical reactions in the cement manufacturing process, significantly affecting the quality and performance of the final cement product.
Kim Jin-man, a professor at Gongju National University, stated, 'Combustible waste can be used as fuel, and non-combustible waste can be jointly processed as raw materials, making cement processing the only process capable of rationally handling the waste discarded by humanity from a resource circulation perspective.' He also pointed out that efforts must continue to introduce various pretreatment processes to avoid controversies over harmful substances in the materials used as raw materials.
However, many regulations need to be improved to utilize such waste as fuel or raw materials in cement production processes.
Lee Chang-ki, vice president of the Korea Cement Association, noted, 'Only waste that complies with the heavy metal, chlorine, and calorific value criteria specified in the Waste Management Act can be recycled as alternative fuel,' stating that 'the current calorific value standard for alternative fuels in cement under the Waste Management Act is 4,500 kcal per kg, which is 1,000 kcal/kg higher than the solid recovered fuel (SRF) standard, creating obstacles to expanding alternative fuels.' He added, 'As a result, the cement industry faces challenges in securing alternative fuels, making carbon neutrality in the cement industry difficult and slowing the national transition towards a resource-recycling society.'
Concerns have also been raised regarding the need for government support to equip environmental facilities. Peter Hodinot, former president of the European Cement Association, stated, 'The burden of environmental regulation should help the cement industry expand the environmental investment facilities needed to comply with regulations.' He added, 'The additional expenses from investments should be reflected in cement prices, and the emissions charges collected by the government can be used to support the funding required to secure environmental investment facilities suitable for responding to environmental regulations.'