Author(s)

J. Arias, C. Gutierrez-Cañas, M. Larrion & C. Urcelay

Abstract

Larger widespread public concern about sustainability as an answer to the huge pressure put on the medium by the accelerated degree of development is bringing about the emergence of analytical tools with the purpose of assessing environmental damage relating to industrial products or activities in general. According to this project’s vocation a new experimental tool, based on generic LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) software aided by a process simulator, is developed to carry out the assessments of several scenarios of waste valorization in the cement process. Starting from a preset base case of zero alternative material usage, the program recalculates environmental impacts of the evolved process taking into account deviations in pollutant emission levels and benefits of waste recovery versus new resource consumption. The results of these analyses will help with decision-making issues concerning the selection and dosage of most adequate waste according to comparison between data obtained from the different scenarios proposed, assuring in this way the minimisation of environmental impact in the recovery/valorization of these alternative materials. Keywords: decision support, LCA, cement, process simulation, waste management, software, dynamic tool.

Keywords

decision support, LCA, cement, process simulation, wastemanagement, software, dynamic tool.