Renewable Electrified Cement Production: Flexibility and Economic Competitiveness

Cement production remains among the most carbon-intensive industrial processes due to intrinsic process emissions and the conventional use of fossil fuels to supply the thermal demand in Portland clinker manufacture. While carbon capture and storage (CCS) is widely regarded as the cornerstone of decarbonization in this sector, electrification offers a complementary pathway capable of eliminating combustion-related emissions and enhancing the efficiency of CO2 capture systems. This study presents a comprehensive techno-economic assessment of renewable-powered electrified cement configurations benchmarked against leading CCS alternatives. Using detailed process modeling and a mixed-integer linear programming framework, we evaluate fully (completely electrified thermal energy demand) and partially (electrified thermal energy demand either in the calciner or in the rotary kiln) electrified plants under varying technology integrations, cost scenarios, and renewable supply conditions, including operational flexibility enabled by intermediate calcined-material storage. The analysis spans four geographically diverse locations to capture the effects of renewable resource quality and their impact on economic performance. Full electrification eliminates fuel combustion but increases electricity demand by approximately an order of magnitude relative to a conventional cement plant, while partially electrified configurations require 4.5-7 times more electricity. When combined with alternative fuels containing 30% biogenic carbon, partially electrified configurations equipped with CCS can achieve net-negative direct emissions through the capture of biogenic CO2. However, conventional CCS benchmark plants capture larger CO2 volumes and, therefore, derive greater economic benefits from carbon credits. Introducing operational flexibility in configurations with an electrified calciner and an alternative fuels-fired kiln enables long-duration load shifting, reducing renewable overbuild and curtailment by 7-26%, lowering the levelized cost of renewable electricity by 37-48%, and decreasing the cost of avoided CO2 by up to 17%, depending on location and time frame. Despite these improvements, a retrofitted Oxyfuel plant remains the most economically favorable decarbonization pathway under baseline assumptions. Sensitivity analyses indicate that electrified alternatives could become competitive in regions with abundant low cost, low-carbon electricity, and limited access to the CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, albeit under conditions of significant capital expenditure and technology integration uncertainty.