Generowicz-Caba Natalia, Kulczycka Joanna
Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences, Wybickiego 7A Str., 31-261 Cracow, Poland.
Faculty of Management, AGH University of Krakow, 30-067 Cracow, Poland.
Materials (Basel). 2025 Jun 27;18(13):3057. doi: 10.3390/ma18133057.
The cement industry is responsible for approximately 7-8% of global CO emissions, primarily due to the energy-intensive production of clinker. In response to growing environmental concerns and the pressure to decarbonize the construction sector, the composition of cement has been evolving toward more sustainable alternatives. This article presents a review of the recent literature and EPD reports concerning changes in cement composition and their environmental impact, as assessed through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies. This paper reviews the literature of recent LCA studies on cement with alternative materials. For a thorough analysis, VOSviewer_1.6.18 was used to find the research gap in this field. The companies' EPD reports were analyzed to compare the most relevant information. The data that was extracted from the reports concerns carbon footprint, energy consumption, and system boundaries. The analysis reveals a clear trend toward reducing clinker content by incorporating supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, natural pozzolans, and limestone. These modifications significantly lower key LCA indicators, particularly Global Warming Potential (GWP). Despite the growing number of studies on individual SCMs, there is a lack of integrated reviews comparing their environmental performance within a standardized LCA framework. This study addresses this gap by systematically comparing the environmental profiles of various low-clinker cement types and highlighting the critical role of supplementary cementitious materials selection. The findings confirm that changes in cement formulation are not only occurring but are essential for reducing the environmental footprint of construction materials.
水泥行业约占全球二氧化碳排放量的7%-8%，主要原因是熟料生产能耗高。随着环境问题日益受到关注以及建筑行业脱碳压力的增加，水泥的成分一直在朝着更可持续的替代品发展。本文综述了近期有关水泥成分变化及其环境影响的文献和EPD报告，这些影响是通过生命周期评估（LCA）方法进行评估的。本文回顾了近期关于使用替代材料的水泥的LCA研究文献。为了进行全面分析，使用VOSviewer_1.6.18来找出该领域的研究空白。对各公司的EPD报告进行了分析，以比较最相关的信息。从报告中提取的数据涉及碳足迹、能源消耗和系统边界。分析表明，通过掺入粉煤灰、粒化高炉矿渣、天然火山灰和石灰石等辅助胶凝材料（SCMs）来降低熟料含量的趋势明显。这些改进显著降低了关键的LCA指标，特别是全球变暖潜能值（GWP）。尽管对单个SCMs的研究越来越多，但缺乏在标准化LCA框架内比较其环境性能的综合综述。本研究通过系统地比较各种低熟料水泥类型的环境概况并强调辅助胶凝材料选择的关键作用，填补了这一空白。研究结果证实，水泥配方的变化不仅正在发生，而且对于减少建筑材料的环境足迹至关重要。
