Portland cement clinker (grey)

Activity Portland cement clinker in a dry rotary kiln with cyclone preheater and precalciner, RER: the inventory of 1 kilogram of its reference product, attributional, cut-off.

Calculation maturity: not assessed Design maturity: Concept (research)Not independently reviewedcement-clinker-1:cement-clinker-dry-kiln-precalciner:product:clinkerPreliminaryReport a problem with this dataset

Research outputAn inventory from a research design at the design maturity its process states, not verified plant data: check its calculation maturity and review status before use. Background activities are referenced by name only; no background data is included. All caveats

What it is

Per 1 t of grey clinker, gate-to-gate, EU technology of the CLM BREF. Raw meal and calcination CO2 from IPCC default clinker chemistry, fuel energy and stack emissions from BREF ranges and BAT-AELs, petroleum coke as the only fuel (ASSUMED), electricity from the CSI/ECRA GNR-2014 reference plant.

Reference product: 1 kilogram of Portland cement clinker (grey)
Chemical: cement-clinker
CAS: not available
Code: cement-clinker-1:cement-clinker-dry-kiln-precalciner:product:clinker
Dataset: cement-clinker-dry-kiln-precalciner version 0.1.0 · UUID 9fe50b71-d72c-594e-b762-66a98b354de2
Activity UUID: not available (the library assigns none; use the code)
Database: cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4 (version preview-a3c52e4)
Process: Portland cement clinker in a dry rotary kiln with cyclone preheater and precalciner
Geography: RER · background inputs with a site rule link at the user's site location (default DE)
Time period: 2004 · valid until 2013
Technology: dry process, rotary kiln with four to six cyclone stages, precalciner and grate cooler; kiln gas filtered (ESP or fabric filter); no carbon capture · level current
Boundary: gate-to-gate: raw meal grinding and homogenisation, fuel grinding, preheater, precalciner, rotary kiln, clinker cooler and kiln stack; quarrying in the raw-material backgrounds; cement grinding not included
Classification: ISIC Rev.4 2394 (taxonomy/families.yaml (ISIC Rev.4) of the process's families)
HS 2523.10 (chemicals/chemicals.yaml (cement-clinker))
System model: attributional, cut-off (docs/system-model.md, methodology 1.1.0)
Allocation: mass, 100 % of the dataset to this product (rule single-output, from default)
one product: nothing to allocate
Rights: CC-BY-4.0

Exchanges per 1 kilogram of Portland cement clinker (grey)

As exported: allocated and scaled to the reference product. Provenance: 6 calculated, 9 given, 1 assumed. Pedigree scores (1 best, 5 worst): reliability, completeness, temporal correlation, geographical correlation, further technological correlation.

Preliminary2 exchanges are not yet linked to a background dataset. They count no burden, so the inventory is incomplete: do not read a result from it as complete.

Input	Amount	Unit	Provenance	Pedigree	Linked to
Limestone, as its calcium carbonate feed:limestone stoichiometry: the CaCO3 that gives the clinker's and the lost dust's CaO (IPCC Tier 2 basis: all CaO from carbonate, full calcination, section 2.2.1.2); the limestone's own impurities, moisture and organic carbon are not modelled; compare 1.57 t/t of all raw materials (CLM BREF Table 1.15) and 1.55 (CSI/ECRA 2017, Annex II) in benchmarks/cement-lime.yaml	1.184	kilogram	calculated	4 4 5 4 4	market for limestone, crushed, washed (limestone, crushed, washed, RoW) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Clay, shale and correctives, as their oxides feed:clay stoichiometry: the clinker's MgO, SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3 from the model formula; combined water of clay minerals and other volatiles are not modelled (TODO)	0.3568	kilogram	calculated	4 4 5 4 4	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (chemical 'clay'); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Kiln fuel, petroleum coke, as heat by net calorific value feed:petroleum-coke EU JRC (2013) CLM BREF, EUR 26129 EN, doi:10.2788/12850, Table 1.18, p. 47 (midpoint); the fuel being petroleum coke is ASSUMED; 3500 MJ/t counted in kWh (1 kWh = 3.6 MJ); outside the element balance (no sourced composition beyond the IPCC carbon content) fuel, LHV 32.5 MJ/kg	0.9722	kilowatt hour	given	3 4 5 3 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (chemical 'petroleum-coke'); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Electricity feed:electricity CSI/ECRA (2017) Development of State of the Art Techniques in Cement Manufacturing: Trying to Look Ahead, revision 2017 (WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative and ECRA), Annex II, p. 168 electricity	0.07	kilowatt hour	given	3 4 4 4 3	market for electricity, medium voltage (electricity, medium voltage, DE, site location) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Cement kiln dust not recycled, to landfill output:ckd follows the IPCC default CKD correction (see parameter cf_ckd); modelled as calcined dust of clinker composition (ASSUMED). BAT 29 is to reuse it where practicable (CLM BREF p. 354), which would make it cut off	0.02	kilogram	assumed	4 4 5 4 4	market for inert waste, for final disposal (inert waste, for final disposal, RoW) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)

Elementary flows

Flow	Direction	Compartment	Amount	Unit	Provenance	Pedigree
Carbon dioxide, fossil aa7cac3a-3625-41d4-bc54-33e2cf11ec46	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	0.5205	kilogram	calculated	3 4 5 3 3
Carbon dioxide, fossil aa7cac3a-3625-41d4-bc54-33e2cf11ec46	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	0.3413	kilogram	calculated	3 4 5 3 3
Methane, fossil 70ef743b-3ed5-4a6d-b192-fb6d62378555	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	1.05e-5	kilogram	calculated	3 4 5 3 3
Dinitrogen monoxide afd6d670-bbb0-4625-9730-04088a5b035e	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	2.1e-6	kilogram	calculated	3 4 5 3 3
Nitrogen oxides 77357947-ccc5-438e-9996-95e65e1e1bce	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	7.475e-4	kilogram	given	4 4 5 3 3
Sulfur dioxide 78c3efe4-421c-4d30-82e4-b97ac5124993	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	5.175e-4	kilogram	given	4 4 5 3 3
Carbon monoxide, fossil 099b36ab-4c03-4587-87f4-2f81e337afb8	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	0.00253	kilogram	given	3 4 5 3 3
Particulate Matter, < 2.5 um 66f50b33-fd62-4fdd-a373-c5b0de7de00d	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	1.725e-5	kilogram	given	4 4 5 3 3
Particulate Matter, > 2.5 um and < 10um 295c9740-6fdb-4676-9eb8-15e3786f713d	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	1.38e-5	kilogram	given	4 4 5 3 3
Particulate Matter, > 10 um 7678cec7-b8e1-439d-8242-99cd452834b1	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	3.45e-6	kilogram	given	4 4 5 3 3
Mercury II 5ec9c16a-959d-44cd-be7d-a935727d2151	emission	air / non-urban air or from high stacks	4.6e-8	kilogram	given	3 4 5 3 3

Where these numbers come from: each exchange names its source above; the dataset is processes/cement-clinker-1/lca/datasets/cement-clinker-dry-kiln-precalciner.yaml in library version a3c52e4.

Used by

No other activity of this database links to it.

How good it is

Review: Not reviewed: no LCI review record yet
Data quality: not available
Mass and carbon closure: Not available: a hand-written dataset: no lca/manifest.json records its balance
Change report: Not available: this build has no change report against an earlier release.

KPI benchmark positions

KPI	Value	Reference range	Position
Electricity of raw meal preparation and the kiln line per t of clinker No independent open range per t of clinker found (2026-11-05). Read: CLM BREF section 1.3.3.2 (90 to 150 kWh per t of cement only, which needs a split and a clinker factor to compare); CSI/ECRA 2017, Paper No. 2 (shares of the plant's electricity) and Annex II (70 kWh/t clinker, the dataset's own source, so not a check).	– kWh/t	not available	not evaluated
Kiln fuel energy (net calorific value) per t of clinker	– MJ/t	3,100 to 3,500 MJ/t CSI and ECRA (2017) Development of State of the Art Techniques in Cement Manufacturing: Trying to Look Ahead, revision 2017. WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative and European Cement Research Academy, Duesseldorf and Geneva (other)	not evaluated
Direct fossil CO2 (calcination and kiln fuel) per t of clinker	– kg/t	900 to 1,000 kg/t Schorcht, F. et al. (2013) Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document for the Production of Cement, Lime and Magnesium Oxide. JRC Reference Report EUR 26129 EN, doi:10.2788/12850 (bref)	not evaluated
Calcination CO2 per t of clinker	– kg/t	536 to 536 kg/t CSI and ECRA (2017) Development of State of the Art Techniques in Cement Manufacturing: Trying to Look Ahead, revision 2017. WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative and European Cement Research Academy, Duesseldorf and Geneva (other)	not evaluated
Raw meal (dry) per t of clinker	– t/t	1.55 to 1.55 t/t CSI and ECRA (2017) Development of State of the Art Techniques in Cement Manufacturing: Trying to Look Ahead, revision 2017. WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative and European Cement Research Academy, Duesseldorf and Geneva (other)	not evaluated

How to use it

Downloads

cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4.xlsx · bw2io ExcelImporter workbook (bw2io 0.9 Excel layout) · the whole database
code cement-clinker-1:cement-clinker-dry-kiln-precalciner:product:clinker
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-olca-jsonld.zip · openLCA JSON-LD (olca-schema) (2) · the whole database
process 9fe50b71-d72c-594e-b762-66a98b354de2 (processes/9fe50b71-d72c-594e-b762-66a98b354de2.json)
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-multifunctional.json · Brightway 2.5 multifunctional database (JSON, for the multifunctional package) (cheme-as-code/lci-multifunctional/v1) · the whole database
code cement-clinker-1:cement-clinker-dry-kiln-precalciner:product:clinker
cheme_as_code_lci-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl · the installer

A file with this activity alone is not available: each file above is the whole database, and the line under it says how to find this activity there.

import bw2data as bd
from cheme_as_code_lci import install

bd.projects.set_current("my-project")   # holds your licensed background + biosphere3
install("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4.xlsx", background="ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff", location="DE")
activity = bd.get_activity(("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4", "cement-clinker-1:cement-clinker-dry-kiln-precalciner:product:clinker"))

While any exchange of the database has no mapping, install() writes nothing and only lists the unlinked exchanges. So the last line finds no activity until the gaps are mapped: the download section gives the ways to use the database now.

How to cite

Portland cement clinker (grey), from Portland cement clinker in a dry rotary kiln with cyclone preheater and precalciner (dataset cement-clinker-dry-kiln-precalciner 0.1.0), ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database preview-a3c52e4, activity cement-clinker-1:cement-clinker-dry-kiln-precalciner:product:clinker. Cite the Process Atlas paper (in preparation, 2026), by Artur M. Schweidtmann and Jana M. Weber, and the ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database version preview-a3c52e4.

DOI: none yet (the Process Atlas paper is in preparation)

For the data, cite the Process Atlas paper; for the platform that builds and checks it, the ChemE-as-Code paper.

Schweidtmann, A. M. & Weber, J. M. (2026, in preparation). Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title).

BibTeX

@unpublished{schweidtmann_process_atlas,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M. and Weber, Jana M.},
  title = {{Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://atlas.cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}

Schweidtmann, A. M. (2026). ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering. arXiv:2611.07947. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947

BibTeX

@misc{schweidtmann_cheme_as_code,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M.},
  title = {{ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering}},
  year = {2026},
  eprint = {2611.07947},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07947}
}