Calcium oxide, Quicklime, high-calcium, lump (counted as CaO)

Activity Quicklime by calcination of limestone in a natural-gas-fired parallel flow regenerative kiln, RER: the inventory of 1 kilogram of its reference product, attributional, cut-off.

Calculation maturity: not assessed Design maturity: Concept (research)Not independently reviewedlime-1:quicklime-pfrk-natural-gas:product:quicklimePreliminaryReport 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 high-calcium quicklime (counted as CaO), gate-to-gate, EU kilns of the CLM BREF data collection. Limestone and process CO2 from stoichiometry with the sourced by-product share; fuel heat, electricity and air emissions from the BREF's PFRK ranges.

Reference product
1 kilogram of Calcium oxide, Quicklime, high-calcium, lump (counted as CaO)
Chemical
calcium-oxide
CAS
1305-78-8
Code
lime-1:quicklime-pfrk-natural-gas:product:quicklime
Dataset
quicklime-pfrk-natural-gas version 0.1.0 · UUID e4ccc5bc-430c-5b52-b3f1-11f47109d336
Activity UUID
not available (the library assigns none; use the code)
Database
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4 (version preview-a3c52e4)
Process
Quicklime by calcination of limestone in a natural-gas-fired parallel flow regenerative kiln
Geography
RER · background inputs with a site rule link at the user's site location (default DE)
Time period
2004 · valid until 2012
Technology
parallel flow regenerative shaft kiln (two shafts, alternating 8 to 15 minute firing periods, continuous production), natural gas through lances, fabric filter; rotary, annular and mixed-feed kilns and dolime are not modelled · level current
Boundary
gate-to-gate: kiln feeding, calcination in the PFRK, lime cooling and discharge, kiln dedusting; crushed, washed limestone, natural gas and power from outside; no grinding or hydrating
Classification
ISIC Rev.4 2394 (taxonomy/families.yaml (ISIC Rev.4) of the process's families)
System model
attributional, cut-off (docs/system-model.md, methodology 1.1.0)
Allocation
mass, 97 % of the dataset to this product (rule deviation, from dataset)
No open prices of quicklime and by-product lime are sourced, so the WBCSD price ratio (docs/system-model.md section 2, step 3) cannot be computed. Both are CaO, and the by-product lime is used in other products (CLM BREF section 2.3.4, p. 246), so it is a co-product (above 1 % of the output mass), not a cut-off; mass is the preliminary choice and gives the quicklime 97 % of the burdens. The limestone and the calcination CO2 are computed for the product and the by-product, while the fuel heat, electricity and stack emissions are the source's values per t of lime and are not scaled up for the by-product (ASSUMED), so the quicklime carries 97 % of them.
Rights
CC-BY-4.0

Exchanges per 1 kilogram of Calcium oxide, Quicklime, high-calcium, lump (counted as CaO)

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

Preliminary1 exchange is not yet linked to a background dataset. It counts no burden, so the inventory is incomplete: do not read a result from it as complete.
InputAmountUnitProvenancePedigreeLinked to
Limestone to the kiln (counted as CaCO3)
feed:limestone
stoichiometry CaCO3 -> CaO + CO2 for the product and the by-product lime; the stone is counted as pure CaCO3 (ASSUMED: typical limestone is above 90 % CaCO3, BREF section 2.2.2, p. 182, so the rock mass is understated by its impurities); compare 1.4 to 2.2 t/t (BREF 2.3.1, benchmarks/cement-lime.yaml)
1.785kilogramcalculated3 4 5 3 3market for limestone, crushed, washed (limestone, crushed, washed, RoW) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Natural gas (as methane) to the kiln
feed:natural-gas
EU JRC (2013) CLM BREF, Schorcht et al., EUR 26129 EN, doi:10.2788/12850, Table 2.23, p. 223 (PFRK heat use) at the LHV of methane
fuel, LHV 50.01 MJ/kg
0.07177kilogramcalculated3 4 5 3 3Atlas: natural gas, per kg, as methane (Atlas unit proxy) (natural gas, by mass, GLO)
Electricity, kiln
feed:electricity
EU JRC (2013) CLM BREF, Schorcht et al., EUR 26129 EN, doi:10.2788/12850, Table 2.23, p. 223
electricity
0.0291kilowatt hourgiven3 4 5 3 3market for electricity, medium voltage (electricity, medium voltage, DE, site location) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)

Elementary flows

FlowDirectionCompartmentAmountUnitProvenancePedigree
Carbon dioxide, fossil
349b29d1-3e58-4c66-98b9-9d1a076efd2e
emissionair0.7848kilogramcalculated3 4 5 3 3
Carbon dioxide, fossil
349b29d1-3e58-4c66-98b9-9d1a076efd2e
emissionair0.1969kilogramcalculated3 4 5 3 3
Water
075e433b-4be4-448e-9510-9a5029c1ce94
emissionair1.612e-4cubic metercalculated3 4 5 3 3
Nitrogen oxides
c1b91234-6f24-417b-8309-46111d09c457
emissionair8.73e-4kilogramgiven3 4 5 3 3
Sulfur dioxide
fd7aa71c-508c-480d-81a6-8052aad92646
emissionair1.94e-4kilogramgiven4 4 5 4 4
Carbon monoxide, fossil
ba2f3f82-c93a-47a5-822a-37ec97495275
emissionair7.275e-4kilogramgiven3 4 5 3 3
Dust from the kiln stack, after a fabric filter
emission:PM
unlinked
unlinked, no biosphere mapping: emission of PM (literature) has no biosphere3 flow identity and is not in lci/mappings.yaml biosphere
emissionnot linked2.91e-5kilogramgiven4 4 5 4 4

Where these numbers come from: each exchange names its source above; the dataset is processes/lime-1/lca/datasets/quicklime-pfrk-natural-gas.yaml in library version a3c52e4.

Used by

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

KPIValueReference rangePosition
Kiln electricity per t of quicklime– kWh/t20 to 40 kWh/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 (process) CO2 per t of quicklime– t/t0.75 to 0.75 t/t
IPCC (2006) 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 3: Industrial Processes and Product Use, chapter 2, section 2.3 (other)
not evaluated
Limestone per t of saleable quicklime– t/t1.4 to 2.2 t/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
Process and combustion CO2 per t of quicklime– t/t0.987 to 1.21 t/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

How to use it

Downloads

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", "lime-1:quicklime-pfrk-natural-gas:product:quicklime"))

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

Calcium oxide, Quicklime, high-calcium, lump (counted as CaO), from Quicklime by calcination of limestone in a natural-gas-fired parallel flow regenerative kiln (dataset quicklime-pfrk-natural-gas 0.1.0), ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database preview-a3c52e4, activity lime-1:quicklime-pfrk-natural-gas:product:quicklime. 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}
}