Emissions trading

The lime industry is one of the most important raw materials industries. Lime products are indispensable raw materials for numerous processes, especially in the iron and steel industry, environmental protection, the building trade, agriculture, the food processing industry and animal feed production, and almost impossible to substitute.

The lime industry is more strongly affected by emissions trading than any other affected industry because:

it emits approx. 1.2 tonnes of CO₂ when producing 1 ton of lime,
its added value in relation to the CO₂ emitted is lower than that of any other affected industry,
the technical potential for reduction has been fully exploited. For every tonne of lime, 785 kg of CO2 are chemically liberated. That proportion cannot be reduced further. One-third of the emissions produced are due to burning fossil fuels in the lime kilns. Kiln technology and fuel input have been optimised with thermal efficiency levels of more than 85% and can only be technically improved to a marginal extent with disproportionately large effort

Under these conditions, the system of emissions trading either by investing in technical measures to reduce the emission of CO₂ or by purchasing additional CO₂ certificates cannot become effective for the lime industry.

Further information on the subject of emissions trading is available from the Federal association of the German lime industry.