Consumo de energía térmica y emisiones de dióxido de carbono en la fabricación de baldosas cerámicas Análisis de las industrias Española y Brasileña

Abstract

Spain and Brazil are two of the world's biggest ceramic tile producers. The tile manufacturing process consumes a great quantity of thermal energy that, in these two countries, is mainly obtained from natural gas combustion, which entails CO2 emission, a greenhouse gas. This study presents a comparative analysis of the thermal energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the ceramic tile manufacturing process in Spain and Brazil, in terms of the different production technologies and different products made. The energy consumption and CO2 emissions in ceramic tile manufacture by the wet process are very similar in both countries. In the dry process used in Brazil, less thermal energy is consumed and less CO2 is emitted than in the wet process, but it is a process that is only used in manufacturing one particular type of product, which exhibits certain technical limitations. While in Spain the use of cogeneration systems in spray-dryers improves significantly the global energy efficiency. The average energy consumption in the different process stages, in both countries, lies within the range indicated in the Reference Document on Best Available Techniques in the Ceramic Manufacturing Industry (BREF of the Ceramic Manufacturing Industry) of the European Union.