The cement production process is associated with the emission of dust. These are mainly CKD (cement kiln dust) and BPD (by-pass dust), classified as wastes from group 10 – Wastes from thermal processes, subgroups 10 and 13 – wastes from manufacture of cement, lime and plaster and articles and products made from them. Cement kiln dust is a waste of variable composition and properties, which makes it a difficult material to recover. The main directions of recovery presented in the world literature indicate the use of dust from cement kilns in cement, mortar and concrete production, the production of bricks and in order to improve soil quality and wastewater treatment. Factors affecting chemical and phase compositions of dust from cement kilns are the reason why each waste should be analyzed individually. The paper presents the results of the analysis of the cement kiln dust after dedusting cement kilns and two bypass dusts. Analysis of the chemical composition has shown significant concentrations of chlorine, potassium and calcium in all wastes. The content of: Si, S, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Zr, Pb, and Bi has also been confirmed. The analyzed dusts were characterized by the presence of carbonates (calcite, dolomite, and arcanite), quartz, alite, belite, sylvine, anhydrite, and portlandite in their phase composition. The leachates which were characterized by an alkaline reaction. In terms of leachability, high concentrations of chlorine ions in the analyzed dust leachates were confirmed, which significantly limits their use.

Fly ashes from the combustion of lignite coal are suitable materials for the creation of suspensions in which CO2 is bound by mineral carbonation. Considering their limited economic uses, mineral sequestration, as a stage of the CCS technology in lignite coal power plants, can be a way of recycling them. Mineral sequestration of CO2 was researched using fly ashes from the combustion of lignite coal in the Pątnów power plant, distinguished by a high content of CaO and free CaO. Research into phase composition confirmed the process of carbonation of the whole calcium hydroxide contained in pure suspensions. The degree of CO2 binding was determined on the basis of thermogravimetric analysis. A rise in the content of CaCO3 was found in the suspensions after subjecting them to the effects of carbon dioxide. Following carbonation the pH is lowered. A reduction in the leaching of all pollutants was discovered in the studied ashes. The results obtained were compared to earlier research of ashes from the same power plant but with a different chemical composition. Research confirmed that water suspensions of ashes from the combustion of lignite coal in the Pątnów power plant are distinguished for a high degree of carbonation.

Postęp cywilizacji jest nieodmiennie związany z coraz szybszym wytwarzaniem odpadów. Kwestia odpadów stała się już globalnym problemem. Na całym świecie opracowuje się nowe technologie utylizacji odpadów i metody zastosowania ich w przemyśle. Jedną z takich możliwości jest wykorzystanie palnych frakcji odpadów w charakterze źródła energii.

Power production is the largest source of emissions of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. The main fuels in Poland are solid fuels - hard coal and lignite. Their combustion produces large quantities of waste, primarily fly ash. The ashes from lignite, due to the chemical and phase composition, and thus their properties, have - so far - limited economic use. Among their possible applications is the use of mineral sequestration of carbon dioxide - this is the result of their relatively high content of active CaO and MgO, which can react with carbon dioxide in aqueous suspensions. The paper presents maximum theoretical capacity of CO2 bonding for examined fly ashes and the results of the research on absorption of CO2 by the ash-water suspensions from fly ash resulting from the combustion of lignite from Pątnów and Turów power plants. Calculated for the examined fly ashes maximum theoretical capacity of CO2 bonding amounted to 14% for the ashes from Pątnów power plant and 14.4% for the fly ashes from Turów power plant. Studies have shown that most CO2 - 8.15 g/100 g of ash, was absorbed by suspension with ashes from Turów power plant with a mass ratio of ash to water of at 0.8:1. In the case of ash from Pątnów power plant absorption was lower and amounted to a maximum - 8.7 g CO2/100 g ash. The largest increase CO2 absorption was observed in the first 30 minutes of carbonation in the suspensions of fly ash from Pątnów power plant and the first 15 minutes in suspensions of fly ash from Turów power plant. After this time, the absorption has increased slowly. An increase in temperature in the chamber system, confirming the occurrence of the process of carbonation and its endothermic character. The highest temperature - 44.8 C recorded in the suspension with ashes from Turów power plant, which has also the greatest absorption of CO2. The results confirm the usefulness of these ashes to sequester carbon dioxide.

The cement industry has been using waste as a raw material for many years. Waste is also used as alternative fuel. Cement plants are an important element of the waste management system and fit the idea of a circular economy. When waste is recovered in the cement production process, direct and indirect CO ₂ emissions are partially avoided. This article discusses the cement industry in Poland. The current situation in terms of the use of alternative fuels and raw materials in Poland, the different types of waste and the amount of waste used is discussed. The article discusses changes in the amount of waste (the increase in the amount of waste used as raw materials from the year 2006 to the year 2019) and the types of waste recovered in the cement production process and the possibility of closing material cycles on the plant scale (recycling to the primary process – cement kiln dust) and industry (using waste from other industries: metallurgy – granulated blast furnace slag, iron bearings; energy production – fly ash, reagypsum/phosphogypsum, fluidized bed combustion fly ash, and fluidized bed combustion bottom ash; wastewater treatment plants – sewage sludge, etc.). The analysis shows that the role of cement plants in waste management and the circular economy in Poland is important. Industrial waste from metallurgy, power plants, heat and power plants, wastewater treatment plants, and municipal waste is used as the raw material for the cement industry, leading to an industrial symbiosis.

Requirements for environmental protection, such as reducing emissions of CO2, NOx, and SO2 are the reason for growing interest in new technologies for coal utilization. One of the most promoted technologies is coal gasification. However, like any technology using coal, this process produces wastes – fly ash and slag. Due to the small number of coal gasification plants, these wastes are poorly understood. Therefore, before making decisions on the introduction of coal gasification technology, a waste utilization plan should be developed. This also applies to the slags formed in underground coal gasification technology. One of the options under consideration is to use these wastes as a component in mineral binders of a pozzolanic character. This paper compares the properties of two types of slags. The first slag (MI) comes from fuel gasification, and the second slag (BA) is from underground coal gasification. Slag MI can be classified as basic slag with a chemical composition similar to that of silica fly ash from coal combustion. Slag BA – because of its four times greater content of calcium oxide – belongs to a group of weakly basic slags. The main and only mineral component of slag MI is glassy phase. Slag BA forms – besides the glassy phase – crystalline phases such as mullite (3 Al2O3 · 2 SiO2), quartz (-SiO2), anorthite (Ca(Al2Si2O8)), gehlenit (Ca2Al[(Si,Al)2O7]), wollastonite (Ca3[Si3O9]), 2CaO · SiO2, and 4 CaO · Al2O3 · Fe2O3. The results of analyses have shown that slag BA has better pozzolanic properties (the pozzolanic activity index is 75.1% at 90 days) than slag MI (69.9% at 90 days) The preliminary studies lead to the conclusion that these slags are characterized by very low pozzolanic activity and cannot be used as a pozzolanic material.

The use of biomass in the energy industry is the consequence of ongoing efforts to replace Energy from fossil fuels with energy from renewable sources. However, due to the diversity of the biomass, its use as a solid fuel generates waste with diverse and unstable chemical composition. Waste from biomass combustion is a raw material with a very diverse composition, even in the case of using only one type of biomass. The content of individual elements in fly ash from the combustion of biomass ranges from zero to tens of percent. This makes it difficult to determine the optimal recovery methods. The ashes from the combustion of biomass are most commonly used in the production of building materials and agriculture. This article presents the elemental composition of the most commonly used biomass fuels. The results of the analysis of elemental composition of fly ashes from the combustion of forest and agricultural biomass in fluidized bed boilers used in the commercial power industry were presented. These ashes are characterized by a high content of calcium (12.3–19.4%), silicon (1.2–8.3%), potassium (0.05–1.46%), chlorine (1.1–6.1%), and iron (0.8–6.5%). The discussed ashes contained no sodium. Aluminum was found only in one of the five ashes. Manganese, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, sulfur, bismuth, titanium and zirconium were found in all of the examined ashes. The analysis of elemental composition may allow for a preliminary assessment of the recovery potential of a given ash.

The progress of civilization is inevitably connected with the ever increasing production of waste. Waste has become humanity's global problem. All over the world, new_ technologies are being developed that strive to decrease the amount of waste and seek ways of utilizing waste in industry. One of the opportunities for this involves the use of the combustible fractions of waste as an energy source.

The alternative waste fuels have a significant share in the fuel mix of the cement industry in Poland. The conditions inside cement kilns are favorable enough for environmentally-friendly use of waste fuels. In the article, the authors discuss the current situation concerning the use of alternative fuels in Poland, from difficult beginning in the 1990s to the present time, different kinds of fuels, and the amounts of used fuels. The use of fuels in Poland is presented against the global and EU consumption (including Central European countries and companies). The increased use of waste-derived fuels, from the level of about 1% at the end of the 1990s to the present level of about 70%, allowed for the limitation of waste storage, including avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions and consumption of conventional energy sources; those effects also contributed to the implementation of the sustainable development and circular economy conceptions. The experiences of the cement plants worldwide prove that the use of waste fuels is ecological and economical. The examples showed in the article confirm that cement plants are greatly interested in using waste fuels from waste, as they invest in the infrastructure allowing to store bigger amounts of waste and dose them more efficiently. Thus, the cement industry has become an important element of the country’s energy economy and waste management system.