Environmental and economic evaluation of Egyptian cement production using refuse-derived fuel from municipal solid waste

Egypt’s cement sector is a major environmental polluter, yet life cycle-based environmental assessments of this industry remain scarce in the country, highlighting a critical research gap that this study addresses. This study employs Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of cement manufacturing under four Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) thermal substitution scenarios, Sc-II (20%), Sc-III (50%), Sc-IV (80%), and Sc-V (100%), in comparison with a conventional baseline scenario (Sc-I). The functional unit is defined as one ton of produced cement, and the system boundary follows a cradle-to-gate approach, encompassing waste collection, RDF processing, fuel substitution, and cement production. The findings demonstrate a consistent and proportional relationship between RDF utilization rate and environmental performance, indicating that higher RDF substitution rates correspond to progressively greater reductions in emissions across the assessed impact categories. Sc-V had the lowest Global Warming Potential (GWP) score of 858.18 kg CO2-eq ton− 1. As compared to the Sc-I, Sc-V decreased GWP, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidants, and abiotic depletion by 19.1, 38.7, 33.7, 45.2, and 12.9%, respectively. The economic analysis shows that integrating 20% RDF slightly increases capital investment (0.026 to 0.033 $ ton⁻¹) but significantly reduces operating costs by 5.65 $ ton⁻¹, while net revenue remains stable (6.09 $ ton⁻¹). Additionally, RDF substitution saves 0.134 $ ton⁻¹ of cement compared to natural gas and hard coal, confirming that RDF is an economically viable and sustainable alternative fuel for cement production.