Cleaner Calcination Technologies of Dolomite Based on Renewable Energy: A Review

Current calcination technology of dolomite poses a stronger environmental challenge owing to its high energy demand and substantial CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Over recent decades, various cleaner calcination technologies of dolomite driven by renewable energy have attracted significant attention, providing viable pathways to replace fossil fuels. Here, this review firstly discusses the thermal decomposition mechanism of dolomite, including the effect of CO₂ partial pressure, H₂O steam, intrinsic contaminants, and mechanical/chemical assisted treatment, which aims to establish a fundamental understanding of the correlation between the physicochemical properties of dolomite and calcination conditions. Next, a series of cleaner calcination technologies based on renewable energy have been summarized with emphasis on their advantages and drawbacks for practical applications. Compared with conventional calcination method, electrically heated rotary kilns, microwave heating, and Joule-heating calcination powered by renewable electricity reduce CO₂ emissions by 41.9%, 42.3%, and 25.9%, respectively. In addition, solar-driven calcination and biomass-fuel calcination achieve emission reductions of 44.0% and 45.6%, respectively. Finally, this review discusses the challenges and perspectives of these techniques in the future development trends. This review is expected to provide researchers with critical insights to facilitate breakthroughs in this disciplinary frontier.