# Which uses of limestone and dolomite release carbon dioxide and which do not, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/which-limestone-uses-release-carbon-dioxide

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) lists cement, lime, glass, ceramics, flux stone, fertilisers, sugar refining and flue gas scrubbing as releasing carbon dioxide (CO2), and fillers, aggregate, paper, abrasives, poultry grit and refractory stone as not. Report each where the stone is used.

## Uses that release CO2

- Cement manufacture, lime manufacture, dead burning of dolomite, glass manufacture, ceramics and mineral wools.
- Flux stone in metals, chemical stone, fertilisers and sugar refining.
- Scrubbing sulphur oxides from flue gas, mine dusting, acid water treatment, acid neutralisation and agricultural liming. In these the CO2 comes from an acid reaction rather than from heating.

## Uses that do not

- Fine or coarse aggregate in construction.
- Asphalt fillers, whiting or whiting substitutes, and other fillers or extenders.
- Paper manufacture, abrasives and refractory stone.
- Poultry grit, mineral food and other agricultural uses.
- Chemicals, which the table lists as non-emissive. This is not the same as chemical stone, which the table lists as emissive.

## Where each one is reported

- Flux stone: in the metal industry where it is used, unless it is counted within energy for combustible off-gases sold off site.
- Dead burned dolomite: under lime production where it is dead burned.
- Agricultural limestone: in the land sector, as liming.
- Sugar refining: lime-making at the mill under lime production; other emissions under other process uses; removals under food and beverages.
- Soda ash: where it is used. In glass, report it under glass; in another industry, in that industry.

## Keep the weights apart

Buy and weigh by use. One purchase line for limestone cannot show which tonnes were heated, scrubbed or simply spread, so ask for weighbridge slips or issue slips by use.

## 1,000 tonnes of limestone bought by a steel plant

- 600 tonnes as furnace flux, 100 tonnes in the flue gas scrubber, 300 tonnes as filler
- Emitting uses: 700 tonnes x 0.95 default purity x 0.43971 = 292.4 tonnes of CO2
- Filler: 300 tonnes, no CO2

The split is an example. 0.43971 tonnes of CO2 per tonne is the IPCC factor for pure calcium carbonate; use your own assay for purity.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records. Which tonnes of limestone went to which use comes from your stores and weighbridge records.

- [Carbon calculators](https://senseible.earth/calculators)
- [Process CO2 from limestone calcination](https://senseible.earth/answers/process-co2-from-limestone-calcination)
- [Limestone in flue gas scrubbing](https://senseible.earth/answers/fgd-limestone-co2-power-plant)
- [Soda ash or limestone for neutralisation](https://senseible.earth/answers/co2-from-soda-ash-or-limestone-neutralisation)

Sources: [IPCC, 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 3, Chapter 2: Mineral Industry Emissions](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/pdf/3_Volume3/V3_2_Ch2_Mineral_Industry.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-04. The 2006 Guidelines are written for national inventories. A plant's own lab assay, production log and fuel invoices replace these defaults wherever you have them.