Re-Engineering Industrial Technology For Sustainable Manufacturing: A Digital Transformation Framework For Sierra Leone’s Cement Industry

Abstract

The global cement industry accounts for 8% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions (IEA, 2021) and highlights the conflict between development agenda and environmental sustainability concerns.Paradoxically, Sierra Leone's cement industry is facing lack of infrastructural development, yet it has transformative potentials owing to the synergies of geopolymer chemistry and Industry 4.0 technologies.The study, therefore, shows that an integrated approach combining bauxite-derived geopolymer cement (80% emissions reduction potential) (Davidovits, 2020) with IoT-enabled process optimization can drive emissions intensity down to 0.2 tons of CO2/ton of cement, which is 43% lower than the IPCC (2022) targets.Scenario-based modeling of four decarbonization pathways arms decisionmakers with a comparative view on investment vs sustainability trade-offs, indicating both the inertia risks and the economic, environmental, and employment benefits of strategic innovation.However, for this vision to become a reality, systemic barriers hindering the implementation of such a vision would have to be brought down: technological obsolescence (35% more energy is consumed in the traditional ball mills) (Mikulcic et al., 2019), corrupt market monopolies (AfDB, 2021), and a mere 12% internet penetration (Sierra Leone Telecommunication Authority, 2023).The proposed framework achieves a balance between technical feasibility and socio-economic equity to provide a platform from which low-income countries can support reconciling industrial development and climate resilience.