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This paper evaluates the technical and economic performance, as well as the direct/indirect CO₂ emissions of the CO₂ Purification Unit (CPU) for cement plants equipped with oxyfuel-based CO₂ capture. Two configurations, targeting two different outlet CO₂ specifications (‘moderate’ 95% purity and ‘high’ 99.9% purity) are designed, modelled and optimized in order to minimize the incremental clinker production cost for different values of the carbon tax. Mass and energy balances are simulated with Aspen Plus, while the operating conditions are numerically optimized with Matlab. Results show that moderate purity can be achieved with an increased cost of clinker of 16.3 €/t_clk (CO₂ recovery 99.3%), while the base high purity configuration leads to a 19.3 €/t_clk increase (CO₂ recovery 96.1%). Sensitivity analyses are carried out on design parameters (fuel and air infiltrations in the oxyfuel calciner line) and …