Displaying items by tag: Calcined Clay
Spain: Switzerland-based Synhelion and Cemex España plan to build a new clinker plant near Madrid. The plant will use Synhelion’s synthetic fuel to produce clinker from clay and crushed sand at 1200°C. The fuel consists of a gas produced from green hydrogen and captured CO2, using solar heat. La Tribune de Genève Online News has reported that Synhelion’s thermochemical reactor further helps to capture CO2 emissions from clinker production. A study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne indicated that this can halve the cost of carbon capture at cement plants, to below Euro85/t.
Heidelberg Materials to invest Euro65m in Bussac-Forêt cement plant calcined clay upgrade
15 May 2023France: Germany-based Heidelberg Materials announced a planned Euro65m upgrade to its Bussac-Forêt cement plant in Charente-Maritime Department on 14 May 2023. The project will involve the installation of systems for the production of calcined clay cement. The producer says that this will enable the 0.8Mt/yr plant to reduce its CO2 emissions by 20%.
Chief sustainability officer Nicola Kimm said “In Bussac-Forêt, we are investing in a technology with great potential. It will allow us to significantly expand the range of low-carbon products. Using calcined clay as a clinker substitute is an important measure to reduce the carbon footprint of cement and concrete. In principle, a CO₂ reduction of up to 40% is possible when substituting cement clinker with calcined clay.”
Heidelberg Materials is already involved in the on-going pilot trial of a 400,000t/yr clay calcination plant in Ghana.
Business and academia attend the Innovandi Global Cement and Concrete Research Network Spring Week in India
26 April 2023India: More than 75 representatives from academic institutions and businesses from across the world are attending the Innovandi Global Cement and Concrete Research Network (GCCRN) Spring Week taking place in New Delhi. The GCCRN has brought together 450 researchers and scientists from more than 40 universities and institutions, including the EPFL in Switzerland, South East University in China, University of Toronto in Canada, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, the University of Cape Town, Imperial College London in the UK, as well as 35 cement and concrete manufacturers and their suppliers. The focus of the conference is to work towards reaching net-zero CO2 concrete production, including sourcing and improving alternatives to clinker, work on calcined clays, concrete recycling – plus its carbonation and durability - as well as kiln electrification and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS).
Claude Loréa, the Innovation and ESG Director at the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA), said “Global Innovation collaboration and research will help unlock our industry’s decarbonisation mission. Spring Week is the key date in the GCCA’s Innovandi calendar. It provides an opportunity for our partners to meet face-to-face, exchange ideas, run workshops, and measure progress on key research projects in line with our industry’s 2050 Net Zero Roadmap. Our industry and our key partners are stepping up to the challenge and it’s fantastic to see the progress on some of the 75 PhD candidates supported by the GCCRN.”
The event is also updating attendees about progress made by projects involved with the Innovandi Open Challenge. This initiative matches start-ups with GCCA member companies from around the world, to help scale up research and technical innovation. Two of the six start-ups selected in 2022 at the first ever Innovandi Open Challenge, which focused mainly on carbon capture and utilisation, have already gone to pilot stage. Applications for the second challenge, which focuses on low carbon concrete, close on 15 May 2023.
The GCCRN was set up by the GCCA, a lobbying group representing more than 80% of the world’s cement and concrete manufacturers outside of China. All GCCA member companies are committed to decarbonising the industry by the mid-21st Century, in line with the GCCA’s Concrete Future 2050 Net Zero Roadmap.
China/Germany: CBMI Construction and mill supplier Gebr. Pfeiffer have signed a cooperation agreement to supply integrated calcined clay plants to the global cement industry. The partners say that their plants will offer clay calcination and grinding, giving cement producers a high performance solution, all in one place.
CBMI Construction and Gebr. Pfeiffer have carried out numerous recent cement projects in overlapping geographies, including Western and Southern Africa and Russia.
Update on calcined clays in Europe, February 2023
15 February 2023Congratulations to Lafarge France for launching the first calcined clay cement unit in Europe. The subsidiary of Holcim says that the unit, based at the integrated Saint-Pierre-la-Cour cement plant, is the first of its kind on the continent. It is using the company’s proprietary proximA Tech technology and will produce up to 500,000t/yr of cement in its ECOPlanet range. The operation is also powered with biomass alternative fuels and uses a waste recovery system to further drive down overall CO2 emissions. Once production ramps-up the producer expects that 30% of cement from the Saint-Pierre-la-Cour plant will be from the ECOPlanet range by 2024.
The investment at Saint-Pierre-la-Cour was Euro40m. Holcim is also producing calcined clay cement at its La Malle plant in France. It received an investment of Euro6m in 2022 to produce low-carbon cements. Together, both plants are aiming to produce over 2Mt/yr of calcined clay cement by 2024. As is usual for these kinds of projects, the French government partly funded the clay calcination unit at Saint-Pierre-la-Cour as part of the ‘France Relance’ scheme investing in large-scale decarbonisation and energy efficiency initiatives.
Calcined clay cements in Europe aren’t exactly new, but Holcim’s new unit in France does appear to be the first full-scale line located at a cement plant. Research by OneStone Consulting, for example, reckons that the first flash activated clay unit expressly set up to supply the cement sector was commissioned in 1995 in Toulouse, France. More recently, Hoffmann Green Cement inaugurated its 50,000t/yr pilot plant at Bournezeau in France in 2018. This site produces cements made from flash calcined clay and blast furnace slag, although it is unclear how demand for the different products varies. A new 0.25Mt/yr plant in the Vendée department was scheduled for commissioning in the second half of 2022. Another 0.25Mt/yr plant in Dunkirk is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2024.
Cementir Group launched its calcined clay cement product FUTURECEM in Denmark in 2021 with production via a pilot plant. It then extended this to the Benelux and French cement markets in 2022. As part of its industrial plan for 2021 - 2023 it was planning to build a clay calcination unit to support the growth of FutureCem. FLSmidth revealed in June 2021 that it had won a contract to build a 400t/day clay calcination unit for Vicat’s Xeuilley integrated cement plant. The deal was worth around Euro27m and commissioning is scheduled for 2023.
Firstly, it is interesting to see a focus on France for some of the projects above. The presence of Lafarge’s technical centre in Lyon may explain the interest for that company. However, Hoffmann Green Cement and Vicat are also active in the field. It is worth noting that France also holds a busy secondary cementitious material market with standalone operators including Ecocem, Cem’In’Eu and Hoffmann Green Cement. Secondly, despite the early start, clay calcination for cement is currently more active outside of Europe. In Africa, for example, there is at least one live full production line and a number of other projects on the way. Various other pilots and projects are also happening elsewhere around the world, often in conjunction with the limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) initiative. Where calcined clay cement production in Europe goes from here is uncertain at present as it is one solution among many for lower carbon cement products in the future. Yet, the projects that have made it so far to the commercial scale will be watched closely by the companies that have invested in them - and their competitors.
Holcim opens its first calcined clay unit in Saint-Pierre-la-Cour cement plant in France
13 February 2023France: Holcim has opened what it says is the first calcined clay unit in Europe at its Saint-Pierre-la-Cour cement plant. The production line uses the company’s proximA Tech process to produce up to 0.5Mt/yr of products in the ECOPlanet range. The unit is powered with 100% biomass-based alternative fuels and uses waste heat recovery systems to make production “nearly carbon free and ultra-efficient.”
Miljan Gutovic, Region Head Europe for Holcim, said “The opening of the first calcined clay cement production line in Europe is another milestone in our mission to decarbonise building. We are scaling up our calcined clay cements across all regions by 2025, to advance our ECOPlanet range of low-carbon cement, making low-carbon construction possible at scale.”
The upgrade project received financial support from the French government, as part of the ‘France Relance’ scheme to invest in large-scale decarbonisation and energy efficiency initiatives.
Image by Simon de l'Ouest CC BY-SA 4.0
2022 in cement news
21 December 2022Taking a look at the most read news stories on the Global Cement website in 2022 reveals what readers have been interested in. The usual bias applies due to the prominence of countries where English is prevalent and there is a concentration on stories from earlier in the year. Yet, even with these constraints, key trends identified elsewhere emerge. Read the December 2022 issue of Global Cement Magazine for a roundup of what we think has been noteworthy.
Top 10 news stories on Global Cement website in 2022
1. Holcim receives bids for Ambuja Cements
2. JK Lakshmi Cement and TARA to launch limestone calcined clay cement production
3. Ramco Cements to commission new plant at Kurnool in February 2022
4. CalPortland to buy Redding cement plant from Martin Marietta
5. ACC launches Houses of Tomorrow in India
6. CRH exits Russian market
7. HeidelbergCement freezes investments in Russian operations
8. US facing cement shortage
9. HeidelbergCement, Holcim and Sabancı Holding are potential buyers for Sika’s US assets
10. Jaiprakash Associates seeking to sell all assets
The two large India-based acquisition and merger (M&A) stories are both present at early stages of their development. Firstly, Adani Group went on to buy Holcim’s two subsidiaries, Ambuja Cements and ACC, becoming the second largest cement producer in the country. Secondly, Jaiprakash Associates was reported to be in dire financial straits in the autumn and looking to sell off more assets. This came to pass in mid-December 2022 when Dalmia Cement (Bharat) reached a deal to buy Jaiprakash Associates’ cement assets for US$684m. Incidentally, Adani Group made the news this week when it published plans to suspend production at two of its newly acquired cement plants in Himachal Pradesh due to high freight rates. The state government responded with a court order requiring the cement producer to justify its actions that, in its view, would detrimentally affect the lives of many. While it seems unlikely that the plants will close permanently, this incident does demonstrate that Adani Group is starting to take action with its new cement business.
The other M&A story concerns cement companies buying assets outside of the standard cement, concrete and aggregates triad. Global Cement has covered this business shift increasingly since Holcim acquired Firestone Building Products in 2021. The story in 2022 that readers were interested in concerned potential buyers for Sika US, an admixture manufacturer. This one also has a sustainability angle because admixtures can be used to make cement and concrete more efficient in different ways. A more obvious example of cement production becoming more environmentally friendly was that of an India-based cement producer preparing to start production of limestone calcined clay cement (LC3). The increased production of blended cements around the world has been a big story in 2022, particularly in the US.
Cement shortages in parts of the US were a theme we picked up on a few times in 2022. Nationally it followed supply issues in the southwest in early 2021 that led Cemex to restart a mothballed kiln at a plant in Mexico with the express aim of serving the export market.
In April 2022 shortages were being reported on the other side of the country in Alabama and South Carolina. Ultimately this was blamed on labour and supply chain issues in the aftermath of the coronavirus shutdowns. The other big US story in 2022 was back in California where CalPortland agreed to buy the Redding cement plant from Martin Marietta. The subsidiary of Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement later struck a further deal to buy the Tehachapi plant, also from Martin Marietta, in August 2022. Both of these integrated plants were previously sold by Lehigh Hanson to Martin Marietta in 2021. In November 2022 Lehigh Hanson announced that its remaining integrated unit in California, the Permanente plant near Cupertino, was going to be transitioned to a distribution and quarry site.
Finally, the top news stories in 2022 where not immune to the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The big underlying narrative has been a jolt to global energy prices. What could be seen here though were the efforts of the multinational cement producers to limit their exposure to the market in Russia and any potential legal action. CRH led the exodus, although it had a relatively small business to offload. Heidelberg Materials froze its investments in its Russia-based subsidiary in March 2022. Holcim completed the divestment of its business to local management in mid-December 2022. Buzzi Unicem withdrew from any operational involvement with its subsidiary SLK Cement in May 2022.
That’s it from Global Cement Weekly for 2022. Enjoy the seasonal and New Year break if you have one.
Global Cement Weekly will return on 4 January 2023
Angola: Portugal-based IPIAC has won a contract to upgrade the Cimangola plant in Luanda region to use Limestone Calcined Clay (LC3). The project will be the first in the world to convert an existing clinker production line into a clay calciner. Switzerland-based Ecosolutions conducted a study of raw materials and sustainability issues prior to the signing of the contract. The project will be coordinated and supervised by Portugal-based Techbelt. Once completed the plant will produce 0.3Mt/yr of calcined clay, which can be used to manufacture up to 1Mt/yr of LC3 cement.
Loesche publishes first Sustainability Report
11 August 2022Germany: Loesche has published its Sustainability Report of its performance in 2021. The supplier’s Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions declined by 6.1% year-on-year to 229t from 244t in 2020 and by 19% over the two years from 2019, when they totalled 282t. It reduced the share of Scope 2 emissions in the figure to 40% from 41% in 2020 and 45% in 2019.
Loesche offers emissions-reducing products to the global cement industry under the label Greenkey Solutions. These include its A/Fuel and H/combust ranges for alternative fuels and green hydrogen upgrades, its C/Clay range for clay calcining and grinding, its Digital/Ready 4.0! range for predictive process optimisation and smart asset management, its E/Slag range for ground granulated blast furnace slag upgrades and its S/Crete range for waste concrete recycling, as well as audits for retrofits. Together, Loesche says that its products can reduce the global cement sector’s carbon footprint by 90%. Within this, Loesche believes that calcined clay technology alone can reduce cement’s CO2 emissions by 40% and its energy demand by 21%.
Loesche said that its launch during the year of its H2Optimum grinding bed spraying system can reduce grinding mills’ water consumption by 50%.
Colombia: Cementos Argos recorded sales of US$1.26bn in the first half of 2022, up by 13% year-on-year from US$1.11bn in the first half of 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 16% to US$221m from US$264m. The group's US sales accounted for 62% of its revenues during the six-month period. They rose by 5.4% year-on-year to US$776m from US$736m in the first half of 2021. Cementos Argos' US business' EBITDA fell by 25% to US$133m from US$177m. Colombia contributed sales of US$304m, 24% of group revenues, up by 15% year-on-year from US$263m in the first half of 2021.
Cementos Argos' first-half 2022 cement sales totaled 8.17Mt, down by 5.2% from 8.62Mt in the first half of 2021. Its US cement volumes fell by 1.2% to 3.06Mt, its Colombian cement volumes by 6.2% to 2.98Mt and its Caribbean and Central America cement volumes by 22% to 2.13Mt.
Chief executive officer Juan Estaban Calle said "We are convinced of the great opportunity that lies ahead to lead the industry in sustainability and generate greater value for our shareholders and all stakeholders. The calcined clay pilot that we are starting in the USA is another important milestone in our roadmap to produce carbon-neutral concrete by 2050. The results of the second quarter were very positive both in terms of revenue growth and volumes, driven, mainly, by the solidity of demand in the US and the good dynamics of the Colombian economy amidst a challenging situation of high inflation and increase in interest rates."