Displaying items by tag: carbon capture and utilisation
Denmark/UK: FLSmidth has signed a global commercial partnership with UK-based carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) Carbon8 Systems to accelerate the cement industry’s carbon neutrality path. The supplier said that CCU is an essential part of its MissionZero pledge to enable zero-emission cement production by 2030. The new partnership will use its global network to extend Carbon8 Systems’ reach in the cement industry. The partnership started in June 2021 and the companies intend to release more details on the commercialisation of the arrangement at a join webinar in October 2021.
Carsten Riisberg Lund, Cement President for FLSmidth said, “The cement industry is pursuing every possible solution to reduce its environmental footprint. CCU is one such technology, with a massive potential, that has reached commercial maturity in recent years.” He added “FLSmidth will work closely with Carbon8 Systems to accelerate the implementation of its technology and we will draw upon our in-depth know-how, our products and our global presence. This agreement is a significant leap forward in our joint efforts to deliver on the sustainability ambitions for the global cement industry.”
Carmeuse partners with ENGIE and John Cockerill for lime plant carbon capture and utilisation project in Belgium
16 December 2020Belgium: Carmeuse has signed a joint development agreement with France-based energy transition specialist ENGIE and John Cockerill for a carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) project in Wallonia. It will concentrate CO2 from a new type of lime kiln and combine it with ‘green’ hydrogen to produce ‘e-methane.’ The hydrogen will be produced by a 75MW electrolyser plant powered by renewable electricity. The company said, “The produced e-methane will be suitable for injection into the national natural gas grid. This renewable e-methane can be used by industrial users or as an alternative fuel in the transport sector, thus allowing these sectors to decarbonise.”
Construction is due to begin in 2022 for commissioning of the installation in 2025. Its total investment cost is Euro150m. The partners have applied for funding from the EU Innovation Fund and Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) fund. The project’s estimated CO2 emissions reduction over 10 years is 900,000t
Chief executive officer (CEO) Rodolphe Collinet said, “We are delighted to join forces with John Cockerill and ENGIE for the development of this very exciting and strategic project. It is a major step forward in our ambition to become CO2-neutral by 2050. This project is a very concrete and important example of Carmeuse’s strong commitment and contribution to sustainable development.”
Catch4Climate project moves forward with Mergelstetten oxyfuel plans
19 November 2020Germany: The Catch4Climate project has moved into the planning stage of its oxyfuel pilot plant at the Mergelstetten cement plant. The group, comprising Buzzi Unicem’s subsidiary Dyckerhoff, HeidelbergCement, Schwenk Zement and Vicat, signed a letter of intent with the state’s prime minister and transport minister in Stuttgart in mid-November 2020.
The consortium intends to build and operate its own demonstration plant on a semi-industrial scale, to use the oxyfuel process to capture CO2. In the future, the captured CO2 will be used to produce so-called ‘reFuels’, climate-neutral synthetic fuels such as kerosene for air traffic, with the help of renewable electrical energy.
The cement producers formed CI4C – Cement Innovation for Climate in late 2019. The aim of the Catch4Climate project is to create the basis for a large-scale application of CO2 capture technologies in cement plants enabling the later use of CO2 as a raw material in other processes such as a carbon capture and utilisation/storage.
Cemex Zement launches Vision Rüdersdorf
14 October 2020Germany: Cemex Zement has announced the start of carbon-neutral building materials development at its 1.9Mt/yr Rüdersdorf, Brandenburg cement plant. Called Vision Rüdersdorf, the project consists of, “the comprehensive investigation of various approaches to breakthrough technologies in order to prevent process-related carbon dioxide (CO2) from entering the atmosphere, but to use it for beneficial purposes. The investigation areas can be divided into capture, storage or use of CO2. This will help towards Cemex’s target of 55% CO2 emissions reduction across Europe by 2030 and its commitment to deliver carbon-neutral concrete by 2050.
Chief executive officer (CEO) Rüdiger Kuhn said, “For years, sustainable success has been achieved here in the reduction of fossil fuels and in the selection of alternative recipe ingredients for cement. The experienced team is always looking for possible improvements. When it came to determining the best possible CO2 emission values, the Rüdersdorf plant was always at the forefront of the European cement industry and has thus also earned an excellent reputation in the global Cemex organisation.”
In order to realise Vision Rüdersdorf, the producer has partnered with companies from other industries. Managing director and plant manager Stefan Schmorleiz said, “In an interesting approach, the CO2 that we capture is used as a raw material for downstream processes in the chemical industry. Another approach is to innovate in the storage of CO2. With these efforts, and our commitment to review and invest in these technologies, Cemex Zement is making a contribution to the decarbonisation of the cement industry.”
Japan: A proposal by Mitsubishi Group on researching CO2 injection into concrete has been approved for a grant from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO). This joint project between Mitsubishi Group, Kajima Corporation, and Chugoku Electric Power aims to improve the existing technology so that it can be applied to the reinforced and cast-in-place concretes used in building construction. At present the group said that current carbon-recycling techniques are mainly used for unreinforced concretes, such as concrete blocks.
Mitsubishi Group has already been involved in the development of concrete projects that take advantage of carbon-recycling, including a zero-emission concrete called CO2-SUICOM. It added that carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies, including carbon-recycling, are an excellent opportunity for the company to use its strengths between industries that both emit and use CO2.
Vicat to implement Carbon8 Systems carbon capture and use system at Montalieu cement plant
10 July 2020France: UK-based Carbon8 Systems has announced plans for the commercial implementation of its carbon capture and use (CCU) system at Vicat’s Montalieu integrated cement plant in France. It follows successful demonstration projects at cement plants in the UK and Canada.
The company’s CO2ntainer product will be deployed directly onsite at the plant and integrated into Vicat's existing industrial processes. It will capture CO2 directly from the plant's flue gas emissions and use this as part of its Accelerated Carbonisation Technology (ACT) process. This accelerates the carbonation of cement bypass dust into lightweight aggregates. In its first phase of operation it will process and convert up to 12,000t of cement bypass dust.
Sustainable thinking
01 July 2020HeidelbergCement released their sustainability report for 2019 this week. Every large cement producer publishes one but this one is worth checking out because of the company’s ambition to become CO2 neutral. Other companies are heading the same way but few of them have such developed and public plans.
Sustainability reports are often a hodgepodge of non-financial reporting bringing together environment, health and safety, community and other topics. Multinational companies cover a wide range of jurisdictions and combining reporting in these kinds of fields can be beneficial. Typically they are members of various bodies like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) that give various levels of conformity between reports. Yet, the wider focus of sustainability reports gives companies a chance to promote what they are doing well, away from balance sheets.
One highlight of HeidelbergCement’s report is its progress towards reducing its specific CO2 emissions per tonne of cement and its recognition by the Science Based Targets (SBT) initiative towards this goal. So far it has achieved a reduction of around 22% from 1990 levels to 599kg CO2/t (net) with a target of a 30% reduction or 520kg CO2/t by 2030. There is a lot more going on in the report but it’s led by the vision, ‘to offer CO2-neutral concrete by 2050 at the latest.’ It plans to achieve this by increasing the proportion of alternative CO2-neutral raw materials and fuels, developing lower clinker cement types and capturing and utilising CO2 emissions. A focus on concrete is worth noting given the pivot by building materials manufactures towards concrete in recent years.
Back in the present, HeidelbergCement is roughly in the middle of the pack of major European multinational cement producers with its specific CO2 emissions for cement in 2019. LafargeHolcim reported 561kg CO2/t and Cemex reported 622kg CO2/t. This is a bit of a moving target since corporate acquisitions and divestments can change both the starting point and the apparent current progress. HeidelbergCement’s acquisition of Italcementi in 2017 or CRH’s purchase of Ash Grove did exactly that. The other thing to consider is that these companies manufacture a lot of cement. The actual gross CO2 emissions from a multinational cement producer are immense. LafargeHolcim, one of the world’s largest multinational producers, emitted 113Mt of CO2 in 2019 from process and fuel sources whilst making cement. To put that into context, estimates for total global CO2 emissions range from 33 – 36Gt for 2019. The cement industry’s entire share was estimated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to be 4.1Gt in 2018.
Where this sustainability report starts to become really interesting is where it talks about CO2 capture and utilisation. Its plans in this department are more mature than many of its competitors with various initiatives at different levels of development, mostly in Europe. Norcem, its Norwegian subsidiary, recently signed an agreement with Aker Solutions to order a CO2 capture, liquification and intermediate storage plant at its integrated Brevik cement plant. The deal is dependent on government support but it’s a serious proposal. As reported previously from the Innovation in Industrial Carbon Capture Conference 2020, HeidelbergCement is actively preparing to hook up with CO2 transport and storage infrastructure. The driver is CO2 pricing from initiatives like the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). With the EU preparing for the next phase of the ETS and talk of the European Green Deal gathering pace, before the coronavirus outbreak at least, CO2 prices in Europe look set to rise. HeidelbergCement is positioning itself to benefit from being the first major cement producer to head into CO2 capture and storage/utilisation with a variety of methods intended for different CO2 prices and regional requirements.
HeidelbergCement doesn’t mention the coronavirus pandemic in its latest sustainability report. The report covers 2019 after all, before all of this happened. These reports do include health and safety information of employees, so this may be something to look out for next year. However, Cemex did mention the coronavirus in relation to its climate action plans this week. Essentially it wants to maintain its plans as a ‘fundamental component’ of its efforts to recover from the health crisis. This chimes with media talk around so-called ‘green-led’ government-backed relief programmes. Governments are the ones who are likely to be handing out the money, probably in the form of infrastructure projects. So it’s the perfect opportunity for them to encourage change from the companies bidding for this funding. Sustainability reports and the information behind them will be a useful tool in accessing this cash.
Germany: Schwenk Zement has announced plans for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from cement kiln CO2 emissions. The World Ethanol and Biofuels Report has reported that Schwenk Zement’s integrated 1.0Mt/yr Allmendingen, Baden-Württemberg plant will receive a pilot SAF plant in late 2020.
Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has partnered with JFE Steel and the Global Institute for Environmental Technology to develop a carbon capture and storage system. The system will use wet alkaline earth metals extracted from steel slag to produce carbonates from exhaust gases at cement and steel plants. The partners are investigating the possibility of using these carbonates, specifically calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate, as additives in cement production at Taiheiyo Cement’s plants. Taiheiyo Cement president Masafumi Shigehara said, “With the effects of climate change becoming apparent both in Japan and overseas, the importance of global warming counter-measures is increasing.”
Germany: HeidelbergCement’s profit was Euro1.24bn in 2019, down by 3.4% from Euro1.23bn in 2018. Its revenue grew by 4.3% to Euro18.9bn from Euro18.1bn. HeidelbergCement says that it reduced its specific net CO2 emissions by 1.5% year-on-year to 590kg/t from 599kg/t in 2018 and ‘intensified its research and development (R&D) efforts on carbon capture and utilisation/storage (CCU/S)’ in every operating region globally.
The group announced a year-on-year increase in volumes in the first two months of 2020, with all but three of its plants (HeidelbergCement subsidiary Italcementi’s 2.8Mt/yr Calusco plant, 2.5Mt/yr Rezzato plant and 0.6Mt/yr Tavernola plant in Lombardy region, Italy) still operating through the coronavirus pandemic, though it noted that construction is slowing in the US, Australia and Western Europe due to the outbreak.
HeidelbergCement cancelled its 7 May 2020 annual general meeting (AGM) ‘due to the spread of the coronavirus.’