11 January 2024

Germany: Rohrdorfer Zement has fired up a pilot clay tempering unit at its Rohrdorf cement plant in Bavaria. The project has received Euro8.65m in funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the EU. It is one of a number of industrial projects under the EU’s Euro800bn NextGenerationEU post-Covid-19 economic recovery instrument. Sources of heat for the pilot unit at the Rohrdorf cement plant include waste heat from the plant’s clinker line. If the pilot succeeds, the introduction of tempered clay into cement production at the site will follow. This will entail the construction of an on-site full-scale clay tempering plant. Rohrdorfer Zement says that this would reduce the plant’s CO₂ emissions by 16 – 18%, or by 30% if it achieves carbon neutral clay tempering through the use of green hydrogen.

Rohrdorfer’s dedicated Net Zero Emissions Labs team is working to turn the Rohrdorf cement plant carbon neutral by 2038. Other initiatives include the installation of carbon capture systems at the Rohrdorf plant and another in Austria, and participation in the H2-Reallabor Burghausen hydrogen partnership.

Regarding the latest pilot, Rohrdorf Net Zero Emissions Labs project leader Helmut Leibinger said “As a cement component, tempered clays make a significant contribution to CO₂ mitigation. With the pilot project of process-integrated tempered clay, we are taking not just a step in our decarbonisation roadmap, but a leap.”

Oman: Middle East Calcined Clay and Netherlands-based Kaolin Group International plan to build a limestone calcined clay cement plant in Oman. The partners have hired Spain-based turnkey plant engineer IPIAC to supply equipment including its Plug and Clay clay calcination unit. The new plant will produce limestone calcined clay cement with 40% lower CO₂ emissions than ordinary Portland cement (OPC), according to the supplier.

IPIAC previously introduced the technology in Cuba and Ivory Coast, and is currently retrofitting it to a clinker line in Angola.

India: JSW Group has initiated the process for an initial public offering (IPO) for JSW Cement. The Financial Express newspaper has reported that the group expects the IPO to raise US$723m.

France: Heidelberg Materials has completed its divestment of its French cement transport business, Tratel, to multiple local players. Tratel controls 450 trucks and around 770 trailers across France. Groupe Garnier has taken it over in the north western and Île-de-France, e-b-trans in south eastern and south western France, Groupe DESERT in western France and T2GL in eastern France, while Heidelberg Materials France continues to manage order intake, chartering and dispatch activities. Heidelberg Materials says that the move advances its portfolio optimisation strategy, which involves increasing its focus on core businesses.

India: JSW Cement has appointed Finland-based Coolbrook to install its RotoDynamic Heater electric kiln technology at the Vijayagar steel works and slag and cement grinding plant in Karnataka. Press Trust of India News has reported that the partners expect the technology to reduce the CO₂ emissions of the plant’s slag cement.

Read about the applications for the RotoDynamic Heater in cement production in this Global Cement interview with Coolbrook CEO Joonas Rauramo.