Displaying items by tag: Americas

US: The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management has announced US$101m in funding for five projects to establish carbon capture, removal, and conversion test centres for cement plants and power facilities. The test centres aim to cost-effectively research and evaluate technologies to capture and convert CO₂ into products from utility and industrial sources, or by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. The initiative aims to reduce CO₂ emissions, promote sustainable technologies and create job opportunities.

Notable projects include the University of Illinois in Urbana, which plans to design a test centre to evaluate carbon management technologies for the cement industry, and Holcim US, which intends to establish a Cement Carbon Management Innovation Centre at its Hagerstown facility in Maryland.

Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, said “Carbon management technologies such as carbon capture can significantly reduce emissions from fossil energy use and key industrial processes, like cement production. By investing in test centres, we are helping reduce barriers to commercial-scale deployment of carbon capture, conversion and removal technologies that will ultimately help reduce pollution and create jobs.”

US/France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has extended its licensing agreement with Hoffmann Green USA, signed in July 2024, to cover 25 states in the eastern United States. This has triggered an additional entry fee of €8m, following the €2m already received. The agreement grants industrial and technological transfer rights and exclusivity in the expanded territory. It includes fixed and variable royalties based on sales of Hoffmann Green cements. Hoffmann Green USA may also sub-license units in these territories, with discussions currently underway with potential sub-licensees.

US: Titan America, the US subsidiary of Titan Cement, has filed a registration statement for its proposed initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company plans to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), including both primary and secondary sales, aiming to raise up to an estimated US$500m, subject to market conditions.

Switzerland/US: Holcim is progressing towards the planned listing of its North American business and has designated its future board members. The board will comprise 10 members and will become effective following the execution of the spin-off, expected in the first half of 2025, subject to shareholder and customary approvals.

Jan Jenisch, current chair of Holcim and its former CEO from 2017 to 2024, has been designated chair and CEO of the new business. Jenisch will remain Holcim’s chair until the Annual General Meeting on 14 May 2025.

The Board will include nine independent directors: Theresa Drew, Nicholas Gangestad, Dwight Gibson, Holli Ladhani, Michael McKelvy, Jürg Oleas, Robert Rivkin, Katja Roth Pellanda, and Cristina Wilbur.

US: The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded funding for two Leilac projects to conduct preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) studies, subject to final negotiations.

A project at Roanoke Cement Company in Virginia, led by Titan Group in partnership with Leilac, Amazon and Virginia Tech, received US$1.49m. It aims to capture over 500,000t/yr of CO₂ from cement Scope 1 emissions using Leilac’s technology.

A project at Mississippi Lime Company in St Louis, Missouri, in partnership with Leilac, Industrial Ally and Nuada, received US$1.5m. It seeks to achieve net-zero lime manufacturing by integrating Leilac’s CO₂ capture technology with Nuada’s carbon capture system for combustion emissions.

Calix CEO Phil Hodgson said “We look forward to concluding the grant agreements and developing these exciting projects that have the potential to demonstrate industry-leading solutions to produce both low-carbon cement and lime at commercial scale.”

US: Cemex has obtained US$13m through the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) to deploy four lower-emission locomotives and two haul trucks at its cement and aggregate sites in New Braunfels and Katy, both in Texas. TERP provides financial incentives to businesses and governments to reduce emissions from vehicles and equipment. Three of the four locomotives and both trucks began operations in late 2023 and mid-2024 in New Braunfels, respectively, according to Energy Tech news. Cemex reportedly intends to deploy additional equipment in 2025.

A US$2m grant from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) will fund two additional locomotives for Cemex’s Florida operations in Jacksonville and Miami in the summer of 2025. Cemex plans to decommission the vehicles that are replaced and expand its low-emission fleet for its operations in Victorville, California.

US: Continental Cement Company will pay a US$74,440 civil penalty and spend at least US$282,000 to procure low-emission buses for a local school district as part of a settlement following alleged Clean Air Act violations. The replacement propane buses will reduce air pollution in areas impacted by excess emissions from Continental Cement’s operations.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it identified inadequate operation of leak detection systems during a December 2022 inspection, which are designed to notify the company of potential hazardous emissions. Without a functioning leak detection system, the facility would be unaware of whether pollutant filters are operating effectively to reduce emissions of particulate matter and other air pollutants.

US: FCT Combustion has appointed Rodrigo Araujo as Head of Business Unit (Americas). Araujo previously worked for Vale for 26 years in Brazil and Malaysia. His most recent role with the company was as General Manager of Decarbonization Technologies. He was also the CEO for Vale Malaysia Minerals from 2019 to 2022.

World: The Biennial Unified International Technical Conference on Refractories (UNITECR) has appointed Daniel Llaguno as its president. He succeeds Mauro Cueva who has resigned due to health issues. Llaguno was the vice-president of UNITECR 2025. He is also the CEO of NUTEC Group, a company that produces industrial heating products.

Jessica Fernández has been appointed as the vice-president of UNITECR 2025. She is the Administrative Vice President at Mexico-based WM Refractories and has worked for the company for over 20 years.

UNITECR 2025 will take place on 27 - 30 October 2025 in Cancun, Mexico.

Argentina: Cement despatches dropped by 24% year-on-year to 9.56Mt in 2024, the lowest annual level reported since 2009, according to the Association of Portland Cement Manufacturers. Total dispatches in 2024 reached 9.5Mt, 24% lower compared to 2023 when dispatches were 12.5Mt. Dispatches in December 2024 showed the lowest yearly percentage decline, falling by 5% year-on-year to 0.77Mt, 12% less than was recorded in November 2024. This marks 21 consecutive months of declines. The declines recorded from December 2023 coincide with the decision announced by President Javier Milei to end the execution of public works by the national government.