Displaying items by tag: Americas

Global: Cumulative investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) will reach US$80bn over the next five years, according to risk management company DNV’s new Energy Transition Outlook: CCS to 2050 report. DNV forecasts that CCS capacity will quadruple by 2030, driven initially by pilot projects in North America and Europe, but now seeing a sharp increase in capacity. As the technologies mature and scale, DNV expects that the average costs will drop by an average of 40% by 2050. The report also states that CCS will grow from 41Mt CO₂/yr captured and stored today to 1.3Bnt CO₂/yr in 2050.

CEO of energy systems at DNV Ditlev Engel said “Carbon capture and storage technologies are a necessity for ensuring that CO₂ emitted by fossil-fuel combustion is stopped from reaching the atmosphere and for keeping the goals of the Paris Agreement alive. DNV’s first Energy Transition Outlook: CCS to 2050 report clearly shows that we are at a turning point in the development of this crucial technology.”

Bolivia: Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (FANCESA) will temporarily halt production due to a diesel shortage, which it attributed to the country’s ‘difficult economic, political, and social situation’, according to La Razón newspaper.  The company said it had not received supplies since mid-May 2025. In a statement, it said that it faces a “severe restriction on the supply of diesel, a fundamental element for the operation of our production equipment and for the transportation of cement.”

The producer added that it had written to Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos and the National Hydrocarbons Agency requesting urgent fuel delivery. It expressed apologies to customers and partners and said it would resume operations immediately once fuel supplies returned. The government said the shortage stemmed from roadblocks preventing the transport of diesel and gasoline.

US: A research team led by the University of Michigan’s Charles McCrory, in collaboration with the University of California, Davis (UCD) and the University of California, Los Angeles, has developed a process to capture CO₂ and convert it into metal oxalates for use in cement production. The method uses electrodes to transform carbon dioxide into oxalate, which binds with metal ions and precipitates as a solid suitable for alternative cement. The researchers reduced the required lead catalyst to parts per billion by modifying the polymer environment around the catalyst, mitigating environmental risks. The researchers next want to focus on scaling up the process and are working on electrolysis on a large scale.

UCD associate professor Jesús Velázquez said “Metal oxalates represent an underexplored frontier – serving as alternative cementitious materials, synthesis precursors and even carbon dioxide storage solutions.”

Canada: Concrete carbon capture technology producer CarbonCure Technologies has appointed Kristal Kaye as Interim CEO. Kaye previously served as the company’s Chief Financial Officer and, in that capacity, has already been deeply engaged with CarbonCure’s team, strategy and day-to-day operations. Her appointment comes as CarbonCure’s founder, Robert Niven, steps away from the CEO role. Niven will remain a strong supporter of CarbonCure, continuing to serve on the company’s Board of Directors.

Under Niven’s leadership, CarbonCure developed and commercialised the most widely-deployed carbon utilisation solution for lower-carbon concrete manufacturing. Over the past decade, CarbonCure has licensed hundreds of its CO2 injection systems to concrete producers across more than 20 countries, permanently mineralising and reducing nearly 0.6Mt of CO₂.

“Everyone at CarbonCure feels deep gratitude to Rob for his pioneering carbon utilisation innovation for lower carbon concrete and his tireless dedication to CarbonCure over the past 13 years, with many years of research and development before that,” said Kaye. “Stepping into this interim role, I am eager to carry Rob’s legacy forward, and our entire team remains committed to that mission, our core values and the success of our concrete producer partners around the world.”

US: Ozinga has broken ground on a 1Mt/yr alternative cement grinding plant in East Chicago, Indiana. The plant is equipped with a Gebr. Pfeiffer MVR5300-C6 vertical roller mill. It will produce ASTM C989-compliant slag cement and other blended cements. When operational in 2026, it will be the largest of its kind in North America, and avoid 700,000t/yr of CO₂ emissions from conventional cement production. Its location offers strategic rail, road and shipping access to large markets in the US and Canada.

East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland welcomed an anticipated 150 new jobs resulting from construction and subsequent operations at the plant.

Peru: Grupo Gloria plans to invest US$100m in an upcoming lime plant in Lima. OneStone Consulting has reported that the plant will supply lime for Lima’s construction, agriculture and mining sectors.

Grupo Gloria subsidiary Cal & Cemento Sur already operates a five-kiln lime plant in Puno Region with five kilns, comprising three Maerz Parallel Flow Regeneration (PFR) vertical kilns and two horizontal kilns.

US: More than 50 employees of the CalPortland cement plant near Mojave went on strike on 8 June 2025. A spokesperson for the workers said that it was the first strike at the location since 1981. A striking employee told local press that pay and retirement benefits are among workers’ concerns. The union's contract with the company expired in March 2025.

US: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an AI tool to compare studies of alternative raw materials for cement production. A collaborative team from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub and MIT’s recycling research programme, Olivetti Group, published its findings in the Nature journal. The team mined 5.7m academic publications to identify 14,434 alternative raw materials. These belonged to 19 ‘types,’ including bottom ashes, fly ashes, calcined clays and slags, as well as less homogenous types such as biomass ashes, glasses and mine tailings. The study more than doubles the number of fly ashes and slags recorded on a database of this kind. The tool then provides a unified assessment of cementitious reactivity and pozzolanicity, also accounting for variables in particle size and amorphous content.

Colombia: National grey cement production fell by 7% year-on-year to 1.06Mt in April 2025. Shipments to the domestic market declined by 7% to 0.99Mt. Between January and April 2025, production dropped by 3% year-on-year to 4.24Mt and domestic shipments fell by 1% year-on-year to 3.91Mt.

Trinidad & Tobago: Trinidad Cement (TCL) has amended its loan agreements with Citibank and Scotiabank for the third time. The TCL board entered a third amended and restated agreement to its 24 July 2018 loan deal, under which Citibank and Scotiabank will each lend US$20m.

The loan repays TCL’s obligations under earlier agreements with Republic Bank and RBC Merchant Bank dated 22 July 2021. TCL’s parent company Cemex guarantees the loan. It owns 69.83% of TCL through holding company Sierra Trading.