Displaying items by tag: CBR

Ukraine: Ukrainian cement and concrete producers are ready to expand capacity to meet reconstruction demand, according to a survey by Consumer and Business Research Ukraine (CBR), despite reduced funding and limited state budget. Cement production dropped to 5.4Mt in 2022 from 11Mt in 2021 but stabilised at 7.4Mt in 2023 and 7.97Mt in 2024. CBR estimates that 8Mt/yr is feasible during wartime, rising to 12Mt/yr in the third or fourth year of reconstruction.

The Ukrainian Cement Association (UkrCement) head Pavlo Kachur said “Reconstruction will begin with demining, reinforcing the front lines and restoring energy infrastructure. Large-scale construction will likely not begin until the third or fourth year.”

At present, plant capacity utilisation varies across regions. Plants in western Ukraine are operating at higher capacity, while those in the south and east remain underutilised. In 2022, plants operated at a loss but retained staff. In 2023, volumes were sufficient to break even. Two-thirds of surveyed consumers increased production in 2023, though 2024 expectations were cautious.

Kachur said “Time will be needed for training, planning and securing financing—and cement producers will use that time to fill the market, primarily by investing in modernisation and capacity expansion. For example, two major projects to build new kilns are already ready in Kryvy Rih and Ivano-Frankivsk.”

The study notes that building brand new plants is unlikely, but modernising existing kilns can be accomplished within a year. It expects at least two plants to launch new kilns, increasing capacity by 2Mt/yr. For example, Kryvyi Rih Cement has obtained a permit to develop the Maryanske limestone deposit (60km from the plant) and plans to build a clinker kiln at the site.

CBR researcher Tetiana Sytnyk said “Cement companies are ready to make rapid investments in modernisation and to launch additional kilns once recovery begins. They’re waiting for clear signals to proceed – such as the allocation of reconstruction funds or a surge in demand to at least 9.5Mt/yr.”

Ukraine exported 1.7Mt of cement in 2024, up from 56,000t in 2021, with Kachur adding that exports have ‘saved’ the local industry during the war. Developed countries will be capable of meeting Ukraine’s reconstruction needs, though this could hurt local producers. Kachur added “During the recovery phase, Ukraine’s market must be as localised as possible with domestic products. Only countries that supported us during the war should have access.”

Belgium: The government of Wallonia and the European Commission’s Just Transition Fund (JTF) have awarded funding to CBR Cement, CCB and Holcim Belgique to support the reduction of CO₂ emissions from Wallonia’s cement plants by 50%. The efforts will focus on renewable energy projects, including the construction of new waste heat recovery (WHR) systems. Alongside two steel plants, the companies will share Euro282m-worth of funding for projects across their four cement plants. The L’Echo newspaper has reported that Wallonia will contribute Euro169m, while the JTF will contribute the remaining Euro177m. The projected cost of planned decarbonisation projects in the Wallonian cement and steel industries is Euro346m. The proposed projects will increase the number of people employed across the sectors by 6.4% to 2773.

Belgium: Heidelberg Materials has announced an upcoming project called Anthemis at its subsidiary CBR's Antoing cement plant in Hainaut. The project will implement Heidelberg Material's OxyCal model, which combines Oxyfuel and amine-based carbon capture technology. When operational, the system will capture 800,000t/yr of CO₂, reducing the Antoing cement plant's CO₂ footprint by 97%.

Heidelberg Materials chair Dominik von Achten said “We are excited to add yet another pioneering technology to our CCUS project portfolio, and to build on what we have already achieved in terms of research and innovation. From the Antoing plant alone, we will be able to offer more than 15Mt of carbon-free cement to the construction market during the first 10 years of operation." Von Achten concluded "This is a key contribution to Belgium’s transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions.”

Belgium: CBR has successfully completed an upgrade of systems connected to the kiln of its 0.8Mt/yr Antoing cement plant. The company says that it has modernised the kiln gas cycle, reducing the plant’s power consumption by 2.5%.

The Antoing cement plant previously underwent a capacity expansion and alternative fuels (AF) substitution-increasing upgrade to its kiln line in late 2020.

From the Nordics to the Mediterranean, European countries lead the field in reduced-clinker cement production using supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). While consumers, faced with ever-greater choice, continue to opt for sustainability, projects to improve existing SCMs and develop new ones have won government backing and have become a matter of serious investment for other heavy industries beside cement. European cement producers’ decisions are steering the course to a world beyond CEM I. Yet, even in Europe, great untapped potential remains.

Companies generated a good deal of marketing buzz around their latest reduced-CO₂ cement ranges in 2021 and the first quarter of 2022: Buzzi Unicem’s CGreen in Germany and Italy, Holcim’s EcoPlanet in six markets from Romania to Spain, Cementir Holding’s Futurecem in Denmark and Benelux, and Cemex’s Vertua in Spain and several other countries. All boast reduced clinker factors through the use of alternative raw materials. This, however, is really a rebranding of a long-established norm in Europe.

Since 2010, cements other than CEM I have constituted over 75% of average annual cement deliveries across Cembureau member countries (all cement-producing EU member states, plus Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and Ukraine). This statistic breaks down differently from country to country. CEM II is the norm in Austria, Finland, Portugal and Switzerland, with deliveries in the region of 90%. Portland limestone cement (PLC) makes up a majority of deliveries in all four. It has been central to Switzerland’s transition to 89% (3.72Mt) of CEM II deliveries out of a total 4.18Mt of cement despatched in 2021. There, the main types of cement were CEM II/B-M (T-LL) Portland composite cement, with 1.38Mt (33%), and two different classifications of PLC: CEM II/A-LL PLC, with 1.28Mt (31%), and CEM II/B-LL PLC, with 888,000t (21%).

A second approach is that of the Netherlands, where CEM III blast furnace slag cement with a clinker factor below 65% predominates, favoured for its sulphate resistance and the protection it offers against chloride-initiated corrosion of steel reinforcement in marine settings. By contrast, the UK has traditionally maintained a higher reliance on CEM I cement. This can be partly explained by the preference of builders there for adding fly ash or ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) at the mixing stage. Nonetheless, CEM II Portland fly ash cement held a 14% (1.43Mt) market share in the UK’s 10.2Mt of cement consumption in 2021.

The UK Mineral Products Association (MPA) has identified limestone as an underutilised resource in the country’s cement production. Together with HeidelbergCement subsidiary Hanson Cement, it has applied for a change to National Application standards to allow the production of Portland composite cement from fly ash and limestone or GGBFS and limestone. The association has forecast that Portland composite cement could easily rise to 30 – 40% of UK cement consumption, and that this has the potential to eliminate 8% of the sector’s 7.8Mt/yr-worth of CO₂ emissions.

Metallurgical waste streams have long flowed into European cement production, primarily as GGBFS, but also as bauxite residue. In 2021, alumina production in the EU alone generated 7Mt of bauxite residue, of which the bloc recycled just 100,000t (1.4%) that year. Two projects – the Holcim Innovation Center-led ReActiv project and Titan Cement and others’ REDMUD project – aim to produce new alternative cementitious materials from bauxite residue.

By collaborating with other industries, cement producers’ investments can most effectively reduce the overall cost of using these materials in cement production. In Germany, HeidelbergCement and ThyssenKrupp’s Save CO₂ project aims to develop new improved latent hydraulic binders or alternative pozzolan from GGBFS by producing slag from directly reduced iron (DRI). The Save CO₂ team believes that GGBFS substitution for clinker has the capacity to eliminite 200Mt/yr of CO₂ emissions from global cement production.

Meanwhile in the world of mining, ThyssenKrupp and others’ NEMO project is investigating the recovery of a useable mineral fraction for cement production from the extractive waste of the Luikonlahti and Sotkamo mines in Finland and the Tara mine in Ireland, through bioleaching and cleaned mineral residue upcycling. This may give cement producers full access to Europe’s 28Bnt stockpiles of sulphidic mining waste, of which mines generate an additional 600Mt each year.

Denmark-based CemGreen, which produces the calcined clay supplementary cementitious material CemShale, is developing a shale granule heat-treating technology called CemTower. This consists of three pieces of equipment vertically integrated into cement plants’ preheaters, kilns and coolers, and brings the processing of waste materials – here oil shale – to the cement plant.

Lastly, cement producers are exploring the possible uses of waste made of cement itself. In Wallonia, HeidelbergCement subsidiary CBR’s CosmoCem project is investigating the production of alternative cement additives from large available flows of local demolition, soil remediation and industrial waste. Similarly, the Greece-based C2inCO₂ project seeks to mineralise fines from concrete recycling for HeidelbergCement to use in the production of novel cements in its Greek operations.

In Switzerland, ZND Portland composite cement (produced using fine mixed granulate from building demolitions) is the third largest cement type, with 178,000t (4.3%) of total deliveries – narrowly behind CEM I with 239,000t (5.7%).Holcim Schweiz developed its Susteno 4 ZND Portland composite cement with Switzerland’s lack of any ash or slag supply in mind, demonstrating the potential flexibility of a circular economic approach to cement production.

On 21 March 2022, the University of Trier reported that it is in the process of mapping mineral resources, waste deposits and usable residues ‘on a cross-border scale,’ in an effort to produce new materials for use in cement production. Industry participants include France-based Vicat, CBR, Buzzi Unicem subsidiary Cimalux and CRH subsidiary Eqiom. Vicat is preparing a kiln at its 1Mt/yr Xeuilley cement plant in Meurthe-et-Moselle to use in testing new alternative raw materials developed under the project.

For Cembureau and its members, work continues, with the goal of Net Zero by 2050 constantly in sight. This goal includes a reduction in members’ clinker-to-cement ratios to well below 65%. In this, the association and its members are working towards a world not just beyond CEM I, but beyond CEM II, too. What exactly this will mean remains to be seen.

Sources

CemSuisse, ‘Lieferstatistik,’ 11 January 2022, https://www.cemsuisse.ch/app/uploads/2022/01/Lieferstatistik-4.-Quartal-2021.pdf

WSA, ‘December 2021 crude steel production and 2021 global crude steel production totals,’ 25 January 2022, https://worldsteel.org/media-centre/press-releases/2022/december-2021-crude-steel-production-and-2021-global-totals/

MPA, ‘Low carbon multi-component cements for UK concrete applications,’ July 2018, https://prod-drupal-files.storage.googleapis.com/documents/resource/public/Low%20carbon%20multi-component%20cements%20for%20UK%20concrete%20applications%20PDF.pdf

European Commission, ‘European Training Network for Zero-waste Valorisation of Bauxite Residue (Red Mud),’ 16 July 2020, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/636876

European Commission, ‘Industrial Residue Activation for sustainable cement production,’ 16 February 2022, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/958208

Recycling Portal, Zement der Zukunft – Forschungsprojekt „SAVE CO₂“ gestartet, 28 May 2021, https://recyclingportal.eu/Archive/65677

h2020-NEMO, ‘Project,’ https://h2020-nemo.eu/project-2/

European Commission, ‘Green cement of the future: CemShale + CemTower,’ 14 April 2021, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101009382

CosmoCem, ‘Communiqué de Presse,’ https://cosmocem.org/

CO₂ Win, ‘C²inCO₂: Calcium Carbonation for industrial use of CO₂,’ https://co2-utilization.net/en/projects/co2-mineralization/c2inco2/

Les Echos, ‘Rendre le ciment moins gourmand en CO₂,’ 21 March 2022, https://www.lesechos.fr/pme-regions/innovateurs/des-substituts-au-clinker-rendent-le-ciment-moins-gourmand-en-co2-1395002

France: Vicat plans to use a kiln at its 1Mt/yr Xeuilley, Meurthe-et-Moselle, cement plant for trials of cement production using new alternative raw materials developed under the international CO₂Redres supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) project. The project brings together Vicat, HeidelbergCement subsidiary CBR, Buzzi Unicem subsidiary Cimalux and CRH subsidiary Eqiom in an effort to map mineral resources, waste deposits and usable residues ‘on a cross-border scale.’ On the basis of this research, the partners will seek to develop new SCMs for use in cement production.

Belgium: IKN was presented with the first clinker from a modified calciner and IKN cooler installed at the CBR Cement integrated Antoing plant on 24 December 2020. The cement sector engineering supplier said, “We thank everybody involved for their determination and efforts in this challenging project: in spite of Coronanirus and a tough schedule there was no compromise on safety!” CBR Cement is a subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement.

Netherlands: Germany’s HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Eerste Nederland Cement Industrie (ENCI) announced on 9 December 2019 the upcoming closure of its former 1.8Mt/yr integrated Maastricht plant in 2020. Het Belang van Limburg has reported that the Maastricht plant, which stepped down to grinding-only in March 2019 after 91 years’ kiln operation, received an insufficient supply of clinker from ENCI’s sister company CBR Cement’s 1.5Mt/yr Lixhe plant in Wallonia, Belgium to guarantee profitable production.

Clinker grinding continues at ENCI’s 1.4Mt/yr IJmuiden and 0.6Mt/yr Rotterdam grinding plants, each of which has better access to clinker imports due to their proximity to deepwater ports.

Belgium: The Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement (LEILAC) consortium partners and its external advisory board have held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its pilot Direct Separation Calciner unit at the HeidelbergCement cement plant in Lixhe. The project started commissioning the unit in March 2019. Testing is now set to start to validate the performance of the pilot.