Displaying items by tag: CCUS

Japan: A Taiheiyo Cement plant will be one of two facilities to host carbon capture systems under the Tohoku West Coast carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security selected the project to advance to the feasibility study stage on 2 August 2023. The partners will now investigate technical issues in the entire CCS value chain, as well as commercial and social issues around transporting captured CO₂ by ship to temporary storage sites. Identification of permanent underwater storage sites is scheduled for 2024, with the design stage of capture, transport and storage systems scheduled to conclude in 2026. The Tohoku West Coast carbon capture and storage project will commence in 2030.

Taiheiyo Cement is committed to a 20% reduction of its CO₂ emissions between 2000 and 2030, while the Japanese government is committed to a 46% reduction between 2013 and 2030.

Switzerland: Holcim recorded 7.4% year-on-year growth in its organic sales to US$15.3bn in the first half of 2023. However, in real terms, its sales fell by 11% year-on-year from US$17.1bn during the first half of 2022. Its sales of cement grew by 13.8% on an organic basis to US$7.93bn, down by 21% in real terms from US$10bn. Cement constituted 52% of revenues, compared to 58% in the first half of 2022. Holcim's group share of net income rose by 9% to US$1.47bn from US$1.35bn.

Chair and chief executive officer Jan Jenisch noted 'continued profitable expansion' in the growing North American market and 'accelerated green growth' in the group's Europe and Latin America regions. He said “In line with our Strategy 2025 - Accelerating Green Growth, we reduced our overall CO₂/net sales by 18% while building billion-dollar brands with ECOPact and ECOPlanet. It’s exciting to be at the forefront of decarbonising Europe with three additional grants from the EU Innovation Fund for our carbon capture, utilisation and storage projects, making us the first in our sector with five projects supported by the EU. We look forward to finishing the year strong and to further decarbonising building.” Jenisch concluded that the results 'confirm Holcim’s strong positions across all markets, delivering superior profitability and growth with leading sustainable building solutions and brands.'

Germany: Heidelberg Materials' consolidated sales rose by 5.3% year-on-year to Euro10.5bn in the first half of 2022. The producer noted a continuing 'downward trend' in its cement sales volumes in the second quarter of the year. The group recorded a net profit of Euro783m, up by 31% year-on-year from Euro597m.

Chair Dominik von Achten said “We have closed the first half of 2023 with a good result. Even in a weaker market environment, with significant declines in sales volumes in some cases, we performed quite well. We remain confident about the second half of the year, and are once again upgrading our outlook for 2023 significantly." He continued "In the first half of 2023, we achieved a further reduction in our specific net CO₂ emissions through numerous measures. With the large number of our carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects, we are aiming at the full decarbonisation of our products. Just recently, one of our pioneering carbon capture and storage projects in Germany was approved to receive funding from the EU Innovation Fund. The continuous reduction of our carbon footprint and strengthening the circular economy are our most powerful levers to offer our customers climate-friendly products on a large scale."

Chief financial officer René Aldach said that the company will demonstrate its financial strength with a third tranche of its on-going share buyback programme, commencing on 28 July 2023.

World: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) launched the Green Cement Technology Tracker on 20 July 2023. The Green Cement Technology Tracker presents users with a real-time overview of active initiatives to reduce CO₂ emissions in the global cement industry. At present, the tracker covers carbon capture projects, which account for 36% of planned emissions reductions under the GCCA’s 2050 Roadmap for Net Zero Carbon Concrete. The partners plan to subsequently expand the scope of coverage to other emissions reduction technologies.

GCCA CEO Thomas Guillot said “Unleashing technology such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage is key to achieving our net zero mission in our sector. Carbon capture pilots, projects and announcements are picking up pace across the world. This technology works, and our next goal is to scale up, working with stakeholders such as governments and the investment community to help transform the industry worldwide.”

The Green Cement Technology Tracker is freely accessible here on the LeadIT website.

Europe: Holcim has secured funding for three separate carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects at its cement plants in Europe. The recipient projects are the Go4Zero project at Holcim Belgium's Obourg cement plant in Belgium, the KOdeCO project at Holcim Croatia's Koromačno cement plant in Croatia and the eM-Rhône project at Lafarge Ciments' Le Teil cement plant in France. The Le Teil plant's system will be used to produce e-methanol, while the investment at the Koromačno plant will be part of a package of upgrades to turn the plant carbon neutral.

Alongside on-going projects in Germany and Poland, this will bring Holcim's total number of EU-funded CCUS projects to five. Holcim is committed to US$2.33bn-worth of investments of its own in over 50 carbon capture projects worldwide before 2030.

Holcim's Europe regional head Miljan Gutovic said “It’s exciting to be at the forefront of decarbonising the building sector in Europe. The support we are receiving from the EU Innovation Fund for five of our CCUS projects is a great testament to the strength of our engineering teams, the maturity of our technologies and our advanced partnerships across the value chain. Our robust pipeline of projects positions us as the partner of choice to scale up carbon capture technologies in Europe.”

Germany: The EU Innovation Fund has granted funding to the GeZero carbon capture project at Heidelberg Materials' Geseke cement plant in North Rhine-Westphalia. The project consists of a 700,000t/yr carbon capture system and an oxyfuel kiln upgrade. A captive solar power plant will provide energy for the new systems. CO₂ storage partner Wintershall Dea will receive purified liquefied CO₂ from the capture system via its Wilhelmshaven distribution hub for storage under the North Sea.

Heidelberg Materials Germany general manager Christian Knell said “This project sets an important milestone for the cement industry and for effective carbon management in Germany. We are now counting on the tailwind of Germany’s future Carbon Management Strategy and the regulatory framework to come.”

CEO Dominik von Achten added “With GeZero, we will once again show how Heidelberg Materials’ pioneering spirit is paving the way for the decarbonisation of our industry. We will be the first to realise a full CCS chain for the capture, transport and permanent storage of all CO₂ emissions from an inland location in Germany. I appreciate the support of the EU Innovation Fund, which expresses both an important recognition and the required backing from the political side.”

France: Heidelberg Materials, Lafarge France, Lhoist and utilities provider TotalEnergies launched the GO CO₂ carbon capture and storage project at the port of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire on 10 July 2023. The Le Marin newspaper has reported that the Euro1.7bn project will treat and liquefy captured CO₂ for underwater storage. The initial participating plants will be Lafarge France’s Saint-Pierre-la-Cour cement plant and Lhoist’s Neau lime plant.

Preliminary studies will commence later in 2023, with an investment decision to be taken in 2027, for commissioning of the project in 2030. The consortium will initially process 2.6Mt/yr of captured CO₂, rising to 4Mt/yr in 2050.

US: In 2022, Fortera began building a 15,000t/yr-capacity plant to produce its low-carbon cementitious material, Fortera Reactive Calcium Carbonate (RCC), at CalPortland's Redding cement plant in California. The commercial-scale plant will produce a reactive form of calcium carbonate using CO₂ from the kiln of the 600,000t/yr cement plant. Fortera's process converts 1t of limestone into 1t of Fortera RCC by capturing and mineralising CO₂ from the cement plant's kiln. Fortera cement production emits 60% less CO₂ than ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The 15,000t/yr plant will operate at 20 times the scale of previous pilot tests. The Redding Record newspaper has reported that 15 workers will be employed at the site.

Former Redding cement plant owner Lehigh Hanson formed an agreement with Fortera to collaborate on the low-carbon cement plant project in March 2021. The plant subsequently switched ownership to Martin Marietta Materials in October 2021, before CalPortland bought it in July 2022.

Cemex highlighted its Clyngas project at its Alicante cement plant in Spain this week. The project will produce synthesis gas (syngas) from different types of waste for direct injection into the burner at the plant during the combustion process. It is being run in conjunction with Waste to Energy Advanced Solutions (WTEnergy), a company that Cemex invested in at the end of 2022. It is also receiving Euro4.4m in funding from the European Commission (EC) as part of its innovation fund for small scale projects. The initiative estimates that it will save over 400,000t of equivalent CO₂ during the first 10 years of the project's life by replacing petroleum coke with syngas.

Clyngas is another example of Cemex’s innovation with alternative fuels for cement and lime. It follows on from the group’s work with hydrogen injection into cement kilns. As presented at the 15th Global CemFuels Conference 2022 it has been using hydrogen in low volumes as a combustion enhancer in more than 20 plants worldwide. However, it was also looking into using hydrogen more directly as a fuel and as a feedstock for other alternative fuels. WTEnergy’s gasification process could potentially link up to this as it converts waste streams such as wood chips, agricultural waste, refuse derived fuel (RDF), solid recovered fuel (SRF), dry sewage sludge, meat and bone meal, poultry litter and plastics into syngas. WTEnergy then proposes that its gasification process and/or the syngas can be used for power generation and thermal applications. In the case of the Clyngas project it will be the latter, as the gasification process will be used to boost the burnability characteristics of RDF with a high biomass content. One part of this to note is that the syngas can potentially be used to manufacture hydrogen. This would be a useful capability for a cement company, for example, that was already using alternative fuels and was now considering further decarbonisation by switching to using hydrogen.

A few other cement companies have been looking at synthetic fuels too, but this has generally been as a by-product of carbon capture and utilisation. This week Lafarge France, for example, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Axens, EDF and IFP Energies Nouvelles for a synthetic fuel production trial. Its plan is to build a unit that will produce synthetic kerosene using captured CO₂ from a carbon capture installation at Lafarge France's Saint-Pierre-La-Cour cement plant. The kerosene will then be sold to airlines. Other examples of cement companies looking at using captured CO₂ to manufacture synthetic fuels include Finnsementti’s pre-engineering study with Aker Carbon Capture to consider producing methanol as a fuel for transport, Holcim’s and TotalEnergies’ various plans of what to do with the CO₂ captured from the-to-be upgraded Obourg cement plant and Cemex Deutschland’s ambitions for its Rüdersdorf plant.

As can be seen above there are different types of synthetic fuels and cement companies are at the research and pilot stages. Although there isn’t a commonly accepted definition of what a synthetic fuel is, the general meaning is that of a fuel made from feedstock using a chemical reaction as opposed to, say, a refining process. The wide variety of potential synthetic fuels puts the confusion over the different types of hydrogen into perspective. However, this may be a problem for a later date if usage by cement companies becomes more serious.

What is a problem, though, has been the EC’s planned legislation to phase out the use of industrial CO₂ in synthetic fuels by 2041. Cembureau, the European cement industry association, warned in late 2022 of the issues this would pose for industries trying to find a way to utilise their CO₂ emissions where storage was too difficult or expensive. Its view was that while synthetic fuels using industrial CO₂ are not fully net-zero, as the captured CO₂ is later released into the atmosphere, it is a necessary short to medium term step for sectors trying to make the transition. Companies trying to build industrial-scale chemical plants for synthetic fuels need running periods of 20 to 30 years to achieve payback. As of March 2023 Cembureau was still concerned about the implication of proposed regulations, specifically with regards to the proposed criteria for which synthetic fuels could be used, based on their greenhouse gas emissions savings (at least 70% compared to the regular fuels being replaced). It directly linked this to synthetic fuels projects being launched by the cement sector that might be adversely affected by the new rules. The EC published the legislation in late June 2023 and it is set to become legal in mid-July 2023.

Using synthetic fuels either as a fuel or a by-product from cement production is an area of interest currently with the projects detailed above and others in progress. One vision for their use in Europe, at least, is that they might offer a route for carbon capture for cement plants without access to the logistic networks necessary for sequestration. Whether they find a place in cement manufacture either on a transitional basis or over a longer term should become clearer over the coming decade. Yet the EC’s new rules are likely to slow this process down as at least some of the planned pilots may become unviable in Europe. Other jurisdictions around the world take note.

UK: Carbon8 has appointed Paul Drennan-Durose as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds John Pilkington, who becomes the non-executive chair.
Drennan-Durose holds experience in the sustainable energy sector with both public and private companies, including private equity and venture capital. He previously worked as the CEO of Ineo Partners, Powerhouse Energy Group and Heliex Power. Before this he was the managing director of Poole Process Equipment for seven years in the 2010s. Other roles of note include that of Group Commercial Director - Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific for SMP Europe and the managing director of PLW and Fiamm Energy Technology.

Carbon8 is a UK-based company that supplies carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) equipment. Its main investors include EDF Pulse Ventures and Vicat. Notable corporate achievements include deploying its technology at Vicat’s Montalieu-Vercieu cement plant in France, at an EFW plant in the Netherlands and establishing business partnerships with FLSmidth and Return Carbon.