Displaying items by tag: CO2

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement plans to start a CO₂ capture demonstration project at its Kumagaya plant in Kumagaya City, Saitama. It will use technology for CO₂ chemical absorption supplied by UK-based Carbon Clean, which has been awarded by Japan-based Marubeni Protechs in Japan. The project will have a capacity of 10t/day and demonstration tests will begin in September 2021. Taiheiyo Cement says that it believes that CO₂ recovery technology from cement kiln flue gas will require compact equipment that could be installed in cement plants and that suitable amine solvents for cement kiln flue gas are essential conditions. Its ultimate goal is to establish a technology that can be used to help it reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

The cement producer has been developing this technology as a sole grant recipient of the ‘Development of Carbon Circulation Technology for the Cement Industry,’ a project funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) which was awarded in June 2020. It also launched its internal Carbon Neutral Technology Development Project Team in April 2020, which has led on the project.

Marubeni Protechs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marubeni Corporation, which invested in Carbon Clean, have been involved in a variety of domestic and international projects involving equipment supply and construction. The project at the Kumagaya plant is expected to be the first CO₂ capture plant that Marubeni Protechs and Carbon Clean have introduced in Japan. Marubeni Protechs and Carbon Clean intend to jointly introduce CO₂ capture plants in the future.

US/Canada: XPrize has named CarbonBuilt and CarbonCure Technologies as the winners of carbon capture and storage (CCS) design prizes worth US$20.0m. The competition ran at two power plants in Wyoming, US and Alberta, Canada. CarbonBuilt won the contest at the Wyoming plant with a concrete-curing based system. The concrete produced has a lower carbon footprint than conventionally produced concrete, according to XPrize. CarbonCure Technologies won the Alberta contest with a design based on carbonating the water used in washing cement trucks. This reportedly formed a concrete-strengthening slurry.

XPrize has partnered with Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation to launch a second round of CCS design prizes worth a total US$100m.

Global Cement Weekly celebrates its 500th edition this week. This corresponds to nearly a decade’s worth of news and comment upon the cement industry, since the first edition went out in early June 2011. Time is brief, so the quick version of all of this is as follows: China; production growth; production overcapacity; grinding; corporate mergers; regionalisation; CO₂; digitisation; and coronavirus.

Those looking for the longer version should read Peter Edwards’ review of the 2010s in the December 2019 issue of Global Cement Magazine. Although be warned, few were expecting a global pandemic to rock markets and possibly hasten future trends when that article was written. Those looking for the even longer version should read the last 10 years of the magazine and the website… and then let us know what we missed.

Looking back at the first few editions of Global Cement Weekly brings to mind the LP Hartley quote, “the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” It’s all very familiar until one comes across the little things that makes one realise how much has actually changed.

For example, countries were imposing import tariffs on cement, companies were buying each other, national cement associations were lobbying hard for their members and cement plants were investing in alternative fuels equipment. All that stuff has been happening continually over the last decade and right into this week, with Russian media announcing who has won the auction to buy Eurocement and LafargeHolcim closing its deal to buy Firestone Building Products. Yet, Lafarge and Holcim were still separate companies and Italcementi was independent in 2011. On the sustainability side, Norcem and its parent company HeidelbergCement Group, with the European Cement Research Academy (ECRA), had just started a partnership agreement with Aker Clean Carbon (ACC) to study post-combustion CO₂ capture technology at Norcem’s plant in Brevik, Norway. Jump forward nine years and Norcem signed a deal with Aker Solutions in mid-2020 to order a full scale CO₂ capture, liquification and intermediate storage plant at Brevik.

The big numbers from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) show that global cement production grew by 24% to 4.1Bnt in 2020 from 3.3Bnt in 2010. However, the big growth had stopped by around 2013 and production has hovered between 4.0Bnt/yr and 4.2Bnt/yr ever since. Alongside this, Getting the Number Right (GNR) data indicates that net CO₂ emissions for cementitous products fell by 4% to 610kg/t in 2018 from 636kg/t in 2010. The former may show a levelling off of production as the Chinese market stabilised in the 2010s but the latter shows the progress that has been made in reducing cement-related CO₂ emissions and the scale of the challenge that remains ahead.

Graph 1: Embodied energy versus embodied CO₂ of building materials. Source: Hammond & Jones, University of Bath, UK.

Cement industry readers should not lose heart about the future of the industry though, while environmental pressure continues to mount. Graph 1 above shows the embodied CO₂ and energy of common building materials. Cement has been rightly identified as a major emitter of CO₂ but any society that desires to build strong structures cheaply and at scale requires concrete to do so whilst the data above remains unchallenged. The ratios may change, such as the perennial energy-cost influenced tug-of-war between asphalt and concrete roads, but concrete remains the only game in town. For now. At which point cement production becomes all about reducing the CO₂ emissions or capturing them, and determining who exactly pays for this. This then brings us to the present with the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme carbon price of over Euro40/t and other schemes popping up all around the planet. One echo from one of the early editions of Global Cement Weekly was the furore over Australia’s attempt at a carbon tax in the early 2010s. It was repealed in 2014.

One prediction about how the 2020s might be summarised for the cement industry is this: how to get away with pumping out all that CO₂? Let’s see what the next decade will bring.

US: The California Nevada Cement Association (CNCA) has published a plan for the Californian cement industry to meet its target of carbon neutrality by 2045. The plan consists of three pathways, namely: a reduction in process emissions including by alterations to clinker factor and type of additives; an increase in alternative fuel (AF) substitution; and a switch to renewable energy. The association said that the aims are achievable by close stakeholder coordination, constructive public policy engagement and a situational approach based on a flexible portfolio of pathways.

Australia: Calix has reported the completion of a pre-front-end engineering and design (FEED) study of its Leilac-2 carbon capture and storage (CCS) study. Germany-based HeidelbergCement, Mexico-based Cemex and Portugal-based Cimpor assessed the study. The milestone clears the technology for industrial scale implementation at HeidelbergCement’s Hannover integrated cement plant in Germany. The installation aims to capture 100,000t/yr of CO₂ at an installation cost of Euro23m (+/-30%). The final investment decision will follow after the completion of FEED in early 2022.

India: The Climate Action Programme 2.0° has awarded ACC its Orientated award for efforts towards CO₂ emissions reduction. United News of India has reported that the award assesses companies on the basis of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s climate-maturity model and the Business Excellence Framework. ACC claimed the national award in the energy, mining and heavy industries category.

Managing director and chief executive officer Sridhar Balakrishnan said, "Sustainable construction and environmental conservation are our core corporate objectives. Through our consistent focus on sustainable business practices, we have emerged as one of the companies with the lowest carbon footprints in the cement industry. This award will motivate us further to continue working towards building a greener planet." He added, “As part of global cement major LafargeHolcim, the company is committed to the Net Zero vision of the group and is an industry leader in combating climate change through consistent commitment to sustainable practices. ACC's sustainability mission is defined by the Triple Bottom Line, which signifies accomplishing three interdependent and mutually reinforcing goals of economic development, social development, and environmental protection.” ACC also became a partner of the UK-based Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA).

Germany: Mexico-based Cemex subsidiary Cemex Zement has set up an innovation acceleration partnership called Carbon Neutral Alliance to support its work to achieve net zero CO₂ emissions at its Rüdersdorf cement plant by 2030. The association will work to develop industrial-scale demonstration projects in line with the company’s Future in Action programme. Its scope will include carbon capture and storage (CCS), the transformation of captured CO₂ into building materials, synthetic fuels and green hydrocarbons, hydrogen production and waste heat recovery (WHR). Cemex plans to share the knowledge gained by the alliance across its global cement network.

Managing director and Rüdersdorf plant manager Stefan Schmorleiz said, "It is expected that CO₂ will be further processed to convert to new forms of energy and materials for use locally by industrial, residential, and transport sectors. Together with our partners, we will take feasibility studies through to economic solutions to decarbonising cement production.”

Greece: Titan Cement group has accelerated its efforts towards sustainability with new environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets. The targets include an updated CO₂ emissions reduction target of 35% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, zero workplace fatalities and a cement industry top-three lost time injury frequency rate, increased female leadership participation and 70% supplier sustainability in line with the producer’s own ESG standards by 2025. It also set a water consumption target of 280L/t of cementitious material produced and 50% certified Zero Waste to landfill production by 2025.

Chief sustainability officer Leonidas Canellopoulos said, “We are building on our strong track record on sustainability and aspire to increase our positive impact on people, society, and the environment. We are committing to ambitious targets that aim to generate more value for all our stakeholders and set the foundations for sustainable growth in a carbon-neutral and digitalised world.”

Germany: ThyssenKrupp says that the four cement producer members of Cement Innovation for Climate (CI4C) are preparing to launch an industrial-scale trial of its Polysius Pure Oxyfuel carbon capture and storage (CCS) process. The renewably-powered process produces ‘refuel’ synthetic fuels such as kerosene for aviation.

Senior Proposal Manager Markus Sauer said,“CI4C and ThyssenKrupp are currently investigating the use of our polysius pure oxyfuel technology in a demonstration plant. Working with our long-standing customers, we would be delighted if we could demonstrate the efficiency of our technology for the first time on an industrial scale. By using this technology, the cement industry could significantly reduce its process-related CO₂ emissions and thus make an important contribution to climate protection.”

UK: Germany-based HeidelbergCement subsidiary Hanson has received the green light for its planned carbon capture and storage (CCS) study at its Padeswood cement plant in Flintshire after its partner, the HyNet North West consortium received Euro84m in funding. The study will support a design basis and cost estimate for a carbon capture unit at the cement plant and a connection to the planned HyNet North West CO₂ transport and storage system. Euro46m of the funding came from consortium partners while Euro38m came from a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge grant.

Hanson chief executive officer Simon Willis said, “Today’s funding announcement is fantastic news for everyone involved in HyNet North West. Cutting CO₂ emissions is a key priority for us, and we are excited to be one of the first UK cement producers working on carbon capture and storage (CCS) as part of this collaborative project.” He added, “We’ve taken big steps towards reducing carbon emissions and have set ourselves an ambitious target of achieving a 50% reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2030, based on 1990 levels, and net zero carbon concrete by 2050. CCS at cement plants is a key part of our roadmap to net zero.”