Displaying items by tag: CO2
France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies recorded sales of Euro2.38m in 2021, more than four times its 2020 figure of Euro504m. The company’s losses before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (LBITDA) declined by 27% to Euro5.23m from Euro4.13m, while its net loss fell by 9.1% to Euro5.56m from Euro6.12m.
The producer confirmed its global sales target of Euro130m and EBITDA margin target of 40% by 2026, by which time it expects to have achieved sales of 550,000t/yr of its clinker-free cement in France. This would correspond to 3% of the domestic cement market. By 2026, it aims to operate four plants abroad.
Austria/Germany: RHI Magnesita and Horn & Co. Group have announced the consolidation of their recycling activities in Europe under Horn & Co. RHIM Minerals Recovery. The new subsidiary aims to increase the production, use and offering of secondary raw materials for the European refractory industry. The partners say that this will place the new entity at the forefront of the circular economy for customers in cement and other process industries. At the onset, Horn & Co. RHIM Minerals Recovery will process more than 150,000t/yr of secondary raw materials.
RHI Magnesita says that it can save 1.8t of CO2 for every tonne of recycled material used in its refractory production. It now expects to achieve its goal of 10% recycled materials ahead of its previously stipulated target date of 2025. It said that this marks an important step towards achieving a 15% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025.
CEO Stefan Borgas said “By increasing our focus in this key area, we will make a significant contribution to global climate protection. We will conserve natural resources while at the same time expanding our business.” He added “With the combination of the recycling activities, RHI Magnesita and Horn & Co. Group become the driving force of circular economy in the refractory industry. Going forward, refractory users will benefit from increasing circular economy solutions included in our full line service contracts and customers of Horn & Co. RHIM Minerals Recovery will be able to source sustainable and high-quality raw materials.”
Finland: Betolar has signed a letter of intent with Australia-based RISAB and the Vanadium Recovery Project to research the use of steel slag from which vanadium has been extracted in concrete production. Dow Jones Institutional News has reported that the company says that, through it Geoprime alkali-activated additive technology, the new slag source could replace 10% of the cement used in concrete production in Finland.
CEO Matti Löppönen said "We see a huge opportunity for Betolar here. If successful, we would be able to offer our customers a specific, currently unused slag of the steel industry to replace cement in concrete. Our customers already have experience in utilising other types of slag in the production of concrete using Geoprime. Utilising new side streams will expand the reach of our solution as planned.”
Betolar launched Geoprime in September 2021. It is currently developing a recipe-optimising artificial intelligence (AI) and data platform to bring together concrete producers and suppliers of slag, ash and other materials.
Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies’ clinkerless cement secures Scientific and Technical Center for Building certification
24 March 2022France: The Scientific and Technical Center for Building (CSTB) has certified Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies’ clinkerless H-UKR alkali-activated slag cement for structural use in buildings of all types. BusinessWire News has reported that the certification confirms the product’s safety, sustainability, lifespan and performance in conformity with Eurocode 2 and Eurocode 8 design standards.
Co-founders Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann said “In the midst of ongoing frenetic communication regarding carbon neutrality, Hoffmann Green Cement is as usual endeavouring to back its announcements with verified and evaluated elements. The granting of these evaluations further objectifies the quality of our cement, notably with the awarding of a lifespan of 100 years. In this regard, we would like to thank the CSTB’s teams for drafting this unprecedented technical appraisal and our own teams who are working tirelessly on seeking innovative decarbonised solutions to preserve tomorrow’s world.”
Oscrete UK names Matthew Gabriel as new product development and sustainability manager
24 March 2022UK: Concrete admixture producer Oscrete UK has appointed Matthew Gabriel to the role of new product development and sustainability manager. The company says that the appointment strengthens its commitment to sustainable construction.
Gabriel said “With the environment at the forefront of everyone’s minds, and customers looking to increase their use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), my priority is to develop products and processes which support our customers’ own route towards low carbon concrete.” He continued “Finding cost effective green solutions without impacting performance is key to the future of the construction sector. We are now looking to develop products that can help our customers to use or increase the use of products with a lower eCO2, hence the creation of a role dedicated entirely to this arena.”
Poland: The Building Research Institute has issued environmental product declarations (EPDs) for all six cement types produced at its Chełm and Rudniki cement plants and Gdynia grinding plant. The products in question were two CEM I cements, two CEM II Portland fly ash cements, another CEM II cement and a CEM III slag cement. Cemex Poland additionally obtained EPD certification for its Vertua Classic and Vertua Plus concrete products.
Materials director Michał Grys said “For us, product certification is another important step towards sustainable construction and a sustainable future. EPD declarations provide our clients with additional confirmation of the properties of products offered by Cemex Poland. They also improve their chances of obtaining LEED or BREEAM certificates for their investments.”
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
Germany: Australia-based Calix says that its LEILAC-2 carbon capture retrofit of HeidelbergCement's Hanover cement plant has passed its financial investment decision. The company is accordingly proceeding with detailed design and long-lead item purchasing. It will launch construction in 2023. Calix added that, due to a number of project risk flag points given the 'market situation,' it will not buy major components until closer to that time.
When commissioned, the installation will capture 0.1Mt/yr of CO2 and cost an estimated Euro20 - 25/t of CO2 captured.
US: Buzzi Unicem has announced the upcoming transition of its 1Mt/yr Stockertown cement plant in Pennsylvania’s Northampton County to 100% Type IL Portland limestone cement (PLC) production in 2022. Local press has reported that Buzzi Unicem and its subsidiary Alamo Cement Company will have fully converted to PLC production at ‘several locations in the US’ before the end of the year, according to the group.
Titan Cement boosts sales in 2021
17 March 2022Greece: Titan Cement recorded Euro1.71bn in net sales in 2021, up by 6.7% year-on-year from Euro1.61bn in 2020. The company attributed the boost to higher demand and ‘supportive pricing’ in all of its regions. Cement sales volumes were 18.3Mt, up by 7% year-on-year from 17.1Mt. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 4.6% to Euro272m from Euro286m, due to an ‘unprecedented’ second-half costs increase. The group’s net profit was Euro89.6m, compared to Euro1.1m in 2020. During the year, Titan Cement increased the digitisation of its cement production and continued its on-going share buyback programme. Its Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions declined by 4% year-on-year, in line with its 2030 target trajectory.
Titan Cement said “Having already achieved the 2025 targets for energy efficiency and zero waste-to-landfill certification, the group’s attention is now focused on empowering business ecosystems to incorporate sustainability considerations in their decision making. To ensure that key suppliers meet the group’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, Titan Cement developed a sustainable supply chain roadmap and published the first Titan Group Procurement Policy.” In the coming year, the group plans to ‘continue to harness the advantages offered by decarbonisation, digital transformation and business model innovation to benefit our customers, employees, suppliers and communities, aspiring to deliver to society carbon-neutral concrete by 2050.’