Displaying items by tag: CO2
Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has set an 80% CO2 reduction target from cement production by 2050. It also plans to reduce its emissions from cement products by 20%. It aims to do this via a variety of means including energy-saving measures, promoting co-processing, lowering the clinker factor of its cement and CO2 capture technology. The cement producer started a pilot of a chemical absorption method on kiln exhaust gases at its Fujiwara plant in early 2019.
US: Researchers from CalPortland have published a peer-reviewed study looking at the absorption or carbonation of CO2 by buildings, pavements and structures made from concrete. The authors argue that this negative effect on CO2 emissions is not being considered in global, national and regional greenhouse gas accounting methods. The paper calls for focused studies on CO2 uptake in concrete within the context of its overall Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
“It is time to further examine the value of concrete in the built environment as a significant carbon sink,” said Allen Hamblen, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of CalPortland. “To do so accurately, we must specifically look at the net effects of CO2 sequestration in concrete and evaluate all structures over their lifetime within a circular economy.”
The study looks at previous attempts to quantify the effect of concrete carbonation, notably using work by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (SERI) that examined data from several European countries to develop practical models to gauge the extent of CO2 uptake by concrete globally in the built environment. Different models estimated that 15 - 20% of CO2 emissions from clinker production were reabsorbed over the lifetime of concrete structures.
Huaxin Cement emits 1.4Mt of CO2 equivalent in 2018
27 June 2019China: Huaxin Cement emitted 1.4Mt of CO2 equivalent in 2018. About 60% of this came from process emissions from making clinker and about 30% came from burning fossil fuels. Additional emissions arose from electrical consumption.
The cement producer says that it implemented a variety of emission control and sustainability initiatives in 2018. These included improving its energy saving management, rollout of waste-heat recovery systems and other plant upgrades. It is also promoting so-called ‘green’ products. In January 2019 its Huaxin Fortune brand 42.5R grade Ordinary Portland Cement obtained low carbon product certification from the China Quality Certification Center.
Sephaku Cement to pay up to US$2.8/yr in carbon tax
27 June 2019South Africa: Sephaku Cement estimates it will have to pay up to US$2.8m/yr as part of South Africa’s new carbon tax. The new tax started in June 2019. The subsidiary of Nigeria’s Dangote Cement said that it would apply the tax on its products based on the proportion of clinker per tonne. This would work out at between a 1.5% and 2.5% price increases on lower strength and high strength cement respectively.
In a financial report to 31 March 2019 the cement producer said that its cement sales volumes fell by 6.4% year-on-year due to low cement demand was exacerbated by increases in value added tax (VAT) and fuel prices during the first and last quarter of its financial year. Its sales revenue fell by 3.1% to US$162m and its net profit rose to US$9.08m but only due to a tax credit.
Taiheiyo Cement agrees with Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures recommendations
24 June 2019Japan: Taiheiyo Cement says it agrees with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). It is promoting research and development business strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The cement producer is also intending to publish a long-term plan to reduce its CO2 emissions by 2050.
UltraTech Cement to exceed 25% green energy contribution to total energy consumption by 2021
20 June 2019India: UltraTech Cement aims to increase contribution of so-called ‘green energy’ to 25% of its total power consumption by 2021 from 10% at present. It also intends to raise its contribution of renewable energy to its total power consumption by five times in the next two years to 2021 to over 10%. By building capacity for renewable power the cement producer intends to become one of the largest users of renewable energy in the Indian cement sector.
In addition to renewable energy, the green energy contribution includes energy generated through waste heat recovery systems (WHR). During its 2019 financial year UltraTech commissioned 28MW of WHR systems to take its total generation from WHR to 8% of total power consumption. Further upgrades are expected to be completed in a phased manner by 2021, taking its WHR share to 15% of its total power requirement.
“To bring the cement sector in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, UltraTech Cement’s annual emissions will need to fall by at least 16% by 2030. There are a number of solutions for reducing emissions associated with cement production as identified by the latest Low Carbon Technology Roadmap published by International Energy Agency (IEA) in partnership with Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI). These solutions need to be deployed at scale to meet the decarbonisation challenge,” said K K Maheshwari, the managing director of UltraTech Cement.
UltraTech Cement has set a target to reduce its CO2 emissions by 25% from its 2005 – 2006 level by 2021. The company is also working on CO2 reduction strategies including energy efficiency, alternative fuels, WHR, renewable energy and reducing its clinker ratio.
South Africa introduces carbon tax
04 June 2019South Africa: The government has introduced a carbon tax of around US$8/t for carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) emissions. The carbon tax will initially only apply to scope 1 emitters in the first phase. The first phase will be from 1 June 2019 to 31 December 2022, and the second phase from 2023 to 2030. Large-scale tax-free emission allowances from 60 – 95% will be provided in the first phase. Industries such as cement or iron production will benefit from a basic threshold of 70%.
A review will be held before the second phase starts to measure progress. The treasury reinforced that the introduction of the carbon tax would not raise electricity prices due to tax breaks for renewable energy sources and credits for existing generation capacity.
Nigeria: Dangote Cement has published its first sustainability report following Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. Key data from the report include a CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious material of 687kg CO2/t across all operations. Its total CO2 emissions were 16.4Mt. In 2017 it reported estimated total CO2 emissions of 8.45Mt from its domestic operations. The cement producer had an energy consumption of 52M GJ 2018. It had a 49% production capacity utilisation rate at its Nigerian plants. The group said that it supported 37,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs in Nigeria.
Cement plays the waiting game
29 May 2019There were two main takeaways from the Global Future Cement Conference that took place in Brussels last week. Firstly, there are not any obvious alternatives to using cement and concrete. Secondly, serious at-scale commercial investment on capturing CO2 process emissions from clinker production is still waiting for the right economic conditions.
Graph 1: Embodied energy versus embodied CO2 of building materials. Source: Hammond & Jones, University of Bath, UK.
Although the conference was heavily focused on Europe, the graph above explains why the cement and concrete industries are sitting pretty right now in the face of mounting environmental activism. The sector may be responsible for 5 - 10% of annual CO2 emissions but, put bluntly, there is simply no alternative. As Karen Scrivner from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) explained during her presentation, concrete uses some of the most abundant minerals present on earth, notably silicon and calcium. Alternative chemistries are simply not backed up by available materials. The cement and concrete associations have strongly promoted the unique position by focusing on the whole lifecycle of building materials.
The energy and emissions research needs to be scrutinised much more closely but, if it’s correct, there is no way to maintain modern standards of living without concrete. And, judging from the response by the French public to a badly handled meagre carbon tax on diesel by the so-called Yellow Vest movement, whacking up the price of housing or infrastructure might go down badly, especially in developing countries.
Two immediate ‘outs’ presents themselves. Cement doesn't necessarily have to be made from clinker as Robert McCaffrey’s presentation reinforced (also given at the IEEE/IAS-PCA Cement Conference this year). Future research may find alternatives to clinker and wipe out the cement business in the process. Also, the graph above is based on per kilogramme amounts of each building material. It doesn’t indicate how much of each material is required to build things. Even if clinker-based building materials are irreplaceable, there is no reason why their market share might not decrease. This could have large consequences in a market already burdened by over-capacity.
Graph 2: Comparison of cost of carbon capture technology for the cement industry. Source: European Cement Research Academy (ECRA).
Solid research into carbon capture technology is proceeding apace, from the LEILAC project at HeidelbergCement’s Lixhe plant, to oxyfuel kiln development and other methods, as Jan Theulen from HeidelbergCement demonstrated in his presentation. Off-the-shelf technologies from other industries also exist ready to be used. Today, for example, Inventys has announced plans to test its own CO2 capture technology with Lafarge Canada. Yet there are no commercial-scale installations in Europe. most likely due to the price burden it would place on the end product.
With the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) entering its fourth phase and the carbon price holding above Euro20/t the question is: when will the serious investment begin in Europe? Notably, more than a few major European cement equipment manufacturers attended the Global Future Cement Conference, yet none are offering mature products to capture CO2 emissions. Most or all have projects up their sleeves ready to be developed and sold but orders aren’t being received. The carbon price in Europe is the problem here. If it's too low then nothing happens outside of government subsidy. Too high and cement plants start being shut down because they become too expensive to run. To be fair to the cement sector other carbon emission mitigation strategies are being employed from alternative fuels usage to lowering the clinker factor and other methods but the endgame is based on reducing process emissions.
The challenge for the cement and concrete industry is to show legislators that their materials are essential and irreplaceable. They are doing this. The legislators then need to concoct ways of encouraging mass scale rollout of carbon emissions abatement technology without destroying the cement industry. This is far from certain right now. If nothing else it’s in governments’ interest to get this right because, as the Yellow Vest protests show, if they get it wrong their voters become angry. All of this is happening against the clock as CCU/S is required to get the cement industry past the 2050 2°C maximum warming target set by the Paris Agreement. In the meantime the cement industry is essentially in a holding position on the more far-reaching aspects of CO2 emissions mitigation. Its products are likely irreplaceable but its carbon capture technology has to be encouraged by governments. This means that, for most cement producers, waiting to see what happens next is the way forward.
The 3rd Future Cement Conference and Exhibition is scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria in 2021
Lafarge Canada to test carbon capture plans with Inventys and Total at Richmond cement plant
29 May 2019Canada: Lafarge Canada plans to develop and demonstrate a full-cycle solution to capture and reuse CO2 from a cement plant. Project CO2MENT will demonstrate and evaluate Inventys' CO2 capture system and a selection of CO2 utilisation technologies at Lafarge's Richmond cement plant in British Colombia over the next four years. This project is being led by Inventys in partnership with Lafarge Canada and Total. It also received financial support from CCP (CO2 Capture Project), the Province of British Colombia and Canada's federal government through the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP).
"At Inventys, we see a real opportunity to build a CO2 marketplace where tonnes of CO2 are traded between emitters and users," said Inventys president and chief executive officer (CEO) Claude Letourneau.
Phase I of Project CO2MENT, the Contaminant Program, will attempt to reduce harmful organic and inorganic substances, such as sulphur dioxide, dust and soot, as well as nitrogen oxides, from cement flue gas. Phase II, the CO2 Capture Program, will separate the CO2 from flue gas using a customised-for-cement version of Inventys' carbon capture technology at pilot scale. Phase III, the CO2 Reuse Program, will prepare post-combustion CO2 for reuse and support the economical assessment and demonstration of CO2 conversion technologies onsite, such as CO2-injected concrete and fly ash.
Funding for the first two phases is complete and development of Phase I is underway. Phase I will begin operation in 2019 followed by Phase II and III in 2020.