Displaying items by tag: CO2
Ecocem releases carbon roadmap
09 October 2013Ireland: Ecocem has accused the Irish cement industry of failing to align its CO2 emissions with the European Union carbon 2050 roadmap. The producer of GGBS (Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag) cement made the comments in a document detailing its response to the Irish government's Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development Bill 2013. The EU carbon roadmap suggests cutting emissions in Europe by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.
In its document Ecocem also attacked the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), saying that it provided strong incentives against promoting decarbonisation of the cement sector. It added that a transition to a low-carbon cement and concrete industry could create up to 1200 new jobs within five years.
Ecocem says its product has a carbon footprint of 19kg of CO2 per tonne of cement, compared with about 750 kg of CO2 per tonne it says is produced by the traditional Irish cement sector.
The 2% and the IPCC
02 October 2013Cement production took an unnecessarily harsh rap from the latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The cause? Misleading wording.
In its summary for policymakers from Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (WGI AR5), every time CO2 emissions were mentioned, cement was also mentioned. Typically this was along the lines of: "annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production". Energy supply or transport industries were not mentioned. Only cement was. Subsequently in some general press reports covering the IPCC report, cement was duly parroted as the major industrial source of CO2 emissions.
Digging into the data revealed that this particular wording derived from one of the data sources that the IPCC used that examined global CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel burning, cement manufacture and gas flaring from 1751 - 2008 from the US Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. Here cement production was grouped along with different type of fossil fuels, such as gas, liquids and solids, and gas flaring. Deeper into the IPCC draft report it was revealed (using this research) that total cumulative emissions between 1750 and 2011 amounted to 365 ± 30 PgC (1 PgC = 1015 grams of carbon), of which only 8 PgC (2%) came from the production of cement.
Undoubtedly the cement industry's carbon emissions are huge but ambiguous wording in a release targeted for policymakers is not helpful.
Thankfully at about the same time as the IPCC made headlines last week European Cement Association, Cembureau, followed the UK's Mineral Products Association (MPA) in releasing its own lobbying document for the industry. This consisted of five parallel routes to lowering emissions related to cement production. Unfortunately Cembureau's press release didn't receive the global media coverage that the IPCC did.
The bottom line is this: cement is essential for modern industrial societies.
With or without climate change caused by human behaviour, we will all need somewhere to live and work. For the moment such structures will be built from cement and concrete. Organisations like Cembureau offer a way forward. Global policymakers should pay attention.
European cement industry presents five routes to a low carbon future
27 September 2013Belgium: CEMBUREAU, the European Cement Association, has published a roadmap, the role of cement in the 2050 low carbon economy, detailing how the cement industry could achieve lower carbon emissions.
The project presents five parallel routes that can each contribute to lowering emissions related to cement production, as well as concrete production. These include methods such as resource efficiency, energy efficiency and carbon sequestration and reuse. These methods have been quantified in the roadmap because they are under the cement sector's control. The other two routes, product efficiency and downstream, look at how cement and concrete can contribute to a low carbon society.
"The cement roadmap is a view into the future. It shows us what is possible and where we find limitations. It is a good basis for future work, a good starting point. We need cooperation, not confrontation, but we also need to push each other to find new ideas, new pathways, towards a more sustainable future," said MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz at the launch event on 25 September 2013.
Decoupling carbon emissions from cement production
17 July 2013New Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) data for 2011 shows that the global cement industry has reduced its specific net CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious product by 17% since 1990. This represents a serious amount of carbon prevented from entering the atmosphere. Using United States Geological Survey (USGS) world production data, if cement producers in 2011 were still emitting C02 at 1990 levels 456Bt of additional CO2 would have been released between 1990 and 2011.
Unfortunately there are a couple of problems.
Firstly, submitting data for the project is voluntary. As the CSI points out in its press release the data set comprises 55% of cement production outside of China. A rough calculation based on global cement production capacity suggests that this could only account for about one third of cement made. So how much carbon does the other two-thirds of cement made emit?
Secondly, although CO2 emissions per tonne of cement have gone down by a sixth since 1990, global cement production more than tripled (!) in the same time period. USGS data placed world production at 1.40Bt in 1990. It estimated 3.59Bt in 2011. In terms of net CO2 released into the atmosphere, in 1990 this was 1058Bt. In 2011 it was 2260Bt.
The big cement producers compare as follows to the CSI data, which reports emissions of 629kg/t. Lafarge reported 592kg/t cementitious in 2011 and 585kg/t in 2012. Holcim reported 584kg/t in 2011 and 579kg/t in 2012. HeidelbergCement reported 621kg/t in 2011. Cemex reported 612kg/t in 2011 and 2012. No data on specific net CO2 emissions were available for the major Chinese cement producers.
The CSI data shows that the cement industry has made an effort to reduce CO2 emissions since 1990. Yet this has been counteracted by a rise in cement production. To compensate for the rise in production between 1990 and 2011 the specific net CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious product would have had to have fallen to below 300kg/t, a drop of 60%.
Environmentally sensitive readers shouldn't despair yet though as the CSI has demonstrated that emissions and production are gradually separating in the cement industry. From 2010 to 2011 specific net CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious product fell from 638kg/t to 629kg/t. If this trend continues - and if it is representative for the cement producers the CSI doesn't cover – then the industry may be getting a handle on its emissions. We may be about to hit peak emissions for the cement industry sooner rather than later.
Switzerland: Global cement producers have reduced CO2 emissions by 17% per tonne of cementitious product since 1990. Participating cement producers reduced their specific net CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious product to 629kg/t in 2011 from 756kg/t in 2011. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)'s Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) has published the data in its 'Getting the Numbers Right' (GNR) database update for 2011.
"GNR has become established as a valuable source of independently-verified emissions data, which is now used globally by the cement industry to improve energy efficiency and further reduce emissions," said Philippe Fonta, WBCSD managing director. The WBCSD added that the GNR figures provide evidence of the gradual decoupling of emissions and cement output, which demonstrates the significant progress made by the cement industry.
According to the data, the four main drivers for the reduction in emissions have been investment in more efficient kiln technology, increasing use of alternative fuels such as biomass, reduction in clinker content and an 8% decrease in electricity use per tonne of cement since 1990.
The 2011 GNR data comprised 55% of cement production outside of China, with 96% coverage in Europe spanning 967 individual facilities. The 2011 report included data from Thailand, Morocco, Philippines and Egypt for the first time.
US: Texas-based cement producer Capitol Aggregates Cement is preparing to retrofit a carbon capture plant to its cement plant. The project, in conjunction with Skyonic Corporation, is expected to profitably removal more than 300,000t of CO2 from the plant's emissions.
"The Capitol SkyMine plant will mark the first time that carbon-negative chemistry has reached the commercial stage," said Joe Jones, founder and CEO of Skyonic. Skyonic Corporation has secured US$128m funding to support the project from new investors Cenovus Energy, BlueCap Partners, Toyo-Thai Corporation and Energy Technology Ventures. The funds will also help support Skyonic's other global projects, research and development and operations expenses. In addition the US Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory will provide US$28m towards the project.
The retrofit plant is expected to directly capture 83,000t of CO2 from the Capitol Aggregates' emissions. In addition by using this captured CO2 to make products that would otherwise generate additional CO2 , the plant will offset an additional 220,000t/yr, once fully operational in 2014. Skyonic is also expected to create more than 200 jobs through the plant's construction and ongoing operations.
Skyonic's electrolytic SkyMine(R) technology will selectively capture CO2, acid gases and heavy metals from the flue gas and mineralise the captured pollutants into safe, stable, solid products. Skyonic state that their carbon capture process does so at a lower cost than its competitors. The plant is expected to turn a profit from the sale of these products within three years.
Egypt: The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company has signed a contract with Italgen, a subsidiary of global cement producer Italcementi Group, to produce electricity from wind energy. The contract authorises Italgen, which has been studying the possibility of incorporating wind technology since 2008, to become the first private investor to enter the Egyptian National Grid and construct a wind energy park in the area of Gulf El-Zeit, according to a statement.
Electrical energy generated from the wind park will be transmitted to plants run by Suez Cement, another Italcementi subsidiary, and will help in the reduction of CO2 emissions. The first phase in the project will represent an investment of around Euro120-130m. It will equate an installed capacity of 120MW and is expected to cover around 40% of Suez Cement's power needs. After the completion of the second phase, electrical energy is estimated to reach a capacity of 400MW.
Norway: Oil and gas industry engineering firm Aker Solutions has won a contract to test and study the capture of CO2 from flue gas emitted at Norcem's cement plant in Brevik, Norway. The award from the HeidelbergCement subsidiary, in cooperation with the European Cement Research Academy (ECRA) marks the first time technology to capture CO2 will be used at a cement production plant.
Aker Solutions will perform long-term testing on the actual flue gas to select optimum chemical solvent for high content CO2 flue gas at the plant. Tests will be performed with Aker Solutions' in-house developed Mobile Test Unit (MTU). The MTU is a CO2 capture plant that includes all processes and functions found in a large scale commercial plant.
ECRA members chose Norcem Brevik as the site for ECRA operational CO2-capture test project. The project is supported and partly financed by the CLIMIT programme, which is managed by Gassnova in cooperation with the Research Council of Norway.
Aker Solutions has developed CO2-technology solutions since the early 1990s. A separate company, Aker Clean Carbon, was established in 2007 as a company under Aker ASA to commercialise carbon capture technology. Aker Solutions took full ownership of Aker Clean Carbon in 2012 and carbon capture and storage activities are an integrated part of Aker Solutions.
The Mineral Products Association (MPA), which looks after the interests of the cement industry (and other allied industries) in the UK, has said that it welcomes a temporary tax-freeze relating to climate change announced in the UK Budget of 20 March 2013. The MPA singled out the decision to freeze the indexation of the Aggregates Levy until April 2014 and the decision to introduce the Climate Change Levy mineralogical and metallurgical exemption for energy-intensive industries such as cement and lime. Both of these moves by UK Chancellor George Osborne have been welcomed because they bring some relief to the UK cement industry and wider construction activities. MPA members make money from such activites and any potential cost that can be eliminated or delayed, even for a short time, is welcome amid the current slump that is the UK economy. This is especially true as the UK weathers the one of the longest and most severe winters for 50 years. So far, so much sense.
However, how does this reaction to the Climate Change Levy exemption tie in with the MPA's February 2013 announcement that it thinks that the UK cement industry's total CO2 emissions should be reduced by 81% by 2050? What should UK cement producers make of this? The MPA's cement industry CO2 reduction targets are certainly bold. On the face of it, they look achievable given the progress that has been made to date by the UK cement industry, although much is left to the imagination as to which areas could and should contribute most to the reduction target. The 81% reduction target includes the successful future commercial development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. It also relies on an increased proportion of renewable sources for the electricity that the cement industry will receive in 2050, something else that is totally out of the industry's control.
However, much hard work has already been done by cement companies in the UK. As in other EU countries and developed nations, total dust and toxic emissions have fallen dramatically in the UK cement industry since 1990. The country's alternative fuel substitution rate has now hit ~40%. Yet, as the MPA highlights in its document detailing the targets for 2050, much of the low-hanging fruit has already been taken. Further reduction in overall CO2 emissions will be significantly affected by both regulations and cement company progress. Cement companies can increase their consumption of 'wastes' and fit waste-heat recovery systems. Through such measures they can achieve further reductions in emissions. Some kilns have hit alternative fuel substitution rates of 100% for limited periods and examples from the near continent show that 80% alternative fuels can be the norm. However, unlike these 'bottom-up' approaches, which can be introduced at a plant in a period of months, regulations take years to evolve and come into force, often involving slow and lengthly debate by politicians, associations and consumers.
To discourage the government from seeking to impose stricter environmental regulations for the cement industry by welcoming the exemption, is the MPA undercutting its own calls to reduce CO2 emissions in the UK cement industry? From a cement producer's perspective, it looks like the MPA could hold two contradictory opinions on the same subject: that you can welcome reductions in climate regulation while also calling for stricter emissions regulations. This phenomenon was famously termed 'double think' by George Orwell in his classic novel '1984,' but the MPA's situation is far more subtle. Often the regulators and those being regulated can agree on the same target but not on how that target should be reached. The next 37 years will show whether or not this target is even possible.
UK: The Minerals Products Association (MPA) has welcomed measures in the UK government's 2013 budget that will help boost the outlook for the cement industry and the wider mineral products and construction sectors. The MPA singled out the decision to freeze the indexation of the Aggregates Levy until April 2014 and the decision to introduce the Climate Change Levy mineralogical and metallurgical exemption for energy intensive industries such as cement and lime.
"The government is clearly listening and understands that investing in infrastructure and construction is key to securing growth. The issue remains of ensuring that cash flows into action on the ground to help improve confidence and induce private sector investment, which is needed to accelerate growth in demand," said Nigel Jackson, chief executive of the MPA.