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It’s been a good week for graphene usage in the cement and concrete industries, with a trial set to take place at Breedon Group’s Hope cement plant and the inclusion of four graphene projects in the Global Cement & Concrete Association’s (GCCA) shortlist for its second second Innovandi Open Challenge.

The trial at the Hope cement plant was scheduled to take place on 28 June 2023, alongside First Graphene, Morgan Sindall Construction and the University of Manchester. The plan was to use 1.2t of First Graphene’s PureGraph product by testing different dispersion methods and dosage rates. The graphene was going to be prepared as a grinding aid and then added to cement grinding mill feed. Dispersion into the cement production line was planned to occur over a 24-hour period using traditional grinding aid dosage lines, with minimal operational or mechanical change required to the existing plant.

The cement produced was then going to be validated by Breedon’s quality control team to assess its performance enhancement. Overall the trial was going to produce around 2000t of graphene-enhanced cement during the trial. This cement will then be passed to Morgan Sindall Construction for real-world construction demonstrations. First Graphene reckoned that the trial was going to produce the largest volume of graphene-enhanced cement manufactured to date.

First Graphene and the other partners haven’t released any information yet on how the trial went. However, the results will be used to build on data obtained from smaller scale trials previously conducted at a concrete processing laboratory in the UK.

Elsewhere, the 15 projects shortlisted by the GCCA, as part of the Innovandi Open Challenge, were set to pitch their ideas for access to the scheme. The benefits of inclusion on the scheme include access to industry plants, laboratories, networks and the expertise and infrastructure of the manufacturer members of the association. 70 applications were made for the second Innovandi round. The first round in 2021 was focused on carbon capture and utilisation and two projects eventually made it to the pilot stage. This time the emphasis is on low-carbon concrete.

The graphene-related contenders for Innovandi in the current round include Nano Crete, Nanospan India, SeaMix and Versarien Graphene. All four companies are promoting concrete admixtures that use graphene. Given the brief for this Innovandi round, these projects are focused on concrete production as opposed to the trial at the Hope cement plant, mentioned above, which is testing graphene addition during cement grinding.

Nanospan India, for example, is promoting its Spanocrete product. It says that its admixture acts as a superplasticizer and accelerator, allowing for reduced cement and water consumption, a shorter curing cycle and an increase in compressive strength. US-based SeaMix (part of MEP Group), meanwhile, has developed its own concrete admixture that uses chopped basalt fibres and graphene. It too offers greater compressive strength and reduced cement consumption for the resulting concrete. However, it also allows for the use of any non-potable water source, a compelling selling point for construction companies trying to minimise the use of drinking water.

It is early days yet for the application of graphene in the cement and concrete sectors. Graphene was first produced at the University of Manchester in 2004. Just under 20 years later and various products are emerging with test projects slowly gathering pace and even commercial applications, such as SeaMix and others, building up their portfolios. Various challenges such as reduced workability, the high cost of graphene or even concerns about simply handling graphene get raised in discussions about the wider adoption of graphene-based admixtures but so far these do not seem insurmountable. We await the outcomes of the trial at Hope and the selections of the second round of Innovandi.

For more on Seamix read the interview with Rey Rubio, the Vice President of MEP Consulting Engineers, in the July - August 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine

Australia: Adbri has appointed Jared Gashel as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He succeeds Dianne Mong, who has held the position of Acting CFO since March 2023. Mong will resume her role as the company’s General Manager Finance.

Gashel holds over 20 years of financial experience in multiple industries. Prior to joining Adbri, he was Acting CFO at Boral from 2022 to March 2023. His previous post at Boral was as Executive General Manager Group Finance and Property. Before joining Boral, he held multiple senior finance executive roles in Australia and Switzerland, and spent more than a decade working for KPMG, where he specialised in advisory and capital markets.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has appointed Chinedu Richard as its acting Chief Financial Officer.

Richard has worked for Lafarge Africa for over 10 years in a variety of financial roles. Most recently he held the position of Head of Finance Planning & Analysis. Prior to working for Lafarge Africa he was a Financial Analyst for Dangote Cement. He has also worked for Oando.

Richard is a graduate of pharmacy from the University of Lagos and holds a masters degree in business administration (MBA) from Lagos Business School. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Austria/Germany: Rohrdorfer Group and gas network company Bayernets have published a feasibility study for a proposed CO₂ transport network in Bavaria in Upper Austria. The first stage of the CO₂peline plan will be to create an ‘island’ network between the Rohrdorfer cement plant in Upper Bavaria and the so-called ‘Bavarian chemical triangle.’ An additional connection to the industrial and chemical region of Linz in Austria would add additional CO₂ sources, places of use and temporary storage sites to the grid. Further expansion plans could see the network expanded to cover the whole of Bavaria. A future connection to a Germany-based national network and international routes could further link the network to other locations where CO₂ is both produced and used, as well as creating routes to sequestration sites.

No dates have been released for the proposed CO₂ pipeline network. However, the project notes that Germany is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2045 and Bavaria and Austria by 2040.

Belgium: The European cement association, Cembureau, has asked the Europen Union (EU) to provide a regulatory framework to support the work of the European cement industry in co-processing waste composite materials as alternative raw materials. The materials in question consist of glass, carbon or other fibres and polymer matrices. The association called on the EU to recognise co-processing as ‘recycling’ under the EU Waste Framework Directive, to establish waste composite materials collection schemes and phase out landfilling, and to introduce dedicated waste codes for the materials. Cembureau said that the last of these proposals would help to increase visibility and attract investments.

Cembureau set out its proposals in a joint statement with resins associations Cefic UP/VE and Cefic Epoxy Europe, boating association EBI, composite materials association EuCIA, glass fibre association Glass Fibre Europe and wind energy association WindEurope.

Austria: Rohrdorfer has bought 20 new railcars equipped with ÖBB Rail Cargo’s RockTainer SAND containers. The cars will transport limestone between the producer’s Ebensee quarry and its Gmunden cement plant. Each railcar consists of two RockTainer SAND containers mounted on an InnoWaggon carriage, with a maximum load of 134t. The new cars will increase the volume of despatches from the Ebensee quarry by 28% to 804t of limestone per train from 630t/train, enabling Rohrdorfer to transport 450,000t of limestone per operating season.

Tunisia: Carthage Cement has secured a contract to supply 1Mt of cement to a customer in the US. Emerging Market Watch News has reported that the contract will be effective from September 2023 until March 2025.

Pakistan: Cement producers despatched 44.6Mt of cement during the 2023 financial year, down by 16% year-on-year from 52.9Mt in the previous financial year. Exports dropped by 13% to 4.57Mt from 5.26Mt. The Dawn newspaper has reported that cement plants in Northern Pakistan accounted for 33.9Mt (76%) of despatches, while those in Southern Pakistan accounted for 10.7Mt (24%).

The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association urged the government to support export-orientated industries. It said “Boosting exports will play a pivotal role in the revival of our economy. Signing of standby agreement with IMF is only an interim solution and we must use our own resources in order to build a stronger Pakistan.”

India: The government of Assam has laid the foundation stone for its upcoming Bogibeel Inland Waterways Transport Terminal, a cargo and passenger port on the River Brahmaputra in Assam. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the state will invest US$5.67m in the port, which is scheduled to open in February 2024. Cement is among the commodities expected to travel through the port.

Assam’s Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, suggested that a new local cement industry might arise to take advantage of the improved transport situation, alongside other industries.

Ethiopia/India: Sinoma International Engineering and its subsidiaries have signed contracts to upgrade cement plants for Ethiopia-based Derba MIDROC Cement and India-based Ambuja Cement.

Sinoma International Engineering has signed a contract worth US$290m with Derba MIDROC Cement to build a 5000t/day clinker production line at the cement producer’s plant at Deba in Oromia. The project includes supplying a full line from raw material crushing to cement packaging. Once payment conditions are confirmed the project should take around 30 months.

Ambuja Cement has signed a contract with Sinoma subsidiary Tianjin Cement Industry Design and Research Institute (Sinoma TCDRI) to supply upgrades to its integrated Bhatapara plant in Chhattisgarh and its Farakka and Sankrail grinding plants in West Bengal. The clinker plant’s production capacity will be expanded to 4Mt/yr and both grinding plants will be increased to 2Mt/yr respectively. The value of the contract is around US$285m. Schedules for the proposed work will be agreed subject to further negotiation.