Displaying items by tag: Investment

Canada/UK: Carbon Upcycling has raised US$26m in a Series A funding round. The clean tech company says that the funding will support its construction of planned carbon capture systems at CRH's Mississauga cement plant in Canada and Cemex UK's Rugby cement plant in the UK. Carbon Upcycling’s technology injects captured CO₂ into industrial byproducts and minerals to produce supplementary cementitious materials. BDC Capital and Climate Investment led the funding round, with strategic investments from Cemex Ventures, CRH and Oxy Low Carbon Ventures.

Carbon Upcycling chief executive officer Apoorv Sinha said "Closing this round is a major milestone on the road to becoming the most impactful carbon tech company of this decade.” He continued “Over the next year, our mission is to demonstrate our technology's versatility, scalability and operational elegance. Significant, cost-effective decarbonisation potential in the cement industry is possible without a green premium.”

Mexico-based Cemex first invested in Carbon Upcycling via its venture capital unit Cemex Ventures in February 2022. Its said “Cemex is committed to supporting decarbonisation for the built environment, and our follow-on investment in Carbon Upcycling demonstrates such ambition. Carbon Upcycling provides a scalable solution that effectively reduces the carbon footprint of cement. Increasing the supply and use of cementitious materials aligns with Cemex’s goals of reducing CO₂ emissions and becoming fully net-zero by 2050”

The collaboration between Carbon Upcycling and Cemex dates to early 2020, and work towards a commercial-scale plant at the Rugby cement plant commenced in June 2022. The project will target a capture capacity of 1600t/yr, and has secured US$2.96m in government funding from UK Research and Innovation. Cemex says that it will subsequently roll out further CO₂ mitigation projects in partnership with Carbon Upcycling at cement plants across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Mexico and the US.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) says that it expects to invest US$1.17 - 1.47bn in capital expenditure across its operations throughout 2023, Reuters has reported. SCG's activities span cement and other building materials, packaging, chemicals and batteries.

UK: Private equity firm BGF has invested US$4.39m in carbon capture specialist Nuada. Nuada, formerly called MOF Technologies, is currently supplying its technology for a project at Buzzi’s Monselice cement plant in Italy. The system applies metal-organic framework (MOF) filters and vacuum swing absorption. Other partners on the project include Cementir Holding and Heidelberg Materials.

Nuada’s co-chief executive officer Conor Hamill said “There is no net zero without carbon capture. However, incumbent solutions are notoriously costly and energy intensive. Investment from BGF will further catalyse the scale-up and deployment of our technology, ensuring we are primed to efficiently decarbonise heavy industries.”

BGF’s investment is an extension to Nuada’s US$5.81m Series A funding round, which was co-led by the Clean Growth Fund and Barclays’ Sustainable Impact Capital portfolio.

Peru: Grupo Gloria subsidiary Cemento Yura plans to transition its Yura cement plant from using coal to alternative fuels (AF) in its cement production. Additionally, the producer will build a 30MW solar power plant at the site. The Gestión newspaper has reported the total value of the upgrades as US$50m. Both projects are scheduled for commissioning in mid-2025.

In the 2023 financial year, which ended on 30 June 2023, Peruvian cement despatches fell by 8% to 12.6Mt.

Spain: Construction company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) plans to turn the site of Cementos Portland Valderrivas' Vallcarca cement plant and workers' colony into a new technology ‘city.’ Local press has reported that FCC's owners have committed an initial investment of US$300m towards the project. Possible activities in the technological city include film sets, production companies, an auditorium, training and research spaces and housing, catering and leisure facilities for technology developers.

Greece/US: Titan Cement Group has made new venture capital investments in two US-based disruptive technology suppliers. The cement producer enlarged its investment in energy storage specialist Rondo Energy, which has developed the Heat Battery. The technology enables cement plants and other industrial operations to access a constant supply of electricity using captive renewable energy sources. It also invested in venture capital firm Zacua Ventures, which handles a portfolio of companies involved in developing optimisation, automation and Construction 4.0 technology, including products relevant to the cement industry.

Titan Group Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer Leonidas Canellopoulos said “We are committed to embracing innovation and fresh perspectives. By engaging with advanced construction and green technology startups through direct and indirect investments, as well as collaborations, we intend to forge more partnerships in the sector.”

Ivory Coast: LafargeHolcim Côte d'Ivoire has invested a total US$677,000 in sustainability-enhancing upgrades to its 2Mt/yr Abidjan grinding plant since 2020. Agence Ivoirienne de Presse has reported that the producer has now implemented 80% of recommendations made by sustainability auditor Centre Ivoirien Antipollution (CIAPOL). Recommendations included the installation of dust capture systems.

General manager Rachis Yousry said "In 2022, LafargeHolcim received zero complaints from local residents for environmental degradation.” He added the producer was on track to realise net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.

Europe: Holcim has secured funding for three separate carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects at its cement plants in Europe. The recipient projects are the Go4Zero project at Holcim Belgium's Obourg cement plant in Belgium, the KOdeCO project at Holcim Croatia's Koromačno cement plant in Croatia and the eM-Rhône project at Lafarge Ciments' Le Teil cement plant in France. The Le Teil plant's system will be used to produce e-methanol, while the investment at the Koromačno plant will be part of a package of upgrades to turn the plant carbon neutral.

Alongside on-going projects in Germany and Poland, this will bring Holcim's total number of EU-funded CCUS projects to five. Holcim is committed to US$2.33bn-worth of investments of its own in over 50 carbon capture projects worldwide before 2030.

Holcim's Europe regional head Miljan Gutovic said “It’s exciting to be at the forefront of decarbonising the building sector in Europe. The support we are receiving from the EU Innovation Fund for five of our CCUS projects is a great testament to the strength of our engineering teams, the maturity of our technologies and our advanced partnerships across the value chain. Our robust pipeline of projects positions us as the partner of choice to scale up carbon capture technologies in Europe.”

Peru: Cementos Inka has announced the successful commissioning of its new 800,000t/yr Pisco grinding plant. The new plant is equipped with Christian Pfeiffer grinding and separation equipment. El Comercio News has reported that the producer invested US$55m in the plant. This exceeded previous budgets by 15 - 22%, due to coronavirus-related costs rises. This latest commissioning triples Cementos Inka's installed capacity to 1.2Mt/yr. General manager Carlos Choy estimated that the producer's market share has risen to 10% from 3.9%.

Choy said that the producer's next project will be the construction of a 1 - 1.5Mt/yr kiln line to produce clinker at the site.

Spain: Cementos El Molino plans to invest Euro3.7m in an upgrade to energy infrastructure at its 450,000t Santa Eulalia grinding plant in Aragon. Alimarket Construction News has reported that the upgrade consists of a 12MW substation and a 2.4MW solar power plant. Euro2m-worth (54%) of investments will go towards construction of the subsystem and Euro1.7m (46%) towards the solar power plant. Cementos El Molino expects to carry out the investments before the end of 2023.