Displaying items by tag: Netherlands

Europe: The European Parliament (EP) of member states and the Council of the EU have concluded a provisional deal over plans for an EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). Under the plans, importers of a range of emissions-intensive goods, including cement, will have to pay to obtain CBAM certificates for products entering the EU. Goods produced in countries with the same CO₂ emissions reduction measures as the EU will be exempt from requiring a certificate. CNBC News has reported that the mechanism will enter force with a transition period beginning in October 2023. This is subject to ratification by the EP and member states independently.

EP member for the Netherlands Mohammed Chahim said “CBAM will be a crucial pillar of European climate policies. It is one of the only mechanisms we have to incentivise our trading partners to decarbonise their manufacturing industry.”

Europe: The Carbon Negative Biofuels from Organic Waste (Carbiow) project has received EU funding under the Horizon Europe initiative. Carbiow seeks to develop a dense, dry homogenous marine and aviation biofuel by carbonising gasification ash with oxygen and captured CO₂ from cement plants. 12 consortium members from the Benelux, Germany, Nordic countries, Slovenia and Spain are participating in the project.

Belgium: Switzerland-based Holcim has agreed to acquire façade and external insulation systems producer Cantillana. Cantillana employs 200 people across nine plants in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Its forecast full-year sales are Euro80m in 2022. Holcim says that the move is in line with its Strategy 2025 - Accelerating Green Growth target of expanding its solutions and products unit to 30% of group sales.

UK: The World Economic Forum and the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA), in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), have released a Mission Possible Partnership Report which identifies the nations that are prioritising green public procurement. These are the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, the UK, and select US states. The report titled ‘Low-Carbon Concrete and Construction - A Review of Green Public Procurement Programmes’ identifies a framework for how these six countries are demonstrating leadership in green public procurement of concrete and construction.

The first component of the framework is the foundation, which includes establishing standards for reporting emissions, databases and tools for tracking emissions and establishes baselines. The second part of the framework, procurement polices, builds upon and reinforces the foundation by setting policies that require environmental disclosures, mandate carbon limits, and incentivise low-carbon design, and use of low-carbon materials.

Approximately 7% of global carbon emissions come from cement, and about half of the cement used globally is procured by the public sector. Governments also spend US$11tn/yr on procurement, about 12% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and regulate the construction industry via building codes. Therefore, governments play a critical role in driving demand to decarbonise the concrete and construction sector to achieve net zero goals.

Matt Rogers, the chief executive officer of the Mission Possible Project said “The demand signals in the market for green industrial products are among the most important opportunities to accelerate the path to net zero across industrial sectors. For material sectors like cement and concrete, government procurement practices will play an especially important role. This report summarises the current best practices in government procurement for green cement across multiple markets. Insights like these provide the government procurement professionals practical tools and technical insights that they can use today to create demand-pull for the most innovative low carbon cement and concrete offerings in the market.”

Coolbrook has been in the news recently with collaboration deals struck with Cemex and UltraTech Cement. First the Finland-based company officially launched its Roto Dynamic Heater (RDH) technology with a memorandum of understanding signed with Cemex in May 2022. Then, this week, it signed a similar agreement with UltraTech Cement.

The specifics of either agreement are unknown but the target is clearly to build an industrial pilot of an electric kiln – or something like it - at a cement plant. Coolbrook says it has run a pilot of its RDH technology in Finland. Further tests are now scheduled to continue for two years starting from September 2022 at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus at Geleen in the Netherlands. Commercial scale demonstrations are scheduled from 2022 with the hope of commercial use from 2024. Links with Cemex and UltraTech Cement seem to suggest progress. At the same time Coolbrook will be testing its RotoDynamic Reactor (RDR) technology, which promises to electrify the steam cracking process used in plastic manufacturing.

Publically available details on the RDH technology are light. In its promotional material Coolbrook says that it can achieve process temperatures of up to around 1700°C. This is crucial to achieve full clinker formation in a cement kiln. Reaching this temperature with non-combustion style kilns, such as solar reactors, has previously been a problem. Notably, Synhelion and Cemex said in February 2022 that they had managed to produce clinker using concentrated solar radiation. Retrofit possibilities and compact equipment size are also mentioned in the promotional material for the RDH. The former is an obvious attraction but size of equipment footprint is increasingly emerging as a potential issue for cement plants looking to reduce their CO₂ emissions. Rick Bohan from the Portland Cement Association (PCA) presented a summary of the potential and problems of emerging carbon capture and utilisation/storage (CCUS) technologies for cement plants in the US at the Virtual Global CemCCUS Seminar that took place on 14 June 2022. He noted that installing CCUS equipment makes cement plants start to look different (more like petrochemical plants in the view of Global Cement Weekly) and that they may require more space to install it all.

Coolbrook hasn’t been the only organisation looking at kiln electrification. The installation with the most available information on kiln electrification has been the Decarbonate project, led by the VTT, formerly known as the Technical Research Centre of Finland. The project has built a pilot rotary kiln with a length of 8m inside a shipping container. It has a production capacity of around 25kg/hr. The system reportedly uses fixed radiant heating coils around the kiln, surrounded by insulation materials. Early results presented to the 1st Virtual Global CemPower Seminar in late 2021 were that the kiln started up, sufficient calcination was occurring and the system was operated continuously for three days at a temperature of 1000°C with no problems reported. Further research was scheduled to carry on into 2022 with longer trials planned for three different materials.

HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary in Sweden, Cementa, completed a feasibility study on implementing electrified cement production at its Slite plant in 2019. It then said that it was conducting further study with electricity producer Vattenfall as part of CemZero project. This consists of three projects running to 2025. Namely: heat transfer with plasma in rotary kilns; direct separation of carbon dioxide from calcination of carbonate-based raw materials in the production of cement clinker and burnt lime; and carbon dioxide-free products with electrified production - reactivity of cement clinker with secondary additives. HeidelbergCement has since announced plans to build a full scale 1.8Mt/yr carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant at the Slite cement plant by 2030.

How this would fit with any kiln electrification plans is unknown. However, one attraction of moving to an electrical kiln, for all of the projects above, is to cut out the 40 – 50% of a cement plant’s CO₂ emissions that arise from the fuel that is burnt. Taking a kiln electric also makes CO₂ capture easier. Much of the remainder of the CO₂ released comes from the decomposition of limestone during calcination when clinker is created. Substitute out fossil or alternative fuels and the flue gas becomes much purer CO₂.

It is early days for cement kiln electrification but progress is happening both commercially and scientifically. The next step to watch out for will be the first pilot installation at a cement plant. One point to finish with is a comment that Rick Bohan made at the IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference that took place in May 2022: carbon capture is expected to double a cement plant’s energy consumption. Kiln electrification is one potential route for cement production to reach net zero. CCUS is another. If one or both occur then a low carbon future could be a high energy one also.

Watch out for Global Cement’s forthcoming interview with Coolbrook in the September 2022 issue of Global Cement Magazine

For more on CCUS, download the proceedings pack for the Virtual Global CemCCUS Seminar 2022

For more on Synhelion and Cemex read the interview in the December 2020 issue of Global Cement Magazine interview

Mexico: Cemex and Coolbrook have signed a memorandum of understanding to test technology to electrify the cement kiln heating process. Coolbrook says that its Roto Dynamic Heater (RDH) technology can heat a cement kiln to 1700°C using electrical power. If generated from renewable sources this could potentially remove around 45% of the carbon emissions in cement production that normally arise from the use of fossil fuels. The companies expect the technology to be ready for commercial use at an industrial scale in 2024. They will jointly evaluate the best production site to test and develop this technology.

Ilpo Kuokkanen, the executive chair of Coolbrook, said "Coolbrook has set a target to build a comprehensive ecosystem around its revolutionary technology and to test its use in as many industrial processes as fast as possible. Together with Cemex, we can bring the technology to cement production and achieve significant emission reductions in one of the most energy and CO₂-intensive industrial processes.”

Finland-based Coolbrook is a technology and engineering company that is developing processes to replace the burning of fossil fuels in major industrial sectors. Its RDH has potential applications in cement, steel and chemical production process. Its Roto Dynamic Reactor (RDR) is intended to eliminate CO₂ emissions from the steam cracking process used in the production of plastic.

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

Benelux: Belgium-based building supplies chain EcoBati has signed a distribution agreement with France-based Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies. The producer will supply its H-Iona clinker-free cement for EcoBati to sell online and in its shops in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies owners Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann said "Signing a distribution agreement with an international specialist in ecological materials shows the competitive edge and relevance of our H-Iona cement within the context of the fight against global warming. We are therefore delighted with the signing of this partnership that allows us to benefit from the EcoBati network’s strategic retail outlets and provide a response to the exponential demand for sustainable cement. We intend to sign more such partnerships in the future in order to spread our responsible vision of the construction sector and contribute to the environmental transition."

Benelux: Ireland-based Ecocem has appointed Paul Roos as Ecocem Benelux Managing Director and Joris Schoon as Technical Developer.

Prior to this appointment, Roos was the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Commercial Director at Huntsman Corporation. At Ecocem, he will be responsible for managing Ecocem Benelux.

Schoon holds a PhD in civil engineering, specialising in concrete and environment. He holds over 20 years of industry experience. He will be based in Belgium for this role.

Cyprus: Eureka Shipping has ordered two cement carriers from Netherlands-based shipbuilder Royal Bodewes. This latest order represents the fourth and fifth ships in a series that Eureka Shipping, a joint venture between SMT Cement Ships and the CSL Group, has requested from the shipbuilder, according to Maritime Reporter & Engineering News. The new ships follow the Aalborg White, Kongsdal and Norden that were built in 2019. Each vessel has a capacity of 4252dwt. Eureka Shipping operates a fleet of 13 cement carriers with a range of 3000 – 23,000dwt.