Displaying items by tag: Norcem

Sweden: Cementa has completed its feasibility study for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system at Slite cement plant in Gotland. The producer says that it will now proceed to the next stage of the project, with the aim of producing climate positive cement from 2030. Sister company Norcem is currently building a 400,000t/yr CCS system at its Brevik cement plant in Norway. Cementa says that its new system will have four times the capacity of that at the Brevik plant, and reduce Sweden's total CO₂ emissions by 3%. One or more of 'several storage solutions' currently under development in the North Sea will serve to store the plant's captured CO₂ emissions.

General manager Giv Brantenberg said "With the knowledge we have built up through our pioneering project at Norcem in Brevik, we now have a good picture of how to move forward in Sweden. The Nordic countries have what it takes to lead the climate transition in the construction sector."

Norway: Germany-based MAN Energy is supplying a compressor system for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) unit being built at Norcem’s Brevik cement plant. The scope of supply includes an RG 63-7 type electrically-powered compressor train. The steam generators cool the CO₂ mixture between the compressor stages and generate steam that is in turn used for capture. The project will be the first to use the ‘Carbon Capture Heat Recovery’ technology (CCWHR) developed by MAN and Aker Carbon Capture. This new process allows the heat emerging from the compressor system to be recovered and used as steam to meet approximately one third of the total heat demand from the Aker Carbon Capture plant. Consequently, MAN says that the system solution demands less energy compared with conventional carbon-capture technologies.

Alexander Sobolyev, Head of Standardisation & Solutions at MAN Energy Solutions, said: "As part of the Norcem project, the digital-twin-based engineering approach of MAN Energy Solutions has led to concrete optimisations. The dynamic process simulation showed that originally planned system components, including heating, valves and additional pipes for safe plant operation, were not required. The time taken for a cold start of the plant can thus be reduced from around 12 hours to 20 minutes – an important characteristic as quick-start capability is always a central criterion for renewable energies."

It’s been a good week for carbon capture in cement production with new projects announced in France and Poland.

The first one is a carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) collaboration between Vicat and Hynamics, a subsidiary of energy-provider Groupe EDF. The Hynovi project will see an integrated unit for capturing CO₂ and producing methanol installed at Vicat’s Montalieu-Vercieu cement plant in 2025. It aims to capture 40% of the CO₂ from the kiln exhaust stack at the plant by using an oxy-fuel method and installing a 330MW electrolyser to split water into oxygen and hydrogen for different parts of the process. The CO₂ will then be combined with hydrogen to produce methanol with potential markets in transport, chemicals and construction. The setup is planning to manufacture over 0.2Mt/yr of methanol or about a quarter of France’s national requirement. The project was put forward under a call for proposals by the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) program. Pre-notification of its participation in the program has been received from the French government and it is currently being evaluated by the European Commission. Vicat’s decision to choose its Montalieu-Vercieu plant for this project is also interesting since it started using a CO₂ntainer system supplied by UK-based Carbon8 Systems there on an industrial scale in November 2020. This system uses captured CO₂ from the plant’s flue gas emissions to carbonate cement-plant dust and produce aggregate.

The second new project is a pilot carbon capture and storage (CCS) pilot by HeidelbergCement at its Górażdże cement plant in Poland. This project is part of the wider Project ACCSESS, a consortium led by Sintef Energi in Norway that aims to cut carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) costs and to link CO₂-emitters from mainland Europe to storage fields in the North Sea. The cement plant part in Poland will test an enzyme-based capture method using waste heat at the plant. Another part of the project will look at how the captured CO₂ can then be transported to the Northern Lights storage facility in Norway including the regulatory aspects of cross-border CO₂ transport. ACCSESS started in May 2021 and is scheduled to end in April 2025. It has a budget of around Euro18m with Euro15m contributed by the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 fund.

HeidelbergCement also says that the second stage of its LEILAC (Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement) project at the Hannover cement plant is part of ACCSESS, with both testing of the larger-scale Calix technology to capture CO₂ and the connected transport logistics and bureaucracy to actually get it to below the North Sea. That last point about Calix is timely given that US-based Carbon Direct purchased a 7% stake in Calix in mid-September 2021 for around US$18m. Whilst on the topic of carbon capture and HeidelbergCement don’t forget that the group’s first full-scale carbon capture unit at Norcem’s Brevik cement plant, using Aker Solution’s amine solvent capture technology, is scheduled for commissioning in September 2024. Another carbon capture unit is planned for Cementa’s Slite plant in 2030 but the proposed capture method has not been announced.

Other recent developments in carbon capture at cement plants include Aalborg Portland Cement’s plan to capture and store CO₂ as part of the Project Greensand consortium. The overall plan here is to explore the technical and commercial feasibility of sequestering CO₂ in depleted oil and gas reservoirs in the Danish North Sea, starting with the Nini West Field. The project is still securing funding though, with an Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program application to the Danish government pending. However, the Danish Parliament decided in December 2021 to set aside a special funding pool to support a CO₂ storage pilot project so this initiative seems to be making progress. If the application is successful, the consortium wants to start work by the end 2021 and then proceed with an offshore injection pilot from late 2022. How and when Aalborg Portland Cement fits in is mostly unknown but a 0.45Mt/yr capture unit at its Rørdal cement plant is tentatively planned for 2027. There’s also no information on the capture method although Aker Carbon Capture is also part of the Project Greensand consortium. Finally, also in September 2021, Chart Industries subsidiary Sustainable Energy Solutions announced that it had selected FLSmidth to help adapt and commercialise its Cryogenic Carbon Capture carbon capture and storage (CCS) system for the global cement industry.

All of this tells the cynics in the audience that a large international climate change meeting is coming up very soon. Most cement companies will likely want some good news to show off when the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) dominates the media agenda in November 2021. Other observations to point out include that none of the projects above are full-scale industrial carbon capture installations, most of them are consortiums of one sort of another and that they are all subsidised or want to be. While hydrogen and CO₂ networks get built this seems inevitable. Yet, we’re not at the stage where cement companies just order carbon capture units from a supplier, like they might a new clinker cooler or silo, without the need for long lists of partners. When this changes then carbon capture looks set to flourish.

On a final note, the UK is currently experiencing a shortage of commercially-used CO₂. The reasons for this have nothing to do with the cement industry. Yet consider the constant doom-and-gloom about record global CO₂ emissions and the sheer amount of effort going into reducing this by the projects mentioned above and others. Life has a sense of humour at times.

For a view on the CO₂ sequestration permitting process in the US look out for the an article by Ralph E Davis Associates, in the forthcoming October 2021 issue of Global Cement Magazine

Norway: Norcem, part of Germany-based HeidelbergCement, has awarded a contract to Denmark-based FLSmidth to provide modifications to allow for downstream CO₂ removal at its integrated Brevik cement plant. The supplier will begin work in the unit’s winter 2022 shutdown. Its upcoming carbon capture and storage (CCS) installation is scheduled for commissioning in September 2024.

Norcem project manager Tor Gautestad said, “We are very excited to have FLSmidth on board and to finally begin the construction of the full-size installation.” He added, “FLSmidth’s extensive process knowledge, and air pollution control in particular, will be critical to the success of the project.”

Norway: The Norwegian Parliament has voted in favour of the government’s proposed grant of funding for industrial scale implementation of full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) at HeidelbergCement subsidiary Norcem’s Brevik cement plant. Work on the project is expected to start immediately, with the goal of starting CO₂ separation from the cement production process by 2024. The end result will be a 50% cut of emissions from the cement produced at the plant. The group said that the installation will contribute to its CO2 emissions reduction target of 30% between 1990 and 2025.

Norcem chair and HeidelbergCement Northern Europe regional general manager Giv Brantenberg said, “HeidelbergCement highly appreciates the successful cooperation with the Norwegian authorities. The Brevik CCS project clearly shows the importance of industry and public sector to find common solutions in the fight against climate change.”

HeidelbergCement chair Dominik von Achten said, “We are delighted about the final approval of the Norwegian parliament for our breakthrough CCS project in Norway.” He added, “To meet national and international climate targets, CO₂ separation is an important cornerstone. Our CCS project in Brevik will pave the way for our industry and other sectors.”

Norway: The Norwegian government has introduced a bill to parliament to allow funding for industrial scale implementation of HeidelbergCement’s carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at its 1.2Mt/yr Brevik plant in Porsgrunn, Telemark. If enacted, the legislation will provide for the majority of required funding.

HeidelbergCement chair Dominik von Achten, “We are very pleased with the proposal of the Norwegian government. This allows us to continue the pioneering work that we started together with our partners in Brevik. The CCS project in Norway is an important cornerstone in our climate strategy. It will enable us to significantly reduce otherwise unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions related to the cement production process.”

HeidelbergCement released their sustainability report for 2019 this week. Every large cement producer publishes one but this one is worth checking out because of the company’s ambition to become CO₂ neutral. Other companies are heading the same way but few of them have such developed and public plans.

Sustainability reports are often a hodgepodge of non-financial reporting bringing together environment, health and safety, community and other topics. Multinational companies cover a wide range of jurisdictions and combining reporting in these kinds of fields can be beneficial. Typically they are members of various bodies like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) that give various levels of conformity between reports. Yet, the wider focus of sustainability reports gives companies a chance to promote what they are doing well, away from balance sheets.

One highlight of HeidelbergCement’s report is its progress towards reducing its specific CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement and its recognition by the Science Based Targets (SBT) initiative towards this goal. So far it has achieved a reduction of around 22% from 1990 levels to 599kg CO₂/t (net) with a target of a 30% reduction or 520kg CO₂/t by 2030. There is a lot more going on in the report but it’s led by the vision, ‘to offer CO₂-neutral concrete by 2050 at the latest.’ It plans to achieve this by increasing the proportion of alternative CO2-neutral raw materials and fuels, developing lower clinker cement types and capturing and utilising CO₂ emissions. A focus on concrete is worth noting given the pivot by building materials manufactures towards concrete in recent years.

Back in the present, HeidelbergCement is roughly in the middle of the pack of major European multinational cement producers with its specific CO₂ emissions for cement in 2019. LafargeHolcim reported 561kg CO₂/t and Cemex reported 622kg CO₂/t. This is a bit of a moving target since corporate acquisitions and divestments can change both the starting point and the apparent current progress. HeidelbergCement’s acquisition of Italcementi in 2017 or CRH’s purchase of Ash Grove did exactly that. The other thing to consider is that these companies manufacture a lot of cement. The actual gross CO₂ emissions from a multinational cement producer are immense. LafargeHolcim, one of the world’s largest multinational producers, emitted 113Mt of CO₂ in 2019 from process and fuel sources whilst making cement. To put that into context, estimates for total global CO₂ emissions range from 33 – 36Gt for 2019. The cement industry’s entire share was estimated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to be 4.1Gt in 2018.

Where this sustainability report starts to become really interesting is where it talks about CO₂ capture and utilisation. Its plans in this department are more mature than many of its competitors with various initiatives at different levels of development, mostly in Europe. Norcem, its Norwegian subsidiary, recently signed an agreement with Aker Solutions to order a CO₂ capture, liquification and intermediate storage plant at its integrated Brevik cement plant. The deal is dependent on government support but it’s a serious proposal. As reported previously from the Innovation in Industrial Carbon Capture Conference 2020, HeidelbergCement is actively preparing to hook up with CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure. The driver is CO₂ pricing from initiatives like the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). With the EU preparing for the next phase of the ETS and talk of the European Green Deal gathering pace, before the coronavirus outbreak at least, CO₂ prices in Europe look set to rise. HeidelbergCement is positioning itself to benefit from being the first major cement producer to head into CO₂ capture and storage/utilisation with a variety of methods intended for different CO₂ prices and regional requirements.

HeidelbergCement doesn’t mention the coronavirus pandemic in its latest sustainability report. The report covers 2019 after all, before all of this happened. These reports do include health and safety information of employees, so this may be something to look out for next year. However, Cemex did mention the coronavirus in relation to its climate action plans this week. Essentially it wants to maintain its plans as a ‘fundamental component’ of its efforts to recover from the health crisis. This chimes with media talk around so-called ‘green-led’ government-backed relief programmes. Governments are the ones who are likely to be handing out the money, probably in the form of infrastructure projects. So it’s the perfect opportunity for them to encourage change from the companies bidding for this funding. Sustainability reports and the information behind them will be a useful tool in accessing this cash.

Norway: Norcem, a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, has signed an agreement with Aker Solutions to order a CO₂ capture, liquification and intermediate storage plant at its integrated Brevik cement plant. The final decision for the project depends on funding from the Norwegian government, which is expected to approve the unit in its national budget for 2021.

The project will use Aker Solutions’ Advanced Carbon Capture (ACC) technology and its S26 amine solvent. Once complete the unit will capture 0.4Mt/yr of CO₂. This will be transported to the Northern Lights project for permanent storage offshore beneath the North Sea.

Norway: The government has proposed continuing funding for Norcem’s CO₂ capture and storage project at its Brevik cement plant. The announcement follows an assessment by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy of local carbon capture, transport and storage (CCS) projects. The government has proposed to fund FEED studies (Front End Engineering and Design studies) with around Euro8m in 2018. The total funding for the demonstration project in 2018 amounts to Euro29m, including funds transferred from 2017. The proposed funds for 2018 will cover FEED studies of CO₂ transport, storage and up to two capture facilities.

“Of the three CO₂ capture projects evaluated, Norcem has the best conditions for a successful implementation. Norcem has demonstrated project execution abilities and relatively low cost per tonne CO₂ captured compared to the other two capture projects. The cement industry is also a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions,” said the government in a statement Norcem, HeidelbergCement local subsidiary, which sbeat other projects by Yara and Fortum Oslo Varme to the funding.

Iceland: Iceland Cement has started demolishing its cement plant at Akranes. The 9 hectare site in the town will be used for housing and other projects, according to the Iceland Review magazine. FLSmidth originally built the plant and it was in operation since 1958 before it stopping manufacturing cement in 2012 when the company switched to imports from Norcem. Germany’s HeidelbergCement is the majority owner of the company.