Displaying items by tag: SigmaRoc

UK: Material Evolution raised US$19m in a Series A funding round to scale production of its 85% reduced-CO₂ cement. Material Evolution produces cement at ambient temperature using its own ambient fusion process. Its inputs consist of industrial wastes and feedstocks. Tech Crunch News has reported that venture capital firm Kompas VC led the funding, with participation from fellow venture capital firms Norrsken VC and Circle Rock Capital, as well as quarried materials producer SigmaRoc.

Material Evolution's CEO Elizabeth Gilligan said “Fusion technology has been hailed as the way to meet humanity’s energy needs for millions of years, whilst emitting no CO₂ or other greenhouse gases."

Finland: UK-based SigmaRoc has acquired dolomitic limestone supplier Juuan Dolomiittikalkki. Juuan Dolomiittikalkki’s mines command 1.5Mt of reserves, with viability until 2053. SigmaRoc will integrate the company into its subsidiary Nordkalk’s Nordics platform.

SigmaRoc CEO Max Vermorken said “We are making good progress on the acquisitions pipeline to deliver on our objective to become the leading European quarried materials group.”

Scandinavia: Norway-based Aqualung Carbon Capture has secured a contract to supply a membrane-based carbon capture and storage (CCS) system for a Nordkalk lime plant in Scandinavia. The supplier said that each Aqualung Carbon Capture unit has the capture capacity to remove 25% of an average Nordkalk lime kiln's CO₂ emissions. The project will commence in early 2023.

Nordkalk plans to roll out Aqualung Carbon Capture CCS systems across all of its kilns before 2030. Accordingly, parent company SigmaRoc has newly committed to tightened group CO₂ reduction targets under the guidance of the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi).

SigmaRoc CEO Max Vermorken said “Our partnership with Aqualung is an exciting next step for the group and the fruit of many months of diligent work by Aqualung and our technical teams in the UK and at Nordkalk. It demonstrates that capturing all process emissions is possible, with existing technology and at industrial scale. Once we roll this out across the group, I believe we will be industry-leading when it comes to our carbon capture strategy, demonstrating again the agility of our business and our business model.”

Aqualung Carbon Capture president and chief technical officer Henrik Utvik said “Aqualung Carbon Capture is extremely pleased to partner with a pioneering company like SigmaRoc to apply our decarbonisation concept in lime production. Due to the size and energy advantages, we believe our technology is ideally suited for this application, and the collaboration with SigmaRoc will fast-track the deployment of full-scale carbon capture installations.”

UK: SigmaRoc has announced the ratification of its Greenbloc cement-free concrete block’s environmental credentials with an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). The EPD is a Type III environmental declaration with ISO 14025, providing full-lifecycle information on the product’s impacts. Greenbloc, an ultra-low carbon alternative to traditional concrete blocks, is the first product of its kind.

Managing Director Michael Roddy said “With the launch of Greenbloc, we believe that we can now offer architects, contractors and housebuilders a competitive, reliable and – thanks to our EPD certification – proven low-carbon alternative to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) blocks. Making the switch from traditional blocks to Greenbloc can reduce the embodied carbon of a typical three-bedroom house by 73%, saving the equivalent of 2.7t of CO₂ per dwelling. It is also worth noting that we have obtained additional third-party test results against the declaration of performance certificate.” He added “The world is changing for the better, and technology is facilitating greater accessibility to materials that can bring about meaningful change for the construction industry. The reception for Greenbloc has already exceeded all expectations, and we are incredibly excited for the potential it has to offer.”

Finland: UK-based minerals group SigmaRoc has acquired Nordkalk for Euro500m. The group says that Nordkalk, SigmaRoc’s sixth platform, adds a core limestone business from more than 30 locations across 10 European countries. Circular economy products comprise 13% of Nordkalk’s sales volumes. It currently makes careful use of by-products and SigmaRoc says it has a clear ambition towards fossil-free and carbon neutral operations in the future.

SigmaRoc Chair David Barrett said “Nordkalk is a well-established and well-respected business with a substantial asset footprint spanning Northern Europe. It has a long history of success and much future potential. This acquisition creates a raft of new opportunities for SigmaRoc to capitalise on in the months and years ahead.”

Chief executive officer Max Vermorken said “The acquisition of Nordkalk, Northern Europe’s leading limestone products company, is a great stepping stone in the evolution of our group, expanding our footprint across Northern European markets. We are purchasing a high-quality business at the right point in the cycle and at an attractive valuation. Nordkalk meets all our stringent investment criteria as a self-contained and asset-backed business which will bring the Group significant earnings growth. We look forward to helping Nordkalk and its experienced management team on its path to continued success as we perpetuate its 120-year history, name and success.”

UK: SigmaRoc intends to offer a cement-free alternative for every product in its precast concrete portfolio from January 2022. The producer claims it is the only company to do this. The change will effect products made by its Product Group including Allen Concrete, CCP Building Products and Poundfield Precast. The move follows the launch of its Ordinary Portland Cement free Greenbloc product in February 2021.

Managing director Michael Roddy said, “Greenbloc sets the bar for bringing a cement-free alternative to a traditional building material into mainstream use, but it was only ever the start of our low-carbon journey.” He added “The benefits of using cement as a building material are undisputed from an application perspective, however the carbon required in the manufacturing process cannot be ignored. Our aim is simple. The market is changing and understands the need to acknowledge, address and action a tangible approach to decarbonisation. We want to give architects, contractors and specifiers the choice of using an ultra-low carbon cement-free alternative to precast cementitious products.”

UK: SigmaRoc has launched Greenbloc, a cement-free concrete block. The product reduces emissions by 77% compared to concrete blocks produced with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), corresponding to a reduction of 1.1kg/block.

Chief executive officer Max Vermorken said, "Our Greenbloc range and brand is the brainchild of our innovation and technical teams. It addresses a key challenge in the building products industry - the embodied CO₂ in one of the most widely used building materials: the concrete block. Greenbloc is only the start of a range of sustainable alternatives to our product offering as we invest, improve, integrate and innovate."