Displaying items by tag: Sustainability

France: LafargeHolcim France says that it has “responded to the demand for low-carbon concretes” with the launch of a CEM-II Portland limestone cement product with 25% lower carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions than Ordinary Portland Cements (OPC) in its Galaxim Planet range. The new addition to the range, of which LafargeHolcim plans to produce 100,000t by 31 December 2020, contains 35% limestone, up by 23% from 12% in ordinary Portland limestone cement.

LafargeHolcim France south region cement sales director Olivier Mespouilles said, “Our goal is to offer all builders a cement offering properties equivalent to a conventional cement with the advantage of a reduced carbon footprint. This tour de force was successful thanks to the involvement of all our teams, and we are the first player in France to offer this type of limestone cement in such a volume." The cement is due to enter the market in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. From 2021 the company hopes to supply 80% of customers there with the low-carbon cement.

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.

India: JSW Cement has undertaken work to improve a dried-up canal in order make it a source of water for the irrigation needs of farmers in Bilakalaguduru village, Andhra Pradesh. The Hindu newspaper has reported that the JSW Cement team has redirected overflow water from a limestone quarry. JSW Cement also built a new temple to the gods Balaji and Varahaswamy in Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh using local black limestone.

Mexico: Cemex says that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will not delay its ‘Climate Action Strategy’ that was previously announced in February 2020. The building materials producer has developed a CO₂ reduction roadmap to help guide it towards a towards a targeted 35% reduction in net specific CO₂ emissions between 1990 and 2030.

The roadmap consists of: reduction of CO₂ emissions of clinker through “the production of novel clinkers with lower heat consumption”; use of “alternative decarbonated raw materials”; increased alternative fuel substitution; and increased substitution of clinker with “alternative cementitious materials, using admixtures to enhance strength, and adopting new grinding technologies to improve performance”; in addition to the increased use of renewable energy.

Cemex chief executive officer (CEO) Fernando Gonzalez said, “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time, and we believe that we can continue to address it as a fundamental component of our efforts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Germany: HeidelbergCement has published its sustainability report for 2019. The building materials producer says it decreased its specific gross CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement by 0.9% year-on-year to 622kg/t in 2019 from 628kg/t in 2018. Absolute net CO₂ emissions also fell, by 4.6% to 68.4Mt from 71.7Mt. Indirect CO₂ emission grew by 4.8% to 4.4Mt from 4.2Mt, though energy consumption in cement production fell by 3.5% to 364,000TJ from 377,000TJ.

HeidelbergCement chair Dominic von Achten said, “We have declared our express commitment to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, we will continue to intensify our commitment to tackling climate change in the coming years.”

Canada/US: Lehigh Cement says that it has adopted the latest North American Product Category Rules (PCR) across its entire product range.

Lehigh Hanson Canada regional cement sales and logistics vice president Shawn McMillan said, “We have made it one of our top priorities to benchmark and lower our CO₂ emissions with ambitious targets. Much like food nutrition labels highlight calorific values, our plant and product-specific environmental product declarations (EPD) communicate the environmental impact through global warming potential (GWP) for cement in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. We intend to use the added product transparency to more effectively gain adoption for our lower carbon products. We have several research projects and studies on-going to continue to optimise the carbon impacts from cement and concrete.”

France: LafargeHolcim France has said that all bagged cement will now bear a 360Score CO₂ emissions reduction rating, “to allow traders, artisans and homebuilders to know the precise carbon impact of their cement.” The rating, between ’A’ and ’D,’ corresponds to the factor of CO₂ compared to CEM-I Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). ’A’ Class cement produces 75% – 100% less CO₂, while ’D’ class cement produces 0% – 25% less.

LafargeHolcim France chief executive officer (CEO) François Petry said, “By applying the 360Score rating scale to our bags of cements, we are continuing to implement our Lafarge 360 approach, which consists in supporting all builders to build in a more responsible manner.”

Austria: Lafarge Zementwerke, OMV, Verbund and Borealis have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the joint planning and construction of a full-scale plant by 2030 to capture CO₂ and process it into synthetic fuels, plastics or other chemicals. As part of the ‘Carbon2ProductAustria’ (C2PAT) project the companies intend to build the unit at the integrated Mannersdorf cement plant and capture all of the 0.7Mt/yr of CO₂ emitted.

"We are committed to leading the industry in reducing carbon emissions and shifting towards low-carbon construction. We have worked consistently and successfully on the reduction of the CO₂ footprint of our cement plants, products and solutions. Ultimately, CO₂-neutral cement production can only be possible with the implementation of breakthrough technologies, like carbon capture, which is why we have great expectations for the C2PAT project", said Lafarge’s local chief executive officer (CEO) José Antonio Primo.

The project aims to use hydrogen produced by Verbund to allow OMV to transform the captured CO₂ into a range of olefins, fuels and plastics. Borealis would then use some of these products as a feedstock to manufacture plastics. However, the companies say that, “taking the next steps towards a Zero CO₂ economy will require the right financial as well as favourable regulatory framework conditions. The success of C2PAT will largely depend on whether the right financial and regulatory framework conditions are created both at the European Union and Austrian national level.”

The joint project is designed in three phases. In phase one, the partners are currently evaluating and developing a joint strategy for project development, business modelling and process engineering. Based on the results of phase one, a cluster of industrial pilot plants in the Eastern part of Austria could be technically developed and built in the mid-2020s in phase two. Phase three entails building a full scale CO₂ capture and utilisation unit at a cement plant.

Lafarge Zementwerke is the Austrian subsidiary of building materials manufacturer LafargeHolcim. OMV produces and markets oil and gas, energy and other petrochemical products. Verbund is an Austrian-based electricity generator, with a focus on hydroelectric power. Borealis is a chemical company and a producer of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilisers.

Germany: Schwenk Zement has announced plans for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from cement kiln CO₂ emissions. The World Ethanol and Biofuels Report has reported that Schwenk Zement’s integrated 1.0Mt/yr Allmendingen, Baden-Württemberg plant will receive a pilot SAF plant in late 2020.

France: CRH subsidiary EQIOM has announced a 9000t/yr reduction in its transport-related CO₂ emissions, down by 5% to 171,000t/yr for the past three years from 180,000t in 2017. It achieved the reduction through its commitment to the FRET21 initiative, a sustainable development strategy of the Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Énergie (ADEME) and Association des Utilisateurs de Transport de Fret (AFAT).

The initiative is based on CO₂ reduction around four key activities: loading rate; distance travelled; means of transport; and responsible purchasing. EQIOM launched five initiatives, including increasing laden returns of trucks to reduce empty transport to 28%, commissioning four new natural gas and bioethanol-powered vehicles and increasing rail freight to 89%.

EQIOM logistics manager Jérôme Becamel said, "As in the rest of the country, our transport activity has been impacted by the social situation, particularly strikes on the roads and in the railways. However, we are delighted with the results obtained for this first challenge even if we were unable to reach our ambitions 100%. We are only more motivated and we will be stepping up our efforts over the next three years.”