Displaying items by tag: binder
Neo-Eco launches low-carbon clay binder
14 March 2024France: Neo-Eco has developed a low-carbon cement binder from clay excavated during the Grand Paris Express project. The process, developed at IMT Nord Europe, involves flash-calcination at about 700°C, allowing it to replace part of the clinker and emit approximately five times less CO2 than traditional methods. Neo-Eco's director, Christophe Deboffe, said that this new ingredient could constitute 30% of cement, maintaining the cost similar to traditional binders.
To commercialise this breakthrough, Neo-Eco established Neocem, a subsidiary based near Lille. Neocem has raised €23m to build a production plant in Saint-Maximin, Oise. Strategically located near waterways and Île-de-France, the plant will directly receive excavated materials from the Société du Grand Paris.
Starting in 2025, the facility will produce 100,000t/yr of flash-calcined clay, with potential to double its capacity in the future. Deboffe sees this as just the beginning, planning to establish more plants across France and Europe to meet the cement and ready-mix concrete industry's demand.
The clay supply is estimated to exceed 100Mt, ensuring a sustainable and ample source for the binder.
The facility is supported by the French government's ‘Première usine’ initiative under the France 2030 investment plan, with funding from investors like Bpifrance and CB Green. CB Green, based in Calais, is also developing a limestone filler production plant in Dunkerque with Ecocem, pointing to a future where cement could be composed equally of flash-calcined clay, limestone filler, and clinker. Bottom of Form
TopWerk Group endorses Partanna Global's carbon-negative binder
23 January 2024Germany/US: Concrete production equipment supplier TopWerk Group has formally endorsed Partanna Global's carbon-negative binder as a replacement for cement in the production of concrete using its equipment. Partanna plans to install TopWerk equipment at its four upcoming production plants, under an exclusive three-year agreement. The endorsement is intended to help shift TopWerk's global customers from using cement to using Partanna Global’s binder.
Partanna Global CEO Rick Fox said “TopWerk's endorsement of Partanna represents a major vote of confidence in our technology from one of the most respected names in global construction. We’re humbled and proud that one of the world’s leading concrete machinery producers has given us their backing. We hope this signals to the industry that Portland cement is no longer the only solution in town, and that the days of burning rocks are fast coming to an end.”
TopWerk CEO Robert Gruss said "We believe our exclusive partner Partanna has come up with a truly impressive solution that can contribute to putting this polluting practice to an end. The company’s carbon negative binder is one of the most exciting innovations we have witnessed in our industry for decades. It is the most advanced alternative binder solution in the market and the only credibly carbon negative solution that has the potential to scale globally. Over the last two years, we have rigorously tested their formula and have validated its application as a direct replacement solution for Portland cement. In many ways, their binder actually performs better than the legacy solution.”
The endorsement follows Saudi Arabia-based property developer ROSHN's announcement of an upcoming carbon-negative concrete plant that will use Partanna Global's technology earlier in January 2024.
Alpacem Zement Austria appoints Christine Gröll as head of material flow management and process control
23 August 2023Austria: Christine Gröll has taken over the role of head of material flow management and process control at Alpacem Zement Austria. The producer created the new role for Gröll, who will lead a dedicated team of eight people to achieve net zero CO2 cement production at the company’s Wietersdorf cement plant by 2035. The team will focus on alternative raw materials and alternative fuel (AF) substitution.
Gröll is an Ulm University-trained chemist with over four years’ experience working within Alpacem Zement Austria. Prior to that, she worked as a research associate for Schwenk Zement in Germany, on the development of its Celitement hydraulic binder.
Alpacem Zement Austria’s technical director Florian Salzer said "It fills us with particular pride that we were able to fill the new department with talented employees from our own company. This clearly underlines the potential that exists in our team and emphasises the extensive expertise that we have built up. We are also pleased that the department management is in the competent hands of Christine Gröll, who brings an incomparable mix of research drive and practical experience.”
Forty cement and concrete companies commit to the Global Cement and Concrete Association’s Roadmap to Net Zero
12 October 2021World: Forty cement and concrete producers, representing 80% of concrete production outside of China in 2020, have together affirmed their commitment to the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA)’s Roadmap to Net Zero concrete decarbonisation strategy. The roadmap’s seven-point plan consists of increased cement plant efficiency, which should eliminate 22% of emissions, increased concrete production efficiency (11%), adjustments to cement and binders (9%), decarbonisation of raw materials (11%), carbon capture and storage (CCS) (36%), a transition to renewable energy (5%) and the natural recarbonation of concrete (6%).
Besides full decarbonisation by 2050, the strategy provides for a 25% reduction in the global concrete sector’s CO2 emissions by 2030 and the elimination of 4.9Bnt of CO2 emissions by 2030 alone. The GCCA called the new commitment a ‘significant acceleration’ of cement and concrete producers’ on-going decarbonisation efforts, and said that it represented ‘the biggest global commitment by any industry’ to carbon neutrality. Acknowledging the burden on cement producers, the GCCA called on downstream companies and governments to support the industry’s transition.
GCCA member China National Building Material (CNBM) CEO Cao Jianglin said “This is a landmark for industry co-operation in decarbonisation. As part of a global industry, it will need collaboration across our sector to achieve it. As one of the leading cement and concrete producers in China, we will play our part in decarbonising the industry.”
LafargeHolcim commits to net-zero CO2 emissions with 20% specific reduction by 2030
21 September 2020Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has signed the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) Business Ambition for 1.5°C pledge, which commits it to net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050. Additionally, the company has committed itself to a 20% reduction in its CO2 intensity between 2018 and 2030.
The company says that over the period it will: “accelerate the use of low-carbon and carbon-neutral products such as ECOPact and Susteno, recycle 100Mt of waste and by-products for energy and raw materials, scale up the use of calcined clay and develop novel cements with new binders, double waste-derived fuels in production to reach 37%, reach net CO2 emissions 475kg/t of cementitious material and open and operate its first net-zero CO2 cement plant.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jan Jenisch said, “I believe in building a world that works for people and the planet. That’s why we are reinventing how the world builds today to make it greener with low-carbon and circular solutions. I am very excited to be working with SBTi, taking a rigorous science-based approach to shape our net zero roadmap and accelerating our efforts to substantially lower our CO2 footprint. I will not stop pushing the boundaries to lead the way in green construction.”
France: Hoffman Green Cement Technologies, a pioneer in low-carbon cement production, has announced the publication of its Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) in the INIES database, France’s national reference database for environmental and health performance in the construction sector.
The LCI published by Hoffmann Green summarises all incoming and outgoing flows of raw materials and energy resources used to manufacture its H-UKR and H-EVA cements to allow an assessment of the environmental impacts. They will serve as input data for the software that carries out the life cycle analysis of a construction product, often comprising several materials.
H-UKR is a binder that is based on alkali-activated blast furnace slag, which is sold into the precast concrete, ready-mix concrete and bagged cement markets. H-EVA is a high ettringite binder that is used in the mortar, coatings, road binder and ready-mixed concrete markets.
Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann, the company’s founder’s stated, "The publication of the LCI of our cements is a first in France and is part of our determined ambition to decarbonise the construction sector and be fully transparent vis-à-vis all our stakeholders. It also illustrates our commitment in the face of the climate change emergency and the need to reconcile cement and the environment.”
Hanson receives first batch of sulphoaluminate binder
03 February 2020UK: InterBulk Group delivered a batch of Italcementi’s I.tech Ali-Na sulphoaluminate binder produced at its 0.3Mt/yr Guardiaregia cement plant in Molise, Italy to fellow HeidelbergCement subsidiary Hanson’s concrete plant in Hull, UK, on 28 January 2020. Hanson will use the low-environmental-impact binder in the production of fast-setting premixes for the UK market.
Germany: Holcim Deutschland has announced the successful development of Holcim EcoPact Zero, a net-zero carbon concrete. It says that it is in talks with customers in Germany and will make the first deliveries of EcoPact Zero in early 2020. Holcim Deutschland CEO Thorsten Hahn said, “The use of clinker-reduced cements and the optimisation of the binder content play a central role. The still unavoidable CO2-footprint is fully offset at with the support of various certified environmental projects.”