Displaying items by tag: circular economy

North Korea: State-owned Komusan Cement has successfully deployed alternative raw materials derived from quarry overburden in cement production at its Komusan cement plant in Hamgyŏng Province. State-run Korean News has reported that the producer presented the resulting products at a provincial building materials exhibition.

The Komusan cement plant reportedly had ‘decades-worth’ of overburden in stockpiles, but previously lacked the equipment to properly process it.

UK: Cemex UK has launched its partnership with The Pallet LOOP, with the first load of LOOP’s reusable pallets carrying Rugby Cement products from the company’s plant in Rugby. The FSC-certified pallets are designed for multiple trips and are supported by a national collection service offering customers €2.30–€4.61 for each pallet returned. The Pallet LOOP offers €2.30 for pallets that are damaged or dirty but repairable, and €4.61 for those returned in good condition. Cemex is the first cement producer to adopt the system.

The national sales manager for bagged cement at Cemex UK, Vicki Elliott, said “The Pallet LOOP’s business model mirrors our commitment to circularity with its award-winning reuse scheme. For decades, wasted and abandoned wood pallets have posed a real challenge across the supply chain. It is great to see such a fresh and dynamic approach effectively tackling the long-standing issue of single-use pallets. We look forward to expanding the service across the full Cemex portfolio in future roll outs.”

Managing director at The Pallet LOOP Andy Williamson said "The departure of the first load of Rugby Cement products on our LOOP pallets is another major milestone for us, for Cemex and for the wider building materials sector. By rewarding customers for every pallet they return, we’re making sustainability pay - helping companies in the construction industry lower costs while also reducing waste and their carbon footprint."

US: ATS Walter USA has announced that it will supply Capitol Aggregates’ San Antonio cement plant with a metering and conveying system for solid alternative fuels (AF), with the aim to improve fuel handling and decrease CO₂ emissions at the plant. The system includes a DoseaFloor moving floor receiving system, chain belt conveyors, separator and screen, Doseahorse dosing equipment, Walt’Air air-supported belt conveyor and injection system. The project, to be completed by the end of 2026, will be ATS Walter USA’s fourth AF project in North America.

UK: Cemex UK has announced a partnership with The Pallet LOOP to roll out reusable pallets for its Rugby Cement products from October 2025. The company said that it is the first cement manufacturer to adopt the LOOP system. The initiative forms part of Cemex’s ‘Future in Action’ strategy to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Initially, the LOOP pallets will be used for the core Rugby packed range, including Premium Cement (paper and plastic bags), High Strength and Sulphate, with expansion across the portfolio planned for later phases.

Vicki Elliott, national sales manager for bagged cement at Cemex UK, said “This is a significant step forward for the cement industry. We’ve supported The Pallet LOOP from day one, signing its charter back in 2022. Now, we’re proud to be the first in our sector to integrate this solution into our supply chain. It’s about doing the right thing, as simply as possible: reducing waste, cutting carbon and helping our customers make more sustainable choices.”

The Pallet LOOP addresses the construction sector’s reliance on single-use pallets, of which fewer than 10% are reused, generating over 250,000t/yr of wood waste, according to the company. The Pallet LOOP’s FSC-certified pallets are built for multiple trips and backed by a nationwide collection service that offers financial incentives for returns.

Mexico: Moctezuma inaugurated a US$12m alternative fuels storage system at its Tepetzingo cement plant in Morelos, after two years of engineering, planning and execution. The facility will process over 150,000t/yr of waste, including end-of-life tyres, municipal solid waste and non-recyclable materials, which will replace fossil fuels in cement production, with a goal of 30% substitution by 2030. The company said that the benefits of the project include saving thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill and mitigating methane emissions.

The producer, the Morelos government and the Ministry of Sustainable Development are also developing a circular economy centre in Jiutepec with an additional investment of US$1.6m. The facility will collect, shred and convert up to 3000t/month of tyres into alternative fuels.

UK/Norway: UK-based marine carbon capture firm Seabound has launched an onboard carbon capture project in partnership with Hartmann Group, InterMaritime Group and Heidelberg Materials Northern Europe. The solution equips the UBC Cork, a 5700 gross tonne cement carrier, with Seabound’s calcium looping carbon capture system. This system captures up to 95% of CO₂ and 98% of sulphur emissions from the ship’s exhaust using calcium hydroxide to absorb the CO₂ and convert it into limestone that is stored onboard until returning to port. The captured carbon will be offloaded at the Port of Brevik for use at Heidelberg Materials’ Brevik cement plant, host of the first industrial-scale carbon capture facility in the cement sector.

The project is co-funded by the Eurostars partnership on Innovative SMEs, part of Horizon Europe through the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation. This funding supports collaborative research and development projects in a range of industries, including maritime transport.

CEO of Seabound Alisha Fredriksson said “We’re proud to partner with industry leaders like Heidelberg Materials and Hartmann to deliver scalable carbon capture solutions. We’re especially excited to be advancing this work in Brevik, a strategic location that’s rapidly establishing itself as a global hub for CCS with Heidelberg’s world-first facility and the Northern Lights pick up point. Together, we’re demonstrating how onboard carbon capture can accelerate emissions reductions in carbon-intensive sectors.”

Lars Erik Marcussen, Logistics project manager at Heidelberg Materials Northern Europe, said “Shipping cement is emissions-intensive, and Seabound’s system gives us a clear path to reduce those Scope 3 emissions while enhancing our circular use of captured CO₂. This project also brings us one step closer to decarbonising the logistics/transport part of our operations.”

Colombia: Holcim Colombia has invested US$2m to modernise its co-processing platform at its Nobsa cement plant in Boyacá. The upgraded facility will process 100,000t/yr of waste into alternative fuels for the cement plant, raising thermal substitution to 40% in the short term, with a target of 70% by 2030.

CEO of Holcim Colombia Martín Costanian said “This project realises our dream of optimising the crushing circuit and scaling our capacity to replace fossil fuels with more sustainable and truly circular solutions.”

The system renovation includes the addition of a shredder with a nominal capacity of 10t/hr, as well as new transfer systems and a modern dosing system capable of feeding up to 20t/hr of alternative fuels to the kiln. The waste used will consist of paper, cardboard, plastics and biomass.

Manager of Geocycle José Méndez said “This project represents true circularity and a solution for the thousands of pieces of waste that end up in landfills each year.”

Japan: Mitsubishi UBE Cement’s joint project with the city of Kitakyushu to pilot carbon recycled materials in public infrastructure has been selected for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s 2024 grant programme.

Centred around the producer’s Kyushu plant in Kurosaki, Kitakyushu, the project will recycle CO₂ and waste cement from local sources for use in municipal construction. Mitsubishi UBE Cement said it aims to establish a model for resource circulation that can be expanded nationwide.

Sweden: Cemvision has developed a patent-pending beneficiation process to upcycle electric arc furnace (EAF) and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slags into high-performance supplementary cementitious material (SCM), while recovering valuable metals.

Third-party testing found the material performs as well as or better than ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS). Cemvision recovers 99% of the iron oxide content from EAF slag for reuse in steelmaking, as well as other metals like chromium.

The output will support Cemvision’s Re-Ment Massive and Rapid products as clinker-replacing SCMs. The process was piloted with metallurgical research institute Swerim.

Cemvision CEO Oscar Hållén said “This is a game-changer not only for the cement industry but for steel producers as well. Our process enables high-performing cement products from materials that would otherwise be treated as waste. With this innovation, we're proving that decarbonisation and circularity can go hand in hand, and at scale.”

Portugal: Cimpor will invest €155m in establishing a new research and development centre focused on sustainable construction, CO₂ reduction and digital transformation. The investment will also cover the modernisation of Kiln 7 at the producer’s Alhandra cement plant. The new centre will focus on technologies such as low-clinker cement development, carbon capture and alternative fuels, using recycled concrete and 3D printing. The building itself will incorporate calcined clay-based cement and recycled aggregates.

The new centre will create over 100 jobs and serve as a hub for collaboration with universities and startups, as well as serve as a location for conferences and workshops. The building will operate as a ‘living lab’, with real-time monitoring of its thermal and structural performance and energy consumption.

The chair of Cimpor Global Holdings, Suat Çalbiyik, said “In 2018, we operated only in Portugal and Cape Verde with around 1800 employees. Today, we are the world’s third-largest cement group… with 8000 employees in 14 countries and a production capacity of 112.5Mt/yr of cement.”