Displaying items by tag: circular economy

Australia: Alternative cement and concrete producers have welcomed a new Australian civil engineering standard that allows builders to use reduced-CO₂ geopolymer concrete in infrastructure projects. Wagners, which produces Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), said that the revision has removed on if its key barriers to wider market acceptance. EFC replaces 100% of cement with supplementary cementitious materials, including ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and pulverised fly ash, by virtue of its binder technology. Wagners previously supplied EFC for the London Power Tunnels project in the UK, based on local technical approval-based building codes. The producer now expects a new standard like the Australian one to follow in the EU.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has concluded an agreement to dispose of waste produced by any natural disasters that should occur in Hidaka City and Saitama Prefecture. Under the agreement, Taiheiyo Cement will establish a disposal system with realises the potential of disaster waste as a resource. This will work alongside another recycling programme for conventional wastes. The cement producer says that this will help to build a safe and secure community.

World: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has named the 15 anticipated deliverers of low-CO₂ cement and concrete production shortlisted for participation in its second Innovandi Open Challenge. The association chose the start-ups based on their potential to deliver CO₂ emissions reduction in the global cement and concrete sector in line with its Concrete Future 2050 Net Zero Roadmap. The applicants are presenting their pitches to GCCA members on 30 June 2023. All those accepted will gain access to members' plants, labs, networks and expertise. The following start-ups made the Innovandi Open Challenge 2023 shortlist:

GCCA cement director and innovation lead Claude Loréa said “We received more than 70 quality applications, so drawing up a shortlist was challenging." Loréa continued "Our essential industry needs something easily scalable and affordable. Those start-ups on the list demonstrated the most potential, and we look forward to hearing more about their ideas. But we’ll also be keeping in touch with other start-ups who didn’t make this year’s shortlist, with future projects in mind.”

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."

Philippines: Metal and ores producer Global Ferronickel Holdings (FNI) plans to invest in clinker production operations. The company has indicated that it will also begin producing limestone to supply any clinker plants that it builds. The Manila Bulletin newspaper has reported that FNI's plans also include new ventures into value-added processing, including through the establishment of a ferronickel processing plant and nickel matte processing facility.

Spain: Cemex España has secured Euro4.4m in EU funding for an upgrade to its Alicante cement plant in Valencia. The project will launch the use of Clyngas synthetic gas as alternative fuel (AF) at the plant. Thermochemical conversion specialist WtEnergy, a subsidiary of Cemex Ventures, will supply the syngas. The partners say that this upgrade will reduce CO₂ emissions by 400,000t per decade.

Parent company Cemex said "This project is part of Cemex’s Future in Action programme, which seeks to achieve sustainable excellence through climate action, circularity and natural resource management, with the primary objective of becoming a net-zero CO₂ company."

Indonesia: Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa has engaged Japan-based environmental consultancy Amita Holdings to support a two-year feasibility study to investigate ways to make its cement production carbon neutral. The study will commence with trials of industrial wastes as alternative raw materials and municipal solid waste as refuse-derived fuel. Amita Holdings says that it is in the process of building a recycling-based society in Indonesia, in partnership with Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa.

Amita Holdings supported the establishment of the community-led Meguru waste sorting facility in Central Java. Two of Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa’s cement plants – the 18Mt/yr Citeureup cement plant and 4.1Mt/yr Paliman cement plant – are situated in neighbouring West Java.

Canada: The district council of Capital Regional District (CRD) says that it expects to resume sending biosolids to Lafarge Canada's Richmond cement plant in early June 2023. This follows a reported reduction in production at the unit in 2023 and 2022, according to the Times Colonist newspaper. The 1.1Mt/yr cement plant previously used biosolids supplied by the CRD as an alternative fuel in its cement production. However, during the current hiatus the biosolids have been sent to landfill instead.

The Richmond cement plant is the site of the CO₂MENT carbon capture and utilisation project. The project proceeded to its third phase, which consists of a capture capacity expansion and the installation of a liquefaction plant, in May 2023.

US: Heidelberg Materials North America has inaugurated the Port Canaveral slag cement plant and terminal in Florida, following an expansion. MENAFN News has reported that the producer invested US$24m in the installation of a new roller press at the facility.

Heidelberg Materials North America said "Heidelberg Materials' investment in the Port Canaveral slag cement facility is reflective of our commitment to supporting sustainable and resilient construction projects in the state of Florida and throughout the country. It is also aligned with our goal to significantly reduce our carbon footprint by 2030 and another milestone in our overall strategy to grow our portfolio of more sustainable products, technologies and customer-focused solutions on the path to Net Zero."

Canada: A study led by Douglas Geoffrey in Calgary, Alberta, has patented a method of producing cement from calcium carbonate precipitated in the carbonation of brine. The method mixes the mineral with magnesium oxide and cures it to form cement.

Geoffrey noted that the brine may derive from multiple industrial processes, including fossil fuel and potash production, geothermal power generation and desalination.