Displaying items by tag: decarbonisation

India: Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) India has entered talks with UK-based Xynteo and the Build Ahead coalition to scale up decarbonisation in India’s construction sector. The partners have signed a memorandum of understanding to promote low-carbon cement and concrete usage. This two-year collaboration will develop emission thresholds for cement and concrete as a basis for future policy on production and use of low-carbon materials. The initiative will also include joint governmental engagement and the sharing of research for low-carbon building materials.

Deepak Khetrapal, GCCA India co-chair and Orient Cement managing director, said "The reduction of clinker factor and the increasing use of supplementary cementitious materials in cement manufacturing is an important decarbonisation lever for the industry. Developing an India-specific definition for ‘low-carbon’ or ‘green’ cement and concrete is the need of the hour, and it is crucial for the development of a net zero CO₂ roadmap for the Indian cement and concrete industry."

Portugal: Cimpor has presented its decarbonisation plan during a visit from the Portuguese Minister of Economy, Pedro Reis, to its Alhandra cement plant. The plan involves a €360m investment across Cimpor’s Alhandra, Souselas and Loulé plants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Current projects at the Alhandra plant include a €110m investment in alternative fuels and two €35m investments in a replacement mill and new clinker cooler. The company estimates a CO₂ emissions reduction of 190,000t/yr and a 16GWh energy saving. Similar initiatives are underway at the Souselas plant, such as the conversion of a kiln to produce calcined clays, which could reportedly cut 70,000t/yr of CO₂.

Cevat Mert, CEO of Cimpor for Portugal and Cape Verde, said “We are committed to investing in Portugal for the environment, sustainability and technology, and our projects are going at full speed. I would like to emphasise that the government´s infrastructure investments, support and incentives, particularly for the environment and sustainability, need to gain further momentum, and we trust in the minister’s support on prioritising this matter. I am confident that together we will continue to build a cement sector that Portugal can be proud of.”

Canada: Climate technology company CarbonCure Technologies has announced that it has ‘saved’ over 500,000t of CO₂ across 7.5m truckloads of concrete. CarbonCure uses a technology that injects captured CO₂ into fresh concrete, which is mineralised and permanently stored, and which enables concrete producers to reduce cement usage while maintaining strength. The solution integrates into existing concrete plant operations, allowing for both environmental benefits via a reduced CO₂ footprint and cost savings through reduced cement consumption, according to the company. The company also claims that for every 1t of CO₂ that is mineralised in ready mix concrete, another 50t of CO₂ is ‘avoided’ by reducing emissions from cement adjustments.

CEO of CarbonCure Technologies Rob Niven said “This milestone reflects the strong sustainability leadership of CarbonCure’s innovative concrete producer partners. Together, we are proving that reducing the carbon footprint of concrete is not just a goal for the future — it can happen, and it is happening, today at scale.”

France: Holcim has been awarded a new grant from the EU Innovation Fund for its ‘CarboClearTech’ carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project in Martres-Tolosane, France. This support marks Holcim's seventh large-scale EU-backed CCUS project. The value of the funding was not disclosed by the company.

Germany: A consortium comprising Cemex and engineering company Linde has won €157m from the EU Innovation Fund for a carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) initiative at the Rüdersdorf cement plant. The project will capture 1.3Mt/yr of CO₂ from the plant’s production processes, aiming for complete decarbonisation of the site by 2030, aligning with Cemex's Future in Action climate strategy. The Rüdersdorf facility will use Linde's HISORP(R) technology for CO₂ capture, featuring a cryogenic-adsorptive process that captures CO₂ from exhaust gas at the source, ready for compression, liquification and eventual permanent sequestration at an offshore storage site in the North Sea.

Sergio Menéndez, president of Cemex Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia, said "Our Future in Action climate action strategy is working hard to drive several revolutionary CCUS projects across our global operations. While we are working hard to decarbonise using existing technology, an important component of our Future in Action strategy is to develop breakthrough decarbonisation solutions for our industry to reach Net Zero. The Rüdersdorf project is Cemex's largest CCUS project to date, with all the hallmarks and credentials to make a significant contribution to the decarbonisation of the cement industry."

UK: Cool Planet Technologies has raised €23.7m in a funding round led by Taranis Carbon Ventures, with participation from CRH Ventures and BlueScopeX. This investment will support the development of Cool Planet's ‘low-energy, low-cost’ membrane-based carbon capture technology. It will also go towards the construction of a new membrane manufacturing facility at Holcim’s Höver cement plant near Hannover, Germany, capturing 10,000t/yr of CO₂.

CEO of Cool Planet Technologies Andrew Corner said “We are delighted to have the support of these three new major industrial investors and we want to thank our existing investors for their continued support. We believe that our technology will significantly reduce the cost of carbon capture and help to accelerate its adoption at scale. This investment will enable us to demonstrate both the potential of our technology at scale and how Cool Planet will become a leading player in providing affordable solutions to help decarbonise multiple industries.”

US: Researchers at UCLA's Institute for Carbon Management have developed a new method called ZeroCAL that could eliminate ‘nearly all’ of the carbon dioxide emissions from the process of cement production, according to the UCLA Newsroom. The team created a process using limestone and a water-based solution containing ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Through membrane nanofiltration and an electrochemical process, they produced calcium hydroxide.

To meet ZeroCAL’s water demand, the team suggests focusing on cement plants near coasts or rivers. The researchers are reportedly working with Ultratech Cement to build a demonstration plant that will produce ‘several’ tonnes of lime per day using the ZeroCAL process. Currently, the process requires more energy than traditional lime production methods, but ongoing research aims to reduce its energy consumption.

Gaurav Sant, director of the Institute and professor at UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, said “The ZeroCAL approach offers an elegant solution to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions associated with the process of cement production. First, it addresses the carbon emissions resulting from limestone’s decomposition while providing clean hydrogen and oxygen to heat the cement kiln. Second, it enables onsite decarbonisation while making use of existing kilns and limestone feedstocks without having to build separate carbon capture and storage facilities.”

Japan: Mitsubishi UBE Cement (MUCC), in collaboration with seven other companies, has been commissioned by the Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) to conduct a survey of the carbon capture and storage (CCS) project for the Southern Offshore Malay Peninsula in the 2024 financial year. This work is part of the ‘Engineering Design Work for Advanced CCS Projects’ and will study the CCS value chain from CO₂ captured from the cement industry in the Kyushu, Chugoku and Kinki regions, to the transport and storage of the liquefied CO₂ for geological in the southern offshore Malay peninsula, currently under development. MUCC will be responsible for the CCS processes at its Ube cement plant.

China: Anhui Conch Cement (Conch Group) and AVIC International Beijing have entered a strategic agreement to combine their expertise and promote technological solutions for decarbonising cement production. The partnership will leverage Conch Group's experience in cement production and equipment manufacturing with AVIC International Beijing subsidiary KHD Humboldt Wedag International (KHD)'s expertise in equipment and engineering. The collaboration aims to expand their cooperation to include building AI-powered, smart and ‘green’ research and development platforms overseas. This will involve modernising traditional cement plants and enhancing operation and maintenance services.

Additionally, the Conch Technology and Industry Research Institute will work with AVIC International Beijing and KHD to apply cement decarbonisation technologies, such as calcined clay, oxyfuel clinker lines and electro-calcining, on an industrial scale at selected Conch production lines.

Greece: ThyyssenKrupp Polysius has signed a front-end engineering design contract with Titan Group for the Ifestos carbon capture project at Titan’s Kamari cement plant. The project will equip the plant’s two kilns with oxyfuel systems to reduce CO₂ emissions by 1.9Mt/yr, ‘almost completely’, said ThyssenKrupp. The captured CO₂ is then liquefied and transported to a permanent storage site in the Mediterranean region. Full operation is expected by the end of 2029.

Cetin Nazikkol, chief strategy officer at ThyssenKrupp Decarbon Technologies, said “With the oxyfuel technology we have developed, around 1.9Mt/yr of CO₂ can be captured at the Kamari plant alone. This corresponds to around 12% of greenhouse gas emissions from all Greek industries. We are thus making a significant contribution to one of the largest CO₂ capture projects in Europe.”

Christian Myland, CEO of ThyssenKrupp Polysius, said “For our customer Titan Group, we will be using the latest CO₂ separation technology. We will design and equip the first kiln line with the proven oxyfuel technology. When modernising the second kiln line, the latest generation of this technology will be used with the pure oxyfuel system. Overall, this will enable us to capture almost 100% of CO₂ emissions.”