Displaying items by tag: decarbonisation

Taiwan: Taiwan Cement Corporation aims to diversify its business away from cement by increasing its sales from energy storage and vehicle charging. It aims to derive over 50% of its revenues from other activities besides cement by 2025. The Taipei Times newspaper has reported that the producer will continue to produce 80Mt/yr of cement. The company said that the reason behind its planned diversification is its responsibility to help reduce global net CO₂ emissions.

Chair Nelson Chang said “Carbon reductions must be fast and efficient, and the use of solar and other green energy resources in producing cement is not enough to offset carbon emissions. That means Taiwan Cement has to press ahead and develop carbon capture techniques that would help mitigate the negative impact of cement production on the environment.”

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.

Sweden: Heidelberg Materials Sweden has called for swifter action to be taken by the government on a planned upgrade to the mains electricity supply to the island of Gotland. The building materials company is planning to build a full-scale carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) unit at its integrated Slite cement plant on the island by 2030. However, the newly approved plans to build two new electrical transmission cables to Gotland are currently scheduled for completion in 2031. The cement plant is expected to require annual electricity requirements of up to 1.5TWh with a power requirement of up to 250MW when the CCS unit is completed.

The cement producer has welcomed the government’s upgrade plans so far but has impressed the urgency of its timeline to build a CCS unit at the Slite plant. It says it is currently considering investing around Euro850m on the project. If completed the CCS unit is expected to capture up to 1.8Mt/yr of CO₂. The company said that this corresponds to approximately 3% of Sweden's emissions annually.

France: The French cement association France Ciment has announced a new CO₂ emissions reduction target of 50% across the cement industry between 2021 and 2030. The new target for 2050 will be 'virtual carbon neutrality.' The Les Echos newspaper has reported that the commitments replace previous reduction targets of 24% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. France Ciment says that its members are planning estimated investments of Euro5bn towards achieving the goals before 2040. These investments will cover areas including the deployment of carbon capture. Existing public and private investments in the industry's on-going projects to reduce CO₂ emissions amount to Euro1.7bn - sufficient to eliminate 27% of emissions compared with the 2021 baseline.

France Ciment’s President Benoit Pillon noted the necessity of cement in construction, and called for 'decarbonisation as a whole: less clinker in cement, less cement in concrete and less concrete in construction.' He urged the implementation of policies to secure 'decarbonised and competitive electricity.'

Germany: Chemicals company BASF has won a contract to supply its OASE Blue CO₂ separation technology for use in the upcoming 70,000t/yr carbon capture installation at Heidelberg Material's Lengfurt cement plant in Bavaria. The Capture to Use (Cap2U) project, in partnership with fellow chemicals company Linde, aims to capture CO₂ from the plant for use in the chemicals, food and beverages industries.

BASF head of gas treatment Andreas Northemann said “Our portfolio of OASE technologies makes a significant contribution to sustainability and is perfectly suited to help our customers achieve their sustainability targets. This carbon capture and use unit facility has the potential to become a show-case project in a hard-to-abate sector."

UK: Aggregate Industries, Breedon, Lhoist and Tarmac have announced the launch of the Peak Cluster, a carbon capture and storage cluster of cement and lime plants. The partners aim to eliminate 3Mt/yr of emissions from operations across their plants in Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire by capturing 100% of their CO₂ emissions. Progressive Energy will oversee the capture and transportation of CO₂ from the plants for storage below the Irish Sea. Possible storage partners for the cluster are Liverpool Bay CCS or the upcoming Morecambe Net Zero storage project. When operational, the Peak Cluster will eliminate 40% of emissions from UK cement and lime production. Participating cement plants are Aggregate Industries' 1Mt/yr Cauldon cement plant in Staffordshire, Breedon's 1.5Mt/yr Hope plant in Derbyshire and Tarmac's 0.8Mt/yr Tunstead plant in Derbyshire.

Mineral Products Association (MPA) energy and climate change director Diana Casey said “The launch of the Peak Cluster is an exciting and vital step forward in the journey of the cement and lime sectors towards net zero. The region is a historic heartland for cement and lime production providing highly skilled jobs for local communities, and a secure supply of essential materials to the UK economy." She concluded "The UK Concrete and Cement Industry Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero highlighted the importance of carbon capture for the decarbonisation of the cement and concrete supply chain, and the Peak Cluster is an essential part of that transition. This launch demonstrates the commitment of cement and lime producers to transition to net zero to secure the future of these important industries, and the vital products they produce, in a net zero world.”

US: Heidelberg Materials North America has secured funding for a feasibility study for a 2Mt/yr carbon capture installation at its Mitchell cement plant in Indiana. The study will also investigate possible storage and utilisation solutions for a future installation. The producer says that the US government's Department of Energy has pledged US$5m in funding towards the US$10m study.

Heidelberg Materials North America president and CEO Chris Ward said “We are pleased for this additional federal funding to help move our Mitchell carbon capture project forward. Heidelberg Materials recognises the significant role that carbon capture will play in achieving its goal of net zero carbon, and we are very excited to take the next steps in exploring this technology at our new cement plant in Mitchell.”

Canada: Lafarge Canada signed a tri-partite agreement with Dimensional Energy and Svante Technologies for the construction of a synthetic hydrocarbons plant to use captured CO₂ from its Richmond cement plant on 15 May 2023. The upcoming plant will convert the Richmond cement plant's 1t/day captured CO₂ emissions into 1.5 barrels/day of synthetic hydrocarbons. The producer, a subsidiary of Holcim, selected this particular solution due to the lack of CO₂ transport and sequestration infrastructure in the area of British Columbia where the Richmond plant is located. The project marks Phase 3 of the installation of Lafarge Canada and Svante's carbon capture project at the Richmond plant.

Holcim's Western Canada regional head of sustainability and environment, Stephanie Voysey, said "Carbon capture is an important lever in our net-zero roadmap. However, for a carbon capture project to succeed, it must be paired with permanent geologic sequestration or utilisation technology that will permanently isolate the CO₂ in a specific media or product. If this pilot can be scaled to capture and use all facility emissions, it would be a first-of-its-kind project for Lafarge and advance export and global adoption of this technology.”

Belgium: France-based Air Liquide has signed a memorandum of understanding with Holcim to supply and operate a Cryocap Oxy carbon capture unit for the forthcoming upgrade to the Obourg cement plant. The intention is that 95% of the CO₂ generated from the new production line will be captured and then transported via the Antwerp@C export terminal for under-sea sequestration. Air Liquide and Holcim have co-applied for the European Innovation Fund to support the project.

Pascal Vinet, Senior Vice President at Air Liquide Group, said “The decarbonisation of the industry is at the heart of our Advance strategy. We are committed to accompany our customers through providing a wide range of innovative solutions. As an example, Air Liquide's proprietary Cryocap technology is particularly well suited to decarbonise the cement industry.”

Canada: The Cement Association of Canada (CAC), with its members and partners in the concrete sector, has released Concrete Zero, an action plan to help the local cement and concrete sector reach net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050. The five priority areas it is focusing on include: eliminating the use of coal and petroleum coke as fuel sources for clinker production; reducing the volume of clinker used to produce cement; increasing the use of supplementary cementitious materials; working towards building carbon capture, utilisation and storage capacity; and advocating for performance-based codes, standards and specifications, procurement policies and increased material efficiency in construction. Targets include reaching a 100% fuel mix from non-fossil-based sources by 2050. The latest plant follows the goal of achieving a 40% emissions reduction by 2030 as part of its Roadmap to Net-Zero Carbon Concrete by 2050.

Adam Auer, the president and chief executive officer of CAC, said “Our net-zero action plan is ambitious and cannot be achieved by industry action alone. Working with government, industry, and partners in the design, architecture, and construction industry will be essential for success. Canada’s cement and concrete industry are committed to doing our part to help Canada build a better, cleaner future. Working together, we can deliver Concrete Zero.”