Displaying items by tag: low carbon cement

Germany: Heidelberg Materials will stop producing clinker at its 700,000t/yr Hanover cement plant in Lower Saxony later in 2024, and transition the plant to grinding-only. The producer took the decision following a ‘significant drop’ in its cement sales, amid local low construction activity and a market shift towards lower-cement materials. Nonetheless, it intend to raise its capacity utilisation at its 1Mt/yr Ennigerloh, 900,000t/yr Geseke and 400,000t/yr Paderborn cement plants in neighbouring North Rhine-Westphalia. These will supply clinker to the Hanover grinding plant in future. Heidelberg Materials says that the plant's strategic location will ensure its continued importance in regional cement supply. Part of the 120-strong workforce at the Hanover plant will remain at the new grinding plant. The company will collaborate with the works council to find ‘acceptable solutions’ for the remainder of the team, possibly including intra-group transfers to other divisions and locations.

The Calix consortium’s on-going LEILAC 2 carbon capture project will now move from the Hanover plant to another Heidelberg Materials plant. Australia-based Calix is collaborating with Heidelberg Materials to identify a suitable new site as quickly as possible.

Sweden: CemVision has announced its first commercial agreement to sell its low carbon cement. Pilot deliveries are scheduled to begin in March 2024 to LKAB. Further commercial agreements are planned over the next four years. CemVision produces its Re-ment product using industrial residual products such as those from the steel and mining sectors instead of limestone.

Anders Lundgren, Chief Sustainability Officer for Business Area Special Products at LKAB, said “The letter of intent include the pilot deliveries and trial use of CemVision’s products in our concrete production, and intent to source from their future full-scale production, which presents a potential to further enhance the circularity and to decarbonise our supply of cement and addressing our emissions in the supply chain.”

Azerbaijan: Holcim Azerbaijan plans to build a 2000t-capacity cement terminal in the Araz Valley Economic Zone in Jabrayil. AzerNews has reported that Holcim Azerbaijan will build the terminal in phases, commencing in 2024. The producer’s offering in the local market includes its ECOPlanet Inshaatchi and ECOPlanet Optimal reduced-CO₂ cements. In a later phase, it will install a dry adhesive and ready-mix concrete batching plant at the facility. Planned investments at the site total US$2m.

Commercial director Sergiu Stoicov said "We aim to bring new methods to help the construction industry build sustainably. Through Inshaatchi and Optimal, we are taking a step in the race for CO₂ reduction and the use of alternative raw materials. Holcim Azerbaijan is the first company in the Caucasus to offer green cement.”

Azerbaijan produced 3.42Mt of cement throughout the first 11 months of 2023. This represents a 4.1% year-on-year rise from 11-month 2022 levels. Meanwhile, clinker production rose by 10% year-on-year to 3.51Mt.

Europe: Cemex says that sales of reduced-CO₂ cement from its Vertua range comprised 20% of its sales in Europe by volume in November 2023. The range includes Vertua Supreme cement, which offers 55% lower CO₂ emissions than ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Cemex attributed its success in developing Vertua Supreme cement to advances in product design and manufacturing technology, including the use of hydrogen in its cement kilns.

Last week the US General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it was investing US$2bn on over 150 construction projects that use low-embodied carbon (LEC) materials. The funding is intended to support the use of US-manufactured low carbon asphalt, concrete, glass and steel as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. For readers who don’t know, the GSA manages federal government property and provides contracting options for government agencies. As part of this new message, it will spend US$767m on LEC concrete on federal government buildings projects following a pilot that started in May 2023. The full list of the projects can be found here.

This is relevant because the US-based ready-mixed concrete (RMX) market has been valued roughly at around US$60bn/yr. One estimate of how much the US federal government spent on concrete was around US$5bn in 2018. So the government buys a significant minority of RMX in the country, and if it starts specifying LEC products, this will affect the industry. And, at present at least, a key ingredient of all that concrete is cement.

This isn’t the first time that legislators in the US have specified LEC concrete. In 2019 Marin County in California introduced what it said was the world’s first building code that attempted to minimise carbon emissions from concrete production. It did this by setting maximum ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and embodied carbon levels and offering several ways suppliers can achieve this, including increasing the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), using admixtures, optimising concrete mixtures and so on. Unlike the GSA’s approach in November 2023 though, this applies to all plain and reinforced concrete installed in the area, not just a portion of procured concrete via a government agency. Other similar regional schemes in the US include limits on embodied carbon levels in RMX in Denver, Colorado, and a reduction in the cement used in RMX in Berkeley, California. Environmental services company Tangible compiled a wider list of embodied carbon building codes in North America that can be viewed here. This grouping also includes the use of building intensity policies, whole building life cycle assessments (LCA), environmental product declarations (EPD), demolition and deconstruction directives, tax incentives and building reuse plans.

Government-backed procurement codes promoting or requiring the use of LEC building materials for infrastructure projects have been around for a while in various places. The general trend has been to start with measurement via tools such as LCAs and EPDs, move on to government procurement and then start setting embodied carbon limits for buildings. In the US the GSA’s latest pronouncement follows on from the Federal Buy Clean Initiative and from when California introduced its Buy Clean California Act in 2017. Outside of the US similar programmes have been introduced in countries including Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. On the corporate side members of the World Economic Forum’s First Movers’ Coalition have committed to purchasing or specifying volumes of LEC cement and/or concrete by 2030. Examples of whole countries actually setting embodied carbon emissions limits for non-government buildings are rarer, but some are emerging. Both France and Sweden, for example, introduced laws in 2022 that start by analysing life-cycle emissions of buildings and will move on to setting embodied carbon limits in the late 2020s. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are also in the process of introducing similar schemes. The next big move could be in the EU, where legislators are considering embodied carbon limits for building materials as part of its ongoing revisions to its Energy Performance of Buildings Directive or the Construction Products Regulation legislations. Lobbying, debate and arguing remains ongoing at present.

To finish, Ireland-based Ecocem spent a period in the 2010s attempting to build a slag cement grinding plant at Vallejo, Solano County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The project met with considerable local opposition on environmental grounds and was eventually refused planning permission. The irony is that slag cement is one of those SCM-style cements that Marin County, also in the San Francisco Bay Area, started encouraging the use of just a few years later. Ecocem held its inaugural science symposium in Paris this week. A number of scientists who attended the event called for existing low carbon technologies to be adopted by the cement and concrete sectors as fast as possible. One such approach is to lower the clinker factor in cement through the use of products that Ecocem and other companies sell. A point to consider is, if Marin County’s code or the GSA’s recent procurement directive came earlier, then that slag plant in Vallejo might have been built. Encouraging the use of LEC building materials by governments looks set to proliferate but it may not be a straightforward process. Clear and consistent policies will be key.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) recorded sales of US$7.22bn in the first half of 2023, down by 17% year-on-year from US$8.69bn. Cement and building materials accounted for US$2.6bn (36%) of sales, behind chemicals at US$2.74bn (38%). The company's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 24% to US$915m from US$1.21bn. Meanwhile, its profit excluding extra items dropped by 49% to US$279m from US$543m. Cement and building materials contributed 78.5m (28%) of group profit, down by 38% from US$126m (23%).

During the first half of 2023, sales of alternative CEM-I and CEM-II cement rose above 50% of SCG's cement sales for the first time, compared to 41% throughout 2022. The group substituted 22% of all cement fuel with alternative fuel (AF) across its operations, and 22% of cement fuel in its Thai domestic business. SCG invested US$91.5m in capital expenditure in its cement and building materials business throughout the first half of 2023.

Switzerland: Holcim recorded 7.4% year-on-year growth in its organic sales to US$15.3bn in the first half of 2023. However, in real terms, its sales fell by 11% year-on-year from US$17.1bn during the first half of 2022. Its sales of cement grew by 13.8% on an organic basis to US$7.93bn, down by 21% in real terms from US$10bn. Cement constituted 52% of revenues, compared to 58% in the first half of 2022. Holcim's group share of net income rose by 9% to US$1.47bn from US$1.35bn.

Chair and chief executive officer Jan Jenisch noted 'continued profitable expansion' in the growing North American market and 'accelerated green growth' in the group's Europe and Latin America regions. He said “In line with our Strategy 2025 - Accelerating Green Growth, we reduced our overall CO₂/net sales by 18% while building billion-dollar brands with ECOPact and ECOPlanet. It’s exciting to be at the forefront of decarbonising Europe with three additional grants from the EU Innovation Fund for our carbon capture, utilisation and storage projects, making us the first in our sector with five projects supported by the EU. We look forward to finishing the year strong and to further decarbonising building.” Jenisch concluded that the results 'confirm Holcim’s strong positions across all markets, delivering superior profitability and growth with leading sustainable building solutions and brands.'

Greece: Titan Cement Group reported sales of Euro1.23bn in the first half of 2023, up by 19% year-on-year from Euro1.04bn in the first half of 2022. Its sales rose by 25% to Euro736m in the US, by 21% to Euro197m in Greece and Western Europe and by 16% to Euro195m in Southeast Europe. However, they fell by 11% to Euro101m in the Eastern Mediterranean. The producer noted a cement demand decline in Brazil of 1.6%. Titan Cement Group's consolidated earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 77% to Euro241m from Euro136m.

Chair Marcel Cobuz said “An excellent first half of the year with strong pricing over costs and increased percentage of low carbon sales reaching 25% in infrastructure and building projects across the group. We are well on track for a record year of growth and an accelerated roadmap of decarbonisation and digitalisation.”

Greece: Titan Group has successfully commissioned an upgrade to the pre-calciner system of its Kamari cement plant in Voiotia. Titan Group says that this will enable the 3.1Mt/yr plant to expand its range of lower carbon cements, reducing its CO₂ emissions by 150,000t/yr. It also increases the plant's maximum possible alternative fuels (AF) substitution rate.

Titan Group’s Europe regional executive director Yanni Paniaras said "The completion of the Kamari plant upgrade represents a significant achievement for Titan Group. We are witnessing tangible results as our green innovation gains momentum and takes shape. This successful implementation of one of our major capital expenditure projects exemplifies our dedication to sustainable operations and strategic growth, while we continue to pursue more growth opportunities in all our active markets. We are committed to offering our customers and communities greener products and solutions, playing our part in building a sustainable future for all.”

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) hosted a one-day session in mid-June 2023 aimed at establishing guidelines for the definition of 'low carbon' cement and concrete. The association called the session a 'Critical first step' towards ensuring clarity for stakeholders.

The PCA said "Low carbon is increasingly defined in the eye of the beholder, with little or no regard to either upstream and downstream impacts or short-term and long-term strength, durability and resilience concerns."