Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: First Graphene has partnered with Suvo Strategic Minerals to develop graphene-enhanced metakaolin for use in cement and concrete production. Metakaolin is a pozzolanic material derived from kaolinite clay. The partners believe that the technology has commercial potential to improve concrete performance and reduce CO₂ emissions.

Australia: Adbri has extended Independent Cement and Lime (ICL)'s contract to exclusively distribute its products to the New South Wales and Victoria markets. ICL is a 50% subsidiary of Adbri. Volumes under the renewed contract will be similar to those during 2022, while prices will reflect market conditions. Adbri said that ICL distributes a 'substantial' proportion of the cement produced at its Birkenhead cement plant in South Australia.

Adbri's interim chief executive officer Mark Irwin said “Independent Cement and Lime is Victoria’s pre-eminent cementitious products distributor and is an important part of Adbri’s supply chain across Victoria and New South Wales. We are pleased to extend our distribution arrangement with ICL through to the end of 2023. We look forward to the commissioning in 2023 of the Melbourne cement facility’s new 45,000t silo at Port Melbourne, which will enhance Independent Cement and Lime’s ability to service the Victorian market.”

Adbri had previously considered buying Barro Group's cement assets, which included the remaining 50% stake in Independent Cement and Lime, in 2018.

Australia: The Australian government’s Department of Climate Change is receiving public comments on Cement Australia subsidiary Cornwall Coal’s plans to open a new coal mine in Tasmania’s Fingal Valley, near St Mary’s. Local press has reported that the proposed site will operate across three open pits, with a total area of 26ha. The mine will replace the company’s nearby Cullenswood coal mine when it runs out of coal later in 2023, and will operate until 2026 or 2027. Cornwall Coal’s Tasmanian operations currently supply coal for Cement Australia’s Railton cement plant, as well as other local industrial sites.

Under Cornwall Coal’s proposals, the company will build travel culverts for local wildlife, and assist in relocating animals currently occupying the site. Tasmanian devils and two species of quoll – all endangered – live on the land in question.

Mick Tucker, head of Break O’Day Municipality Council, said that the municipality currently depends on Cornwall Coal’s operations for 60 – 80 jobs. He said that the company’s plans have strong support in the local community.

Australia: Bruks Siwertell has received an order from Hallet Capital for an enclosed ship unloader for Port Adelaide. A gantry-mounted Siwertell 490 F-type unit has been ordered along with a jetty screw-conveyor system feeding a dome silo and individual screw conveyors for installation inside the dome. The unloader will be suitable for discharging bulkers up to 40,000dwt at a rated cement handling capacity of 500t/hr. It is planned for delivery in August 2023 and will be assembled on site.

Hallett Group announced plans in mid-2022 to build a slag cement grinding plant in Port Augusta, South Australia. The project will also include a new distribution facility at Port Adelaide.

Australia: AdBri says that the cost of an ongoing upgrade at its Kwinana grinding plant has risen to US$177m - 200m following a review of the project. Initial findings reported that the project cost had been inflated by a range of factors, including the escalating cost of construction in Western Australia and constraints on available labour. The project was originally budgeted at around US$140m. The company has already invested US$64m in it.

The cement producer is now conducting a more thorough analysis of the project. It says it might be able to ‘optimise value’ through re-scoping, cutting costs and improving the synergies with AdBri’s existing operations and logistics network. It expects the review of the project to be complete by early 2023. The upgrade was previously scheduled for commissioning in mid-2023.

Australia: Cockburn Cement has awarded US$1.65m-worth of increased work scope to construction company SIMPEC on an existing contract with the producer. Business News Australia has reported that SIMPEC is carrying out work on Cockburn Cement's Kwinana grinding plant upgrade. The cement company is in the process of consolidating its Western Australian cement production at an expanded 1.5Mt/yr facility at the site, at a cost of US$152m. A new US$35.1m clinker terminal at Kwinana Bulk Terminal will receive up to 40,000t/yr of clinker for use at the plant and in fellow cement producer BGC's local operations.

In Australia and New Zealand, four producers operate a total of six integrated cement plants, with another 13 grinding plants situated in Australia. This relatively small regional cement industry has been on a decades-long trajectory towards ever-greater sustainability – hastened by some notable developments in recent weeks.

Oceania is among the regions most exposed to the impacts of climate change. In Australia, which ranked 16th on the GermanWatch Global Climate Risk Index 2021, destructive changes are already playing out in diverse ways.¹ Boral reported 'significant disruption' to its operations in New South Wales and southeast Queensland due to wet weather earlier in 2022. This time, the operational impact was US$17.1m; in future, such events are expected to come more often and at a higher cost.

Both the Australian cement industry and the sole New Zealand cement producer, Golden Bay Cement, have strategies aimed at restricting climate change to below the 2° scenario. Golden Bay Cement, which reduced its total CO₂ emissions by 12% over the four-year period between its 2018 and 2022 financial years, aims to achieve a 30% reduction by 2030 from the same baseline. The Australian Cement Industry Federation (CIF)'s 2050 net zero cement and concrete production roadmap consists of the following pathways: alternative cements – 7%; green hydrogen and alternative fuels substitution – 6%; carbon capture – 33%; renewable energy, transport and construction innovations – 35% and alternative concretes – 13%, with the remaining 6% accounted for by the recarbonation of set concrete.

Australia produces 5.2Mt/yr of clinker, with specific CO₂ emissions of 791kg/t of clinker, 4% below the global average of 824kg/t.² Calcination generates 55% of cement’s CO₂ emissions in the country, and fuel combustion 26%. Of the remainder, electricity (comprising 21% renewables) accounted for 12%, and distribution 7%. Australian cement production has a clinker factor of 84%, which the industry aims to reduce to 70% by 2030 and 60% by 2050. In New Zealand, Golden Bay Cement's main cement, EverSure general-purpose cement, generates CO₂ at 732kg/t of product.³ It has a clinker factor of 91%, and also contains 4% gypsum and 5% added limestone.

Alternative raw materials

Currently, Australian cement grinding mills process 3.3Mt/yr of fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). In Southern Australia, Hallett Group plans to commission its upcoming US$13.4m Port Augusta slag cement grinding plant in 2023. The plant will use local GGBFS from refineries in nearby Port Pirie and Whyalla, and fly ash from the site of the former Port Augusta power plant, as well as being 100% renewably powered. Upon commissioning, the facility will eliminate regional CO₂ emissions of 300,000t/yr, subsequently rising to 1Mt/yr following planned expansions. Elsewhere, an Australian importer holds an exclusive licencing agreement for UK-based Innovative Ash Solutions' novel air pollution control residue (APCR)-based supplementary cementitious material, an alternative to pulverised fly ash (PFA), while Australian Graphene producer First Graphene is involved in a UK project to develop reduced-CO₂ graphene-enhanced cement.

Golden Bay Cement is investigating the introduction of New Zealand's abundant volcanic ash in its cement production.

Fuels and more

Alternative fuel (AF) substitution in Australian cement production surpassed 18% in 2020, and is set to rise to 30% by 2030 and 50% by 2050, or 60% including 10% green hydrogen. In its recent report on Australian cement industry decarbonisation, the German Cement Works Association (VDZ) noted the difficulty that Australia's cement plants face in competing against landfill sites for waste streams. It described current policy as inadequate to incentivise AF use.

Cement producer Adbri is among eight members of an all-Australian consortium currently building a green hydrogen plant at AGL Energy’s Torrens Island gas-fired power plant in South Australia.

Across the Tasman Sea, Golden Bay Cement expects to attain a 60% AF substitution rate through on-going developments in its use of waste tyres and construction wood waste at its Portland cement plant in Northland. The producer will launch its new EcoSure reduced-CO₂ (699kg/t) general-purpose cement in November 2022. In developing EcoSure cement, it co-processed 80,000t of waste, including 3m waste tyres. The company says that this has helped in its efforts to manage its costs amid high coal prices.

Carbon capture

As the largest single contributor in Australia's cement decarbonisation pathway, carbon capture is now beginning to realise its potential. Boral and carbon capture specialist Calix are due to complete a feasibility study for a commercial-scale carbon capture pilot at the Berrima, New South Wales, cement plant in June 2023.

At Cement Australia's Gladstone, Queensland, cement plant, carbon capture is set to combine with green hydrocarbon production in a US$150m circular carbon methanol production facility supplied by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company. From its commissioning in mid-2028, the installation will use the Gladstone plant's captured CO₂ emissions and locally sourced green hydrogen to produce 100,000t/yr of methanol.

More Australian cement plant carbon capture installations may be in the offing. Heidelberg Materials, joint parent company of Cement Australia, obtained an indefinite global licence to Calix's LEILAC technology on 28 October 2022. The Germany-based group said that the method offers effective capture with minimal operational impact.

Cement Australia said “The Gladstone region is the ideal location for growing a diverse green hydrogen sector, with abundant renewable energy sources, existing infrastructure, including port facilities, and a highly skilled workforce." It added "The green hydrogen economy is a priority for the Queensland government under the Queensland Hydrogen Industry Strategy.”

Logistics

Australian and New Zealand cement facilities' remoteness makes logistics an important area of CO₂ emissions reduction. In Australia, cement production uses a 60:40 mix of Australian and imported clinker, while imported cement accounts for 5 – 10% of local cement sales of 11.7Mt/yr.

Fremantle Ports recently broke ground on construction of its US$35.1m Kwinana, Western Australia, clinker terminal. It will supply clinker to grinding plants in the state from its commissioning in 2024. Besides increasing the speed and safety of cement production, the state government said that the facility presents 'very significant environmental benefits.'

Conclusion

Antipodean cement production is undergoing a sustainability transformation, characterised by international collaboration and alliances across industries. The current structure of industrial and energy policy makes it an uphill journey, but for Australia and New Zealand's innovating cement industries, clear goals are in sight and ever nearer within reach.

References

1. Eckstein, Künzel and Schäfer, 'Global Climate Risk Index 2021,' 25 January 2021, https://www.germanwatch.org/en/19777

2. VDZ, 'Decarbonisation Pathways for the Australian Cement and Concrete Sector,' November 2021, https://cement.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Full_Report_Decarbonisation_Pathways_web_single_page.pdf

3. Golden Bay Cement, 'Environmental Product Declaration,' 12 May 2019, https://www.goldenbay.co.nz/assets/Uploads/d310c4f72a/GoldenBayCement_EPD_2019_HighRes.pdf

Australia: Cement Australia’s Gladstone cement plant in Queensland will host a study of methanol production from green hydrogen and captured CO₂. Japan-based Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company will supply its green methanol production technology, while hydrogen and oxygen feedstocks will be sourced locally. Cement Australia and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company will collaborate on commercialisation of their green methanol. Cement Australia said that carbon capture and its utilisation in value added products is a strategic pillar of the company’s decarbonisation roadmap.

The cement producer said “The Gladstone region is the ideal location for growing a diverse green hydrogen sector, with abundant renewable energy sources, existing infrastructure, including port facilities, and a highly skilled workforce. The green hydrogen economy is a priority for the Queensland government under the Queensland Hydrogen Industry Strategy.”

Brazil: Germany-based INFORM has established a joint venture with its partner Portia LAC in São Paulo. The new company called INFORM PORTIA will take over sales, consulting and support for INFORM software products in Brazil.

Andreas Meyer, the chief executive officer of INFORM, said “With this joint venture, we are expanding our presence in South America to meet the growing demand for software solutions to optimise business processes.” He added, “This joint venture is an important building block in our global network. We strive to maintain a relationship with our customers based on partnership and trust. However, this is much more successful if you also have a local presence.” In addition to its headquarters in Aachen in Germany and new joint venture in Brazil, INFORM is represented by five other INFORM related companies in the US, Chile, Australia, Singapore, and Portugal respectively.

Australia: AdBri says that Nick Miller will be leaving the role as its chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director. Mark Irwin has been appointed as interim CEO with immediate effect. Recruitment for a permanent CEO will start soon. In a trading update, the company said that its earnings were being negatively affected by rising costs, particularly energy and diesel costs, and poor weather.

Miller originally became the CEO of AdBri in 2019 and was later appointed its board of directors as managing director in late 2021.