Displaying items by tag: Belgium

Europe: Holcim has secured funding for three separate carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects at its cement plants in Europe. The recipient projects are the Go4Zero project at Holcim Belgium's Obourg cement plant in Belgium, the KOdeCO project at Holcim Croatia's Koromačno cement plant in Croatia and the eM-Rhône project at Lafarge Ciments' Le Teil cement plant in France. The Le Teil plant's system will be used to produce e-methanol, while the investment at the Koromačno plant will be part of a package of upgrades to turn the plant carbon neutral.

Alongside on-going projects in Germany and Poland, this will bring Holcim's total number of EU-funded CCUS projects to five. Holcim is committed to US$2.33bn-worth of investments of its own in over 50 carbon capture projects worldwide before 2030.

Holcim's Europe regional head Miljan Gutovic said “It’s exciting to be at the forefront of decarbonising the building sector in Europe. The support we are receiving from the EU Innovation Fund for five of our CCUS projects is a great testament to the strength of our engineering teams, the maturity of our technologies and our advanced partnerships across the value chain. Our robust pipeline of projects positions us as the partner of choice to scale up carbon capture technologies in Europe.”

Belgium: The European cement association, Cembureau, has asked the Europen Union (EU) to provide a regulatory framework to support the work of the European cement industry in co-processing waste composite materials as alternative raw materials. The materials in question consist of glass, carbon or other fibres and polymer matrices. The association called on the EU to recognise co-processing as ‘recycling’ under the EU Waste Framework Directive, to establish waste composite materials collection schemes and phase out landfilling, and to introduce dedicated waste codes for the materials. Cembureau said that the last of these proposals would help to increase visibility and attract investments.

Cembureau set out its proposals in a joint statement with resins associations Cefic UP/VE and Cefic Epoxy Europe, boating association EBI, composite materials association EuCIA, glass fibre association Glass Fibre Europe and wind energy association WindEurope.

Cemex highlighted its Clyngas project at its Alicante cement plant in Spain this week. The project will produce synthesis gas (syngas) from different types of waste for direct injection into the burner at the plant during the combustion process. It is being run in conjunction with Waste to Energy Advanced Solutions (WTEnergy), a company that Cemex invested in at the end of 2022. It is also receiving Euro4.4m in funding from the European Commission (EC) as part of its innovation fund for small scale projects. The initiative estimates that it will save over 400,000t of equivalent CO₂ during the first 10 years of the project's life by replacing petroleum coke with syngas.

Clyngas is another example of Cemex’s innovation with alternative fuels for cement and lime. It follows on from the group’s work with hydrogen injection into cement kilns. As presented at the 15th Global CemFuels Conference 2022 it has been using hydrogen in low volumes as a combustion enhancer in more than 20 plants worldwide. However, it was also looking into using hydrogen more directly as a fuel and as a feedstock for other alternative fuels. WTEnergy’s gasification process could potentially link up to this as it converts waste streams such as wood chips, agricultural waste, refuse derived fuel (RDF), solid recovered fuel (SRF), dry sewage sludge, meat and bone meal, poultry litter and plastics into syngas. WTEnergy then proposes that its gasification process and/or the syngas can be used for power generation and thermal applications. In the case of the Clyngas project it will be the latter, as the gasification process will be used to boost the burnability characteristics of RDF with a high biomass content. One part of this to note is that the syngas can potentially be used to manufacture hydrogen. This would be a useful capability for a cement company, for example, that was already using alternative fuels and was now considering further decarbonisation by switching to using hydrogen.

A few other cement companies have been looking at synthetic fuels too, but this has generally been as a by-product of carbon capture and utilisation. This week Lafarge France, for example, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Axens, EDF and IFP Energies Nouvelles for a synthetic fuel production trial. Its plan is to build a unit that will produce synthetic kerosene using captured CO₂ from a carbon capture installation at Lafarge France's Saint-Pierre-La-Cour cement plant. The kerosene will then be sold to airlines. Other examples of cement companies looking at using captured CO₂ to manufacture synthetic fuels include Finnsementti’s pre-engineering study with Aker Carbon Capture to consider producing methanol as a fuel for transport, Holcim’s and TotalEnergies’ various plans of what to do with the CO₂ captured from the-to-be upgraded Obourg cement plant and Cemex Deutschland’s ambitions for its Rüdersdorf plant.

As can be seen above there are different types of synthetic fuels and cement companies are at the research and pilot stages. Although there isn’t a commonly accepted definition of what a synthetic fuel is, the general meaning is that of a fuel made from feedstock using a chemical reaction as opposed to, say, a refining process. The wide variety of potential synthetic fuels puts the confusion over the different types of hydrogen into perspective. However, this may be a problem for a later date if usage by cement companies becomes more serious.

What is a problem, though, has been the EC’s planned legislation to phase out the use of industrial CO₂ in synthetic fuels by 2041. Cembureau, the European cement industry association, warned in late 2022 of the issues this would pose for industries trying to find a way to utilise their CO₂ emissions where storage was too difficult or expensive. Its view was that while synthetic fuels using industrial CO₂ are not fully net-zero, as the captured CO₂ is later released into the atmosphere, it is a necessary short to medium term step for sectors trying to make the transition. Companies trying to build industrial-scale chemical plants for synthetic fuels need running periods of 20 to 30 years to achieve payback. As of March 2023 Cembureau was still concerned about the implication of proposed regulations, specifically with regards to the proposed criteria for which synthetic fuels could be used, based on their greenhouse gas emissions savings (at least 70% compared to the regular fuels being replaced). It directly linked this to synthetic fuels projects being launched by the cement sector that might be adversely affected by the new rules. The EC published the legislation in late June 2023 and it is set to become legal in mid-July 2023.

Using synthetic fuels either as a fuel or a by-product from cement production is an area of interest currently with the projects detailed above and others in progress. One vision for their use in Europe, at least, is that they might offer a route for carbon capture for cement plants without access to the logistic networks necessary for sequestration. Whether they find a place in cement manufacture either on a transitional basis or over a longer term should become clearer over the coming decade. Yet the EC’s new rules are likely to slow this process down as at least some of the planned pilots may become unviable in Europe. Other jurisdictions around the world take note.

Belgium: Cembureau, the European Cement Association, has elected Ken McKnight as its president and Jon Morrish as vice-president. McKnight, a member of the CRH executive committee, succeeds Isidoro Miranda in the role. Morrish is the chief executive officer for Western & Southern Europe of Heidelberg Materials.

Greece/Belgium: Titan Cement International has bought back a further Euro313,000-worth (0.4%) of its shares. The latest buyback increases its ownership stake to 4.4%. The cement producer bought the shares via the Athens Stock Exchange and Euronext Brussels exchange.

Italy: Caltagirone Group subsidiary Cementir Holding reported year-on-year growth in sales of 15% to Euro415m during the first quarter of 2023. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 34% to Euro81.2m. The group ended the period under review with a net debt of Euro32.1m, down by 64% year-on-year.

Cementir Holding said that its cement sales volumes rose in Türkiye, but failed to offset declines in its Nordic & Baltic, Belgium and US regions, resulting in an overall decline of 4%.

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.”

Belgium: Holcim Belgium has received an environmental permit for the kiln upgrade for its 100% decarbonisation of its Obourg cement plant. Agency Belgium News has reported that the upgraded kiln will employ a 'new incineration concept' to enable it to replace limestone with alternative raw materials. It will reduce the plant's thermal needs by 40% and its CO₂ emissions per tonne of clinker by 30%. Construction will commence in late 2023. The kiln replacement will support a carbon capture installation as part of the GO4ZERO project.

The first phase of the GO4ZERO project is running from 2022 to 2025, and commands total investments of over Euro350m.

Belgium: Carmeuse Group’s lime plant engineering subsidiary TECforLime has appointed Gaetan Ly to the role of head of digital development. Ly previously served as group process engineer since 2014. He has also worked for geotechnical engineering company G-tec. Ly holds a master’s degree in engineering and geotechnical engineering from the University of Liège.

Italy: Cementir Holding recorded 'record' revenues of Euro1.72bn in 2022, up by 27% year-on-year from 2021 levels. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 7.8% to Euro335m, also a record figure, according to the group. Throughout 2022, Cementir Holding sold 10.8Mt of cement and clinker, down by 2.8% from 11.2Mt. It attributed this to a 'general slowdown of the market,' mainly in Türkiye, Denmark, China and Belgium, especially during the second half of the year.

Chair and CEO Francesco Caltagirone noted the 'solidity and resilience' of Cementir's business model, even in spite of 'geopolitical uncertainty and more restrictive monetary conditions.' He said "We have already achieved significant results in terms of decarbonisation, innovation and transparency, evidenced by the improvement of all environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and we want to continue on this virtuous path, in the interest of all stakeholders."