Displaying items by tag: Belgium

Belgium: Holcim has completed its acquisition of speciality building products company PTB-Compaktuna. The group said that the acquisition further expands its service-led offering in the repair and refurbishment market.

CEO Jan Jenisch said “I am excited to add PTB-Compaktuna to the Holcim family as another step in the expansion of solutions and products, advancing our Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth. This addition strengthens our presence in Europe in key markets like repair and refurbishment. Building on the entrepreneurial vision and legacy of the Smessaert family, I look forward to investing in this business’ next era of growth and warmly welcoming their employees into the Holcim family.”

Belgium: Environmental disclosure organisation CDP has listed Cemex, HeidelbergCement and Holcim among 200 companies on its 2021 Climate Change A List for actions to mitigate their CO2 emissions. Holcim’s Indian subsidiaries ACC and Ambuja Cements also received A ratings. Both ACC and Ambuja appeared on CDP’s 2021 Water Security A List, while Holcim scored an A-.

Chief executive officer Jan Jenisch said “Building on the launch of our nature-positive strategy this year, we set new and ambitious goals to achieve water security across our operations worldwide, with our colleagues from Ambuja in India leading the way. CDP’s rankings this year are a testimony to the tremendous work carried out by our 70,000 people around the world and a great encouragement for all of us to keep raising the bar.”

Italy: During the first nine months of 2021, Cementir Holding recorded consolidated sales of Euro1.01bn, up by 12% year-on-year from Euro897m in the corresponding period of 2020. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 21% to Euro215m from Euro178m. Its net debt on 30 September 2021 was Euro100m, less than half that on 30 September 2020. Its third-quarter cement and clinker sales were 2.9Mt, down by 7.5% year-on-year. This was due to the impacts of pent-up demand post-Covid-19 lockdown, especially in Belgium and Turkey, in the third quarter of 2020.

Dow Jones Global News has reported that chair and CEO Francesco Caltagirone said "In the first nine months of 2021, the group reported results in line with our expectations.”

In the two and a half years since Calix brought together cement producers across corporate and national boundaries to form the first Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement (LEILAC-1) consortium and commissioned a carbon capture installation at the Lixhe cement plant in Belgium on 10 May 2019, carbon capture and storage (CCS) has passed some major milestones. New installations have made Global Cement headlines from Canada (at Lehigh Cement’s Edmonton plant in November 2019) to China (at a China National Building Material (CNBM) plant in July 2021). Twelve other European cement plants now host current or planned carbon capture trials – including the first full-scale system, at HeidelbergCement’sBrevik plant in Norway. A second Calix-led project in Germany, LEILAC-2, attracted Euro16m-worth of funding from the European Union in April 2020.

The work of LEILAC-1 – backed by HeidelbergCement, Cemex, Lhoist, Tarmac and others, with Euro12m in funding – set the benchmark in innovation. Its pilot plant successfully captured 100% of 'unavoidable' process emissions by indirectly heating raw materials inside a vertical steel tube. Called direct capture, the model removes a CO₂ separation step, as our subsequent price analysis will reflect.

In October 2021, the LEILAC-1 consortium published its report of the concluded Lixhe trial. It described the three-fold key successes of the study:

1) Both limestone and raw meal may be processed;

2) CO₂ is successfully separated;

3) The energy penalty for indirect calcination is not higher than for conventional direct calcination.

Additionally, Calix’s first departure into the cement sector has demonstrated that its model exhibits no operational deterioration, does not suffer from material build-up and has no impact on the host plant when used in cement production. The plant’s clinker capacity remained the same as before the trial. Most importantly of all, the Lixhe cement plant recorded no process safety incidents throughout the duration of the trial.

The study has also put an evidence-based price tag on industrial-scale CCS at a cement plant for the first time: Euro36.84/t. Figure 1 (below) plots the full-cycle costs of three different carbon capture installations at retrofitted 1Mt/yr cement plants using 100% RDF, including projections for transport and storage. Installation 1 is an amine-based carbon capture system of the kind installed in the Brevik cement plant’s exhaust stack; Installation 2 is the Calix direct capture system and Installation 3 consists of both systems in combination. Direct capture’s costs are the lowest, while the amine retrofit and the combination installation are close behind at Euro43.68/t and Euro43.25/t respectively.

Figure 1: Full-cycle costs of three different carbon capture installations at retrofitted 1Mt/yr cement plants using 100% RDF

Installations 1 and 3 both entail additional energy requirements for the separation of CO₂ from flue gases and air. With the inclusion of the CO₂ produced thereby, the cost of Installation 1 rises to Euro94/t of net CO₂ emissions eliminated, more than double that of Installation 2 at Euro38.21/t. The combination of the two in Installation 3 costs Euro67.3/t, 76% more than direct capture alone. Figure 2 (below), breaks down the carbon avoidance costs for each one and compares them.

Figure 2: Carbon avoidance costs of three different carbon capture installations at retrofitted 1Mt/yr cement plants using 100% RDF

The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA)’s seven-point Roadmap to Net Zero strategy puts CCS at the forefront of concrete sector decarbonisation. CCS is expected to eliminate an increasing share of global concrete’s CO₂ emissions, rising to 36% in 2050 – by then 1.37Bnt of a total 3.81Bnt. This will depend on affordability. Calix’s model has reduced the capital expenditure (CAPEX) of a carbon capture retrofit by 72% to Euro34m from Euro98m for the amine-based equivalent. When built as part of a new plant, the CAPEX further lowers to Euro27m. Both models may also be retrofitted together, for Euro99m. In future, Calix expects to install direct capture systems capable ofachieving Euro22/t of captured CO₂. By contrast, the cost of emitting 1t of CO₂ in the EU on 11 October 2021 was Euro59.15.

In what it calls the Decade to Deliver, the GCCA aims to achieve a 25% CO₂ emissions reduction in global concrete production between 2020 and 2030, in which CCS plays only a minor part of less than 5%. LEILAC-1 presents a visionof affordable carbon avoidance which complements cement companies’ 2030 CO₂ reduction aspirations.

Unlike conventional CCS methods, however, direct capture only does two thirds of a job – eliminating the emissions of calcination, but not combustion. This would appear to make it unsuited to cement’s longer-term aim of carbon neutrality by 2050 in line with the Paris Climate Accords’ 2°C warming scenario. On the other hand, direct capture is not designed to work alone. Calix recommends use of the technology in conjunction with a decarbonised fuel stream to eliminate the plant’s remaining direct emissions. This increases the price - by 47% to Euro56.05/t of CO₂ avoided for biomassand by more than double to Euro104.48/t for an E-kiln.

The Lixhe cement plant’s carbon capture story is one of a successful crossover from one industry into another: Calix previously applied the technology in the Australian magnesite sector. Realisation of the Calix carbon capture vision in the global cement industry is a challenge primarily due to the scale of the task. It will require continued collaboration between companies and with partners outside of the industry. Further than this, parliaments must continue to enact legislation to make emission mitigation the economic choice for producers.

Belgium: The low-emissions intensity lime and cement (LEILAC) consortium has published the results of its LEILAC-1 carbon capture and storage (CCS) study at HeidelbergCement’s Lixhe cement plant in Visé. The study found the cost of CCS to be Euro14 – 24/t of CO2 captured. It found that full-chain CO2 mitigation projects incur costs are Euro39 – 80/t, depending on transport and storage selections.

EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) credits currently cost Euro62/t.

Benelux: Belgium-based building supplies chain EcoBati has signed a distribution agreement with France-based Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies. The producer will supply its H-Iona clinker-free cement for EcoBati to sell online and in its shops in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies owners Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann said "Signing a distribution agreement with an international specialist in ecological materials shows the competitive edge and relevance of our H-Iona cement within the context of the fight against global warming. We are therefore delighted with the signing of this partnership that allows us to benefit from the EcoBati network’s strategic retail outlets and provide a response to the exponential demand for sustainable cement. We intend to sign more such partnerships in the future in order to spread our responsible vision of the construction sector and contribute to the environmental transition."

Benelux: Ireland-based Ecocem has appointed Paul Roos as Ecocem Benelux Managing Director and Joris Schoon as Technical Developer.

Prior to this appointment, Roos was the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Commercial Director at Huntsman Corporation. At Ecocem, he will be responsible for managing Ecocem Benelux.

Schoon holds a PhD in civil engineering, specialising in concrete and environment. He holds over 20 years of industry experience. He will be based in Belgium for this role.

Belgium: Holcim Belgium is hosting a public meeting as a preliminary step towards applying for a permit to install a new kiln line at its Obourg cement plant in Mons. The line is intended to replace the existing kiln line as it reaches the end of its operational life. The subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim has called the proposed project Go4Zero. The new kiln will be designed to concentrate CO₂ emissions to allow for capture and recovery. Limestone for the plant will be extracted from a quarry at Tournaisis and transported to the plant by railway.

Italy: Cementir’s revenue rose by 16.5% year-on-year to Euro665m in the first half of 2021 from Euro570m in the same period in 2020. Its cement and ready-mixed concrete sales volumes grew by 18.7% to 5.46Mt and 31.4% to 2.52Mm³ respectively. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 36.6% to Euro134m from Euro 97.8m. The cement producer noted strong cement sales volumes performance in Turkey, Belgium and Denmark and good concrete sales volumes also in Turkey.

“Despite the first half 2020 [when] results were affected by the lockdown due to Covid-19, during 2021 all the markets in which we operate are showing signs of vivacity and in particular Turkey is recovering significantly," said chairman and chief executive officer Francesco Caltagirone Jr.

Belgium: Magotteaux says that its production plants at Vaux-sous-Chèvremont and Trooz near Liege were ‘severely hit’ by flooding in mid-July 2021. The industrial equipment and services supplier is currently assessing the extent of the damage but production is expected to be affected. It reported that all of its staff were safe following the incident.