Displaying items by tag: CO2

Europe: Germany-based Heidelberg Materials has announced the launch of evoZero carbon captured net zero cement. The company produces evoZero cement at its Brevik cement plant in Norway. It says that this is the first cement to achieve net zero CO₂ emissions through the use of carbon capture and storage (CCUS), without relying on other methods of compensation in its carbon accounting.

Heidelberg Materials chair Dominik von Achten said “The launch of our unique evoZero products is a paradigm shift in the decarbonisation of our sector. Carbon capture and storage is a breakthrough technology for the building materials industry and we are frontrunners in deploying it at scale. With evoZero, we are offering the industry’s most innovative, globally unique product for our customers, enabling them to drive cutting-edge, environmentally friendly construction projects. I am very proud of the dedication and passion of everyone involved in our pioneering project in Brevik.”

Germany: Flender claimed the German Sustainability Award 2024 for mechanical engineering at a ceremony in Düsseldorf on 23 November 2023. The award recognises the outstanding contribution of the supplier’s drives for wind energy and industrial applications, including cement, to the German energy transition. Germany is committed to 80% renewable energy use nationally by 2030, and 100% by 2035.

CEO Andreas Evertz said "My sincerest thanks go to the Flender team and our partners. This award is a very special milestone for us. It is a testament to the passion and commitment of our global team in tackling these critical challenges. Furthermore, it serves as additional inspiration and motivation towards our ambitious objectives. Ultimately, the awards themselves are secondary to the meaningful achievements we attain together. The industry has a duty to take the lead in addressing the climate, environmental and social challenges."

Canada: The Cement Association of Canada (CAC) says that provisions for investments and supportive measures in the government’s Fall Economic Statement 2023 will help to ensure the successful roll-out of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) for industrial decarbonisation. The statement commits the government to advancing a CCUS Investment Tax Credits (ITC) scheme.

CAC president and CEO Adam Auer said “We commend the government’s recognition of the importance of CCUS in achieving our climate objectives. The cement industry is committed to reducing its carbon footprint, and these investments will facilitate the deployment of innovative technologies that are essential for achieving our Concrete Zero sustainability action plan objectives.”

UK: The Mineral Products Association (MPA) has called on the UK government to publish its promised response paper to consultations over a proposed UK carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) for imports of goods produced by heavy industries, including cement. This follows the failure of the government’s latest budget for 2023 to commit to the development of a national CBAM. The MPA said that it was ‘deeply disappointed’ with the outcome.

MPA executive director for energy and climate change Diana Casey said “The delay in committing to a CBAM sends the signal that the UK is not the place to invest. Cement is essential to our everyday lives. The construction of our homes, hospitals, offices and much more depend on it. We cannot take its supply for granted and neither can we put ourselves at risk of unstable international trading markets. Levelling the carbon cost between domestic production and imports is vital to attract the investment required to decarbonise and ensure our long-term security of supply. The UK government must urgently commit to a CBAM on cement.”

Egypt: Arabian Cement Company has hired consultancy A³&Co. to help develop a decarbonisation roadmap for its 5Mt/yr Sokhna cement plant. The roadmap will include the implementation of an integrated environmental, social and governance (ESG) business model, Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi)-verified targets, carbon market trading and EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) registration. Arabian Cement Company will execute projects to achieve its goals via a strategic partnership with A³&Co and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Arabian Cement Company CEO Sergio Alcantarilla said “We are excited about this partnership with EBRD and A³&Co., which showcases our commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable development. By embracing cutting-edge solutions and adopting greener processes, we are not only reducing our carbon footprint but also setting new benchmarks for the industry.”

A³&Co. CEO Amr Nader said “Through our collective expertise, we are confident that we can drive meaningful progress towards decarbonisation and the production of green cement, setting a precedent for responsible business practices in the region. The renewed cooperation between Arabian cement and A³&Co. is an additional milestone in our successful collaboration over the past two years. A³&Co. will also develop a Climate Corporate Governance (CCG) framework for Arabian Cement Company, which is the cornerstone for a fully-functioning ESG system in line with international norms.”

Philippines: Filinvest-ENGIE Renewable Energy Enterprise (FREE) has won a contract with Cemex Philippines for the construction of a 10.1MW solar power plant. The Business Mirror newspaper has reported that the plant is comprised of a ground-mounted array of solar panels at Cemex Philippines’ Apo cement plant in Cebu. The solar power plant will eliminate 10,000t/yr of CO₂ from the Cebu cement plant’s emissions. Additionally, the producer has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with FREE for future collaborations on renewable energy and efficiency-increasing projects around the nearby city of Naga.

Cemex Philippines president and CEO Luis Franco said “This solar energy partnership is another milestone under Cemex’s Future in Action programme, as we progress closer to our goal of reducing Scope 2 CO₂ emissions to less than 24kg/t of cementitious product by 2030.” He added “We are proud to partner with FREE, a company that shares our vision to address climate change through sustainable projects. This is a win not only for Cemex, but also for the planet as we take concrete steps in making renewable energy the future of the industry.”

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.

Australia: The government has begun consultations with affected parties over the possible implementation of a carbon border tax on imports of goods from heavy industries, including cement production. The Herald Sun newspaper has reported that manufacturers’ associations in Australia have welcomed the possible change to emissions laws.

France: Ireland-based Ecocem hosted a symposium on the application of new materials technologies in cement production on 14 November 2023. Participating materials scientists published a statement calling on the global cement industry to make use of alternative materials to achieve CO₂ emissions reductions. In the statement, they said “It is no longer possible to say that we lack the technology or that the costs are prohibitive.”

India: Nuvoco Vistas sold 4.5Mt of cement during the second quarter of its 2024 financial year (FY2024), up by 1.2% year-on-year. Its revenues grew by 7% to US$309m, while its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 73% to US$40.4m. The producer achieved specific CO₂ emissions of 462kg/t and an alternate fuel (AF) substitution rate of 14%. During the quarter, it completed debottlenecking projects at the Risda, Chhattisgarh, and Nimbol, Rajasthan, cement plants. The company said that these raised its clinker capacity by 2000t/day. It also secured a new patent, for its fibre reinforced cement composition, and introduced its Concreto UNO and Duraguard F2F premium cements on the Jharkhand market.

Managing director Jayakumar Krishnaswamy said “Our value over volume strategy has positively contributed to the company’s performance. Our trade share has increased from 72% in the second quarter of the 2023 financial year (FY2023) to 74% in the second quarter of FY2024. In addition, the results also demonstrate our commitment to managing the dynamic cost environment through an optimised power and fuel mix, between conventional and clean energy sources.” He added “The expansion at the Haryana cement plant is expected to be completed in FY2024, which will enable us cater to strong demand in the Northern India region.”