
Displaying items by tag: CO2
Norway: The Norwegian Parliament has voted in favour of the government’s proposed grant of funding for industrial scale implementation of full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) at HeidelbergCement subsidiary Norcem’s Brevik cement plant. Work on the project is expected to start immediately, with the goal of starting CO2 separation from the cement production process by 2024. The end result will be a 50% cut of emissions from the cement produced at the plant. The group said that the installation will contribute to its CO2 emissions reduction target of 30% between 1990 and 2025.
Norcem chair and HeidelbergCement Northern Europe regional general manager Giv Brantenberg said, “HeidelbergCement highly appreciates the successful cooperation with the Norwegian authorities. The Brevik CCS project clearly shows the importance of industry and public sector to find common solutions in the fight against climate change.”
HeidelbergCement chair Dominik von Achten said, “We are delighted about the final approval of the Norwegian parliament for our breakthrough CCS project in Norway.” He added, “To meet national and international climate targets, CO2 separation is an important cornerstone. Our CCS project in Brevik will pave the way for our industry and other sectors.”
VDZ publishes cement industry decarbonisation study
03 December 2020Germany: The German Cement Works Association (VDZ) has published a study entitled ‘Decarbonising cement and concrete: a CO2 roadmap for the German cement industry,’ detailing the planned transformation to cement industry-wide carbon neutrality by 2050.
The study says that a decarbonisation scenario based on conventional reduction measures would cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 36% between 2019 and 2050. Chief executive officer (CEO) Martin Schneider said that the sector is already “reaching the limits of its potential for any further reduction in the volume of CO2, particularly as the process-related emissions specifically associated with clinker production cannot be lowered by employing conventional means." As such, the association proposed a “completely new approach to the production of cement and its use in concrete” in order to realise full climate neutrality. It proposes that cement producers help to reduce concrete’s clinker factor, capturing the remaining CO2 from necessary cement production.
Schneider said, "We have placed the decarbonisation of cement and concrete at the heart of our activities. It will be essential to achieve an integrated approach, incorporating the entire construction value chain.” In order for this more radical scenario to work, he added, “Another essential factor will be to involve society as a whole in this process."
Federbeton publishes 2019 sustainability report
03 December 2020Italy: The Italian cement and concrete association Federbeton says that investments in sustainable technologies in domestic cement production totalled Euro110m between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2019. This reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 311,000t in 2019 alone, up by 12% year-on-year from the reduction in 2018. An increased alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate of 6.7% in 2019 contributed to the reduction, up by 0.7% from 6.6%. Producers’ full-year AF consumption was 1.6Mt.
Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has formulated a set of medium-term goals and long-term policies in order to enable it to achieve carbon neutrality, in line with the Japanese government’s target, by 2050. These consist of a 30% reduction in energy-derived carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions intensity between 2005 and 2030 and efforts toward carbon neutrality in energy and process-derived emissions by 2050. These efforts include: “reduction to the limit of fossil energy, development and introduction of process-derived CO2 emission reduction technology, carbon-free electric power, technology development and supply expansion related to low-carbon cement and concrete products, development and supply of innovative bonding materials and development and introduction of innovative technology related to carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS).”
Update on France: November 2020
25 November 2020There were mixed feelings evoked by HeidelbergCement’s good news last week that its French subsidiary Ciments Calcia is to set to spend Euro400m on a modernisation project. Sadly, this came with the bad news that the integrated plants at Gargenville and Cruas will be downgraded into a grinding plant and a terminal respectively, and there will be a review of the company’s headquarters in Guerville. All of this will cut 160 jobs but create 20 new ones.
Make no mistake, this is serious money to invest. Euro300m alone will go towards an upgrade of the integrated Airvault cement plant in the former Poitou-Charentes administrative region. HeidelbergCement didn’t say it in its press release but French press reported that the pyroprocessing line at Airvault will be rebuilt starting in 2022 with commissioning scheduled for 2025. If correct then this certainly suits an investment on this scale for a single plant. Smaller investments in the region of Euro25 – 50m were also said be earmarked for the integrated plants at Bussac-Forêt, Beaucaire and Couvrot. These are serious commitments to HeidelbergCement’s production base in France.
Generally speaking, the French cement and construction market has done as well as expected for a country forced to implement two coronavirus lockdowns so far in 2020. Half-way through the year the major cement producers were reporting sales declines of around 10% year-on-year with business picking up again over the summer. Vicat, for example, reported a 9% fall in sales volumes in the first half followed by ‘solid business growth’ in June 2020. LafargeHolcim, CRH and HeidelbergCement all reported a similar situation for their local subsidiaries.
Looking at the wider construction industry, in October 2020 analyst company GlobalData stuck by its forecast of a contraction of construction output by 11.6% in France in 2020. It noted a 35.5% quarter-on-quarter rebound in the third quarter, although it reckoned output was still down by around 5% in the quarter year-on-year, using French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) data. With a second national lockdown initiated in late October 2020, it said that INSEE expected a contraction in the fourth quarter of 2020 even with construction sites being allowed to stay open. This follows a peak of cement production above 20Mt in the late 2000s before hitting a low of around 15.5Mt in 2015 and a gradual recovery since then, according to data from the French cement industry union (SFIC).
Ciments Calcia’s upgrade at Airvault is noteworthy for the whole of Europe because it is one of only a few new pyroprocessing line projects in the last decade. The last major one was the new 4000t/day line at HeidelbergCement’s Burglengenfeld plant in Germany that was commissioned in 2018. The trend since then has generally been one of integrated plants slowly closing as markets shrank following the 2008 financial crisis, international clinker levels boomed and environmental measures tightened. Dominik von Achten, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement, addressed this last point directly with the announcement of the Airvault project when he said, “This is why we focus our initiatives on the main CO2-emitting plants in France.” The competitors to the larger established cement producers in France are certainly thinking about CO2. Alongside the general European trend of fewer new clinker production lines has been rise in France of the smaller cement producers with grinding and/or reduced-clinker factor models like Cem’In’Eu, Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies and Ecocem. Anyone spending Euro300m on a clinker kiln spewing out CO2 would do well to consider how much the CO2 price might be in fifty years time.
Catch4Climate project moves forward with Mergelstetten oxyfuel plans
19 November 2020Germany: The Catch4Climate project has moved into the planning stage of its oxyfuel pilot plant at the Mergelstetten cement plant. The group, comprising Buzzi Unicem’s subsidiary Dyckerhoff, HeidelbergCement, Schwenk Zement and Vicat, signed a letter of intent with the state’s prime minister and transport minister in Stuttgart in mid-November 2020.
The consortium intends to build and operate its own demonstration plant on a semi-industrial scale, to use the oxyfuel process to capture CO2. In the future, the captured CO2 will be used to produce so-called ‘reFuels’, climate-neutral synthetic fuels such as kerosene for air traffic, with the help of renewable electrical energy.
The cement producers formed CI4C – Cement Innovation for Climate in late 2019. The aim of the Catch4Climate project is to create the basis for a large-scale application of CO2 capture technologies in cement plants enabling the later use of CO2 as a raw material in other processes such as a carbon capture and utilisation/storage.
LafargeHolcim launches sustainability-linked bond for Euro850m
18 November 2020Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has launched a Euro850m sustainability-linked bond with a coupon of 0.5% maturing in 2031. It says it is the first bond of its kind in the building materials industry and that it is part of its commitment to reach its 2030 CO2 reduction target.
“We are proud to be the first in our industry to launch a sustainability-linked bond. The order book of Euro2.6bn demonstrates the confidence of investors in the company’s financial strength, strategy and ability to deliver on its sustainability targets,” said Géraldine Picaud, Chief Financial Officer of LafargeHolcim.
Bond investors will be entitled to a higher coupon should the company not meet its objective, incentivising LafargeHolcim to reach its target of 475kg net CO2 per tonne of cementitious material by 2030.
Pilot plant for Cleanker project inaugurated in Italy
30 October 2020Italy: The pilot plant for the Cleanker project was inaugurated at Buzzi Unicem’s Vernasca cement plant in early October 2020. The purpose of the calcium looping technology project is to demonstrate a technology for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) in cement plants. Tests will be run for around 10 months with a total actual operating time of one month at most.
LafargeHolcim launches EcoLabel green cement and concrete brand
28 October 2020Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has announced the launch of EcoLabel, a brand to encapsulate its green cements and concretes. All products bearing the label must have either a 30% lower carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint compared to the local industry standard or use 20% recycled content. The company says that the reason behind EcoLabel is to “support builders in making greener choices” and to “accelerate the company’s Net Zero Journey.”
Chief sustainability officer Magali Anderson said, “I am very proud of how our company is turning our net zero pledge into action across more than 70 countries, with our broad range of green building solutions. The EcoLabel is a key milestone on this journey, confirming LafargeHolcim’s commitment to lead the way in sustainability and innovation.”
Cemex Zement launches Vision Rüdersdorf
14 October 2020Germany: Cemex Zement has announced the start of carbon-neutral building materials development at its 1.9Mt/yr Rüdersdorf, Brandenburg cement plant. Called Vision Rüdersdorf, the project consists of, “the comprehensive investigation of various approaches to breakthrough technologies in order to prevent process-related carbon dioxide (CO2) from entering the atmosphere, but to use it for beneficial purposes. The investigation areas can be divided into capture, storage or use of CO2. This will help towards Cemex’s target of 55% CO2 emissions reduction across Europe by 2030 and its commitment to deliver carbon-neutral concrete by 2050.
Chief executive officer (CEO) Rüdiger Kuhn said, “For years, sustainable success has been achieved here in the reduction of fossil fuels and in the selection of alternative recipe ingredients for cement. The experienced team is always looking for possible improvements. When it came to determining the best possible CO2 emission values, the Rüdersdorf plant was always at the forefront of the European cement industry and has thus also earned an excellent reputation in the global Cemex organisation.”
In order to realise Vision Rüdersdorf, the producer has partnered with companies from other industries. Managing director and plant manager Stefan Schmorleiz said, “In an interesting approach, the CO2 that we capture is used as a raw material for downstream processes in the chemical industry. Another approach is to innovate in the storage of CO2. With these efforts, and our commitment to review and invest in these technologies, Cemex Zement is making a contribution to the decarbonisation of the cement industry.”