Displaying items by tag: CO2

Spain: Oficemen the Spanish cement association has blamed falling cement exports in 2018 on rising electricity and CO₂ emissions prices. The association said the European Union CO₂ price tripled to Euro24.60/t at the end of 2018 from Euro7.80/t at the start of the year, with an average price of Euro16.00/t of cement. Exports fell by 12% year-on-year to 8.1Mt in the 11 months of the end of November 2018. Cement consumption grew by 8% year-on-year to 13.4Mt in 2018. It forecasts growth of 3 – 6% in 2019.

Sweden: LafargeHolcim has been named by Sasja Beslik, the head of sustainable finance at Nordea, as the second worst company for increasing CO₂ emissions in the five years between 2011 and 2016. Other cement companies in the list that Beslik published via his Twitter account include CRH, HeidelbergCement and Shree Cement. The list, entitled ‘The CO₂ Culprits Top 100’, was assembled using data from financial services company MSCI.

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has launched its first six sustainability guidelines. The six guidelines include a number of key performance indicators (KPI) against which full member companies must monitor and report on their sustainability performance across a number of key activities. The guidelines include monitoring and reporting CO₂ emissions and other emissions from cement manufacturing, co-processing of fuels and materials, safety and water usage.

“Signing up to the guidelines emphasises the cement and concrete sector’s commitment to sustainable development including its critical work to reducing global CO₂ emissions,” said GCCA Cement Director Claude Lorea.

To achieve the extended compliance, full GCCA members will have their data and targets verified and reported publicly. GCCA intends to communicate data publicly in a consolidated format. In November 2018 the GCCA published a Sustainability Charter which set out five key pillars, which it says encompasses the sustainability spectrum of the cement and concrete sector.

Research from the Global Carbon Budget (GCB) this week forecasts that fossil CO₂ emissions from the Indian cement industry will rise by 13.4% in 2018. This is in stark contrast to the smooth mood music from the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) last week, which stated that the local industry was on track to meet its commitments towards decarbonisation. So what’s going on?

The situation is akin to the fable about the blind men and the elephant. Both the GCB and the CSI are approaching the emissions of the Indian cement industry from different directions. The GCB is using available data (including data from the CSI) to try and estimate what the CO₂ emissions are. It takes cement production data using a method adapted from a paper published by Robbie M Andrew of Norway’s CICERO Center for International Climate Research in 2018 and then it takes into account the types of cement being produced and the clinker factor. This is then converted into an estimated clinker production figure and this is then converted into a CO₂ figure.

However, the CSI meanwhile actually has direct data from its local members. At the moment these include ACC, Ambuja Cements, CRH, Dalmia Cement (Bharat), HeidelbergCement, Orient Cement, Shree Cement, UltraTech and Votorantim Cimentos. As part of the Getting the Numbers Right (GNR) database it collects production and sustainability related data from its members. However, for reasons of competition, it maintains a year gap before it reports its data. This means that the GCB can report its estimate ahead of the CSI data.

There is nothing to stop the CSI reporting its progress against its targets though. And this is exactly what it has done in India with the recent document outlining progress towards the 2030 targets from the low carbon technology roadmap (LCTR). The headline CSI metric was direct CO₂ emission intensity. According to the CSI, this has fallen by 32kgCO₂/t cement to 588kgCO₂/t cement in 2017 mainly due to an increased uptake of alternative fuel and blended cement production, as well as a reduction in the clinker factor. This is bang on target with its aim of hitting 320kgCO₂/t in 2050 (around 560 kgCO₂/t in 2020, assuming a linear decrease).

The problem is that cement production growth in India suddenly sped up in 2018. Global Cement estimates that India’s cement production is set to rise by 7% year-on-year to 296Mt in 2018 from 280Mt in 2017. Data from the Ministry of Commerce & Industry shows that cement production rose by nearly 16% year-on-year to 244Mt in the first nine months of 2018 from 211Mt in the same period in 2017. Along these lines the Cement Manufacturers Association of India has forecast growth of 10% in the 2019 financial year to the end of March 2019. It reckons that this is the fastest growth in the sector since the industry slowed down in 2011.

India’s per capita cement consumption is low (222kg/capita) and its urban population is also low (around 30%). That’s a lot of cement that’s going to be used as it shifts to developed global rates and already it’s the globe’s second biggest cement market. The CSI was right to get in there eight years ago. Yet, the question now is can CO₂ emissions decrease whilst the market grows? Research in the US suggests that the real reason for emission drops in the 2010s was the economic recession, not policy shifts or changes in the energy mix. If that holds in India then the cement industry will have a hard time reducing its carbon footprint irrespective of the work the CSI has done.

Australia: Research by the Global Carbon Budget (GCB) forecasts that CO₂ emissions will grow by 2.7% year-on-year to a 37.1 ± 2 Gt CO₂ in 2018. This follows a rise of 1.6% to 36.2Gt after a three-year hiatus with stable global emissions. The 2018 forecast is based on preliminary data for the first 6 – 9 months indicate a renewed growth in fossil CO₂ emissions based on national emission projections for China, the US, the European Union (EU) and India and projections of gross domestic product corrected for recent changes in the carbon intensity of the economy for the rest of the world.

In 2017 the GCB estimates that cement sector constituted 4% of global fossil CO₂ emissions, a rise of 1.2% from 2016. Emissions are expected to grow by 4% in China in 2018, in part due to a 1% rise in cement production. In the EU emissions are projected to fall by 0.7% with stable cement sector emissions. In India emissions are forecast to increase by 6.3% with a 13.4% rise in cement sector emissions.

Fossil CO₂ emissions are based on energy statistics and cement production data. The research makes its estimate of emissions from the cement industry using a method adapted from a paper published by Robbie M Andrew of Norway’s CICERO Center for International Climate Research in 2017.

India: A report by the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) shows that the local cement sector is on track to meet its 2030 targets from the low carbon technology roadmap (LCTR). Direct CO₂ emission intensity fell by 5% in 2017 in the Indian cement sector compared to the 2010 baseline. CO₂ emission intensity, including onsite or captive power plant (CPP) power generation, was reduced by 6.8% compared to the 2010 baseline. The alternative fuels thermal substitution rate (TSR) increased by 5 times from 2010 to 2017. The sector consumed more than 1.2Mt of alternative fuels in 2017.

“Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. In our globalised and interconnected world, no one can solve alone the challenges ahead of us and the only opportunity to succeed is through collaborative partnerships, where the common interests of all are considered as more important than the sum of individual interests. This is exactly the spirit that has animated the CSI’s low carbon journey since 1999. This flagship project - with its members - has developed, implemented and shared collective solutions for measuring, reporting and improving its greenhouse gas reduction performance, year after year,” said Philippe Fonta, managing director CSI.

The CSI and the International Energy Agency (IEA) worked with nine local CSI member companies - ACC, Ambuja Cements, CRH, Dalmia Cement (Bharat), HeidelbergCement, Orient Cement, Shree Cement, UltraTech and Votorantim Cimentos - to carry out the status review on the sector’s performance trends, continuous implementation measures and notable achievements based on the milestones set in the 2013 LCTR. The Status Review Report was developed in consultation with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), with support from International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA).

The findings of the report show that the direct CO₂ emission intensity was reduced by 32kgCO₂/t cement to 588kgCO₂/t cement in 2017 mainly due to an increased use of alternative fuel and blended cement production, coupled with a reduction in clinker replacement factor. However, the study also shows that significant efforts will be needed to meet the 2050 objectives of 40% reduction. The CO₂ emission intensity (including onsite or CPP power generation) has reduced by 49kgCO₂/t cement to 670kgCO₂/t cement in 2017 compared to the baseline year. The report has highlighted the adoption of waste heat recovery (WHR) systems by local cement plants.

The alternative fuels TSR increased to 3% in 2017 from 0.6% in 2010. More than 60 cement plants in India have reported continual usage of alternative fuels, with 24% of the total alternative fuels consumed as biomass. The share of blended cements used in the total quantity of cement manufactured increased to 73% in 2017 from 68% in 2010, largely due to the market’s growing acceptance of blended cement, emerging awareness of sustainability concepts, the availability of fly ash from thermal power plants and the use of advanced technology. The production of Pozzolana Portland Cement grew to 65% in 2017 from 61% in 2010. The share of Portland Slag Cement in cement production remained flat, at less than 10%, over the same period. The clinker factor reduced to 0.71 in 2017 from 0.74 in 2010.

In August 2018 the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) said it was taking over the work previously done by the CSI from 1 January 2019.

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has inaugurated its pilot plant at Bournezeau, Vendée. The 50,000t/yr unit will manufacture cement products using metakaolin and blast-furnace slag, according to the L'Usine Nouvelle magazine. It says it will produce cement with reduced CO₂ emissions up to 250kg/t using a flash-calcined process down from 900kg/t in the normal clinker production process. The project had investment of Euro10m.

France: Bénédicte de Bonnechose, the president of the French cement industry union (SFIC), says that country’s cement market is expected to grow by 3% in 2018. She made the comments whilst unveiling local CO₂ reduction targets by 2050, according to the Agence France Presse. The local industry recorded growth of 4% in 2017. She described 2018 as a ‘positive recovery’ with sustained growth following a good first half.

SFIC forecasts that new low-clinker cement products will enter the market by mid-2020. These products include EMC II / CM, EMC VI and LC3 types of cement. These should reduce the CO₂ emissions related to current sold cement products by 35%. Other CO₂ capture initiatives including Oxyfuel, Leiliac and calcium looping cleanker technologies were also mentioned.

Well, it turns out that the European cement industry wasn’t kidding when it raised the risks of the climate mitigation on the sector. This week three (!) integrated plants have been earmarked for closure.

Cementa in Sweden said that it was considering closing its Degerhamn plant due to increased environmental regulations. Today, local press in Spain is reporting that Cemex España is planning to shut down two of its plants. These are plants in different parts of Europe with different local market dynamics but both are within the European Union (EU). That’s three plants closing out of 219 in the EU, or a loss of around 1% of production capacity.

Last week’s column on the United Nations’ (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Global Warming raised the way the cement sector is tackling climate change and the existing and impending legislation. President of the German Cement Works Association (VDZ) Christian Knell’s opening words at the VDZ Congress in September 2018 seem prescient. He said, “To be able to realise our efforts in terms of climate protection and at the same time not to lose competitiveness, we need research policy-related support for our investment in breakthrough technologies and the corresponding demonstration projects.” The add-on was that the industry needed to focus on how the development of carbon abatement technologies can meet the 2050 climate goals and, specifically, that suitable boundary conditions would have to be created. The press releases accompanying his speech emphasised that, “on-going trends in European emissions trading and the ‘rapidly increasing’ price of CO₂ were already today leading to considerable costs for cement manufacturers.”

These words are similar to the comments Albert Scheuer, a board member of HeidelbergCement, made at the Innovation in Industrial Carbon Capture Conference early in 2018 about dividing the mounting environmental costs of cement and concrete between producers and society in general. Considering how much cementitious building materials most people use throughout their lives compared to the relative low price of cement, this argument carries some weight. In addition, the sustainability credentials of concrete buildings through longer lifespan and durability through extreme weather events is another argument that industry advocates such as the Portland Cement Association (PCA) in the US have been hawking in recent years.

Cementa, a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, blamed anticipated tightening of environmental regulations for its decision. Although it said that the plant had made improvements over the years, the expected difficulty (read: cost) to make further improvements was becoming too hard. Shifting production to the company’s other two plants in the region, Slite on Gotland and Brevik in Norway, will reduce CO₂ emissions by 260,000t/yr.

In Spain, the news from Cemex follows a half-year report from Oficemen, the local cement association, that predicted growth for the year but not as fast as previously expected. The problem was that continued declines in the export market, the 13th decline month-by-month in a row, offset the domestic growth. Oficement president Jesús Ortiz also took time to blame rising electricity costs, expected to rise by 20% year-on-year by the end of 2018.

Market issues in Spain aren’t in doubt, but the real question for both Sweden and Spain is whether EU CO₂ legislation right now is causing cement producers to shut plants. The CO₂ emissions allowance price hit a high of Euro22/t in September 2018, the highest price in a decade. Allowances have stayed below Euro10/t since 2011 and the price has more than doubled in 2018. Throw in the mood music of the IPCC and the trend seems irresistible. How many more plants in Europe are at risk to shut next? No doubt the European cement producers have charts marking the viability of their plants against the CO₂ price. This would be a very interesting graph to get our hands on.

The 2nd FutureCem Conference on CO₂ reduction strategies for the cement industry will take place in May 2019 in London, UK

Spain: Cemex España is preparing to close its cement plants at Gádor in Almería and Lloseta in Baleares. It has blamed reduced demand for cement and European regulations on CO₂ emissions for the decision, according to the Cinco Días newspaper. The closures will affect 200 employees and the cement producer is has started to hold union discussions. Cemex will retain integrated plants at Morata de Jalón, Alicante, Alcanar, Castillejo Anover and Buñol.