Displaying items by tag: CO2

France/Switzerland: A technology roadmap by the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) sets out a combination of technology and policy solutions that could reduce CO₂ emission from the cement industry by 24% by 2050. The Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry report updates the first global sectoral roadmap produced in 2009. It aims to identify and develop international collaborative efforts and provide evidence for public and private sector decision-makers to move towards a more sustainable cement sector that can contribute to long-term climate goals.

“The first exercise carried out in 2009 had demonstrated its added value to help the sector identify solutions and enablers to reduce its CO₂ emissions and it was essential to adjust this projection with the latest robust emissions data from the CSI’s Getting The Numbers right (GNR) database and the potential of latest technologies developed by the European Cement Research Academy (ECRA),” said Philippe Fonta, managing director, CSI of World Business Council for Sustainable

Development (WBCSD).The report aims to present a way to help the cement industry play its part it meeting the IEA’s 2°C Scenario (2DS) by 2050, which seeks to limit average global temperature increases to 2°C. The report forecasts that global cement production is set to increase between 12 - 23% by 2050 due to rising global population and urbanisation. Despite increasing efficiencies, direct carbon emissions from the cement industry are expected to rise by 4% globally by 2050 under the IEA Reference Technology Scenario (RTS), a base case scenario that takes into account existing energy and climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. The CSI and IEA argue that the low-carbon transition of the cement industry can only be reached with a supportive regulatory framework as well as effective and sustained investments. They say that meeting the RSI requires more investment, with a

potential doubling to meeting the 2DS. Governments, in collaboration with industry, can play a determinant role in developing policy and regulatory mechanisms that unlock the private finance necessary for such a boost in investment.The roadmap uses a bottom-up approach to explore a possible transition pathway based on least-cost technology analysis for the cement industry to reduce its direct CO₂ emissions in line with the IEA’s 2DS. Reaching this goal, the CSI and IEA say, would require a combination of technology solutions, supportive policy, public-private collaboration, financing mechanisms and social acceptance.

Improving energy efficiency and switching to alternative fuels, in combination with reducing the clinker content in cement and deploying emerging and innovative technologies like carbon capture and the use of alternative binding materials are the main carbon-mitigation methods available in cement manufacturing. Further emissions savings can be achieved by taking into account the overall life cycle of cement, concrete and the built environment. The roadmap outlines policy priorities and regulatory recommendations, discusses investment stimulating mechanisms and describes technical challenges with regard to research, development and demonstration.

China: Anhui Conch has spent over US$7.9m on a 50,000t CO₂ capture and purification pilot project at its Baimashan cement plant in Anhui province. The unit is scheduled to start operation in the first half of 2018. The group has started the project in order to participate in the government’s ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contributions’ CO₂ emission reduction initiative.

China: Anhui Conch’s sales revenue grew by 35% year-on-year to US$11.9bn in 2017 from US$8.85bn in 2016. Its net profit nearly doubled to US$2.51bn from US$1.36bn. The cement producer said that it had, ‘seized the favourable opportunities arising from the state’s further deepening of supply-side structural reform and the promotion of off-peak season production.’

During the year Anhui Conch opened eight cement grinding plants including Quanjiao Conch Cement, Anhui Xuancheng Conch Cement and Nantong Conch Cement. Outside of China the company completed phase two of its Merak grinding plant in Indonesia and started cement production and completed construction of the North Sulawesi Conch plant in Indonesia and the Battambang Conch plant in Cambodia. The units in Indonesia and Cambodia are due to start production in 2018. A new plant, Luang Prabang Conch, is being built in Laos and preliminary work on projects at Volga Conch in Russia, Vientiane in Laos and Mandalay in Myanmar is underway. At the end of 2017 Anhui Conch says it has a clinker and cement production capacity of 246t/yr and 335Mt/yr respectively.

The cement producer also announced that its Baimashan Cement plant was intending to start operating a CO₂ collection and purification pilot project in the first half of 2018. The initiative is part of the group’s moves to implement the government’s low-carbon development strategy.

US: CarbonCure has demonstrated an integrated CO₂ capture and utilisation (CCU) process from cement for concrete production in January 2018 at Cementos Argos’ Roberta plant in Calera, Alabama. The consortium - comprising Carbon Cure, Sustainable Energy Solutions (SES), Praxair, Cementos Argos and Kline Consulting - says it is the world’s first project to collect cement kiln CO₂ for subsequent utilisation downstream in concrete production and construction.

CO₂ emissions from the Roberta cement plant were captured by SES’ Cryogenic CO₂ Capture technology, transported by Praxair and reused in Cementos Argos' Glenwood, Atlanta concrete operations equipped with CarbonCure's CO₂ utilisation technology. The concrete manufactured with the waste CO₂ from the Roberta cement plant was then used in a local construction project in the greater Atlanta area. Design partners and fellow members of CarbonCure’s Carbon XPRIZE team such as LS3P Architects, Uzun + Case Structural Engineering, and Walter P Moore Structural Engineers completed the end to end integrated solution by creating demand for CarbonCure concrete products in the marketplace. Kline Consulting oversaw the commissioning and reporting of the industrial demonstration.

The project was an extension of Team CarbonCure's participation in the US$20m NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE Challenge, which incentivises and accelerates the development of integrated CCU technologies and new markets that convert CO₂ emissions from coal and natural gas power generation into valuable products.

US: OGCI Climate Investments has made in an investment in Solidia Technologies to support the adoption of Solidia’s patented cement and concrete technology using CO₂.

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) is a chief executive officer (CEO) led initiative of 10 oil and gas companies that collaborate on action to lead the industry response to climate change. OGCI Climate Investments, its investment arm, supports the development, deployment and scale up of new technologies that are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“We believe that Solidia Technologies’ product and process can provide a step change in lowering the greenhouse gas and water footprint of the cement and concrete industry,” said OGCI Climate Investments CEO Pratima Rangarajan.

Solidia Cement is a non-hydraulic cement composed primarily of low-lime-containing calcium silicate phases, such as wollastonite and pseudowollastonite (CaO·SiO₂) and rankinite (3CaO·2SiO₂). The setting and hardening characteristics of Solidia Cement are derived from a reaction between CO₂ and the calcium silicates. The company uses a patented process called reactive hydrothermal liquid phase densification (rHLPD) to do this. Solidia Cement is intended to be a sustainable replacement for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). It uses the same manufacturing process, equipment and raw materials used by the cement industry while consuming less energy and generating less greenhouse gases.

Spain: Oficemen, the Spanish cement association, has released its roadmap for reducing CO₂ emissions to 2050. The document highlights the potential of new technologies, including carbon capture and storage (CCS), which could decrease the CO2 footprint of the Spanish cement industry by up to 80% in 2050. Using existing the technology the association estimates it could reduce emissions by 35% from a 1990 baseline.

Germany: HeidelbergCement and Aachen University of Applied Sciences (RWTH Aachen) have started a three-year research project ‘CO2MIN’ that started on 1 June 2017 examining the absorption of CO₂ from flue gas by olivine and basalt. The intention is that the carbonised minerals could be used as a value-added additive in the production of building materials. HeidelbergCement and RWTH are supported by the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and the Dutch start-up Green Minerals. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project with Euro3m.

"We are already reducing the CO₂ emissions of our plants very successfully by using alternative fuels and raw materials and by optimising the efficiency of our kilns," said Jan Theulen, Director of Alternative Resources at HeidelbergCement. He added that binding CO₂ in minerals was one approach the company was exploring to reduce its emissions further.

In the first year the research project will focus on the investigation of different minerals in small-scale experiments. The carbonation of the most suitable minerals will then be tested under process conditions in the second year. The experiments will be conducted by the institute of Process Metallurgy and Metal Recycling (IME), which is the coordinator of the RWTH group. Life-cycle assessments (RWTH) as well as analyses of economic aspects and social acceptance (IASS) complete this project phase. In the third year, marketability and acceptance will be further optimised through intensive cooperation with customers.

Switzerland: The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) has published a technology review on current and anticipated developments that can be used to mitigate CO₂ emissions in cement production. The report includes 52 individual papers on existing technologies and seven additional summary papers

The CSI initiated a review of its original technology papers, which were originally developed in 2009, when the sector issued the first ever low-carbon technology roadmap in partnership with the International Energy Agency (IEA), following the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement. The European Cement Research Academy (ECRA) and a stakeholder consultant processes have also supported the project.

Key technological fields covered in the current review include: thermal energy efficiency, electric energy efficiency, use of alternative fuels, materials and biomass, reduction of the clinker content in cement, new binding materials, CO₂ capture and storage (CCS), and CO₂ use (CCU). The report also includes an assessment of the level of possible implementation, the challenges and costs of these technologies in future scenarios for 2030 and 2050.

“The publication of these revised and new technical papers sets robust foundations for the overall exercise of updating our 2009 roadmap. It is also a major step in the implementation of commitments made by the cement sector in Paris through the Cement Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative (LCTPi) and it demonstrates that the business is more than ever focused on supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement,” said Philippe Fonta, managing director of the CSI.

The CSI and IEA plan to share the initial results of the updated global technology roadmap for the cement sector at COP 23 in Bonn, Germany.

France: The European Parliament has voted to approve a proposal by the European Commission to reduce carbon credits by 2.2%/yr from 2021 in its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). This is an increase from the 1.74% reduction specified in existing legislation. It will also double the capacity of the 2019 market stability reserve (MSR) to absorb the excess of credits or allowances on the market.

Members of the European Parliament (MEP) want to review the so-called ‘linear reduction factor’ with the intention to raising it to 2.4% by 2024 at the earliest. In addition MEPs want to double the MSR’s capacity to mop up the excess of credits on the market. When triggered, it would absorb up to 24% of the excess of credits in each auctioning year, for the first four years. They have agreed that 800 million allowances should be removed from the MSR as of 1 January 2021. Two funds will also be set up and financed by auctioning ETS allowances. A modernisation fund will help to upgrade energy systems in lower-income member states and an innovation fund will provide financial support for renewable energy, carbon capture and storage and low-carbon innovation projects.

The draft measures were approved by 379 votes to 263, with 57 abstentions. MEPs will now enter into negotiations with the Maltese Presidency of the European Council in order to reach an agreement on the final shape of the legislation, which will then come back to Parliament.

Environmental campaign group Sandbag has complained that the new proposal fails to hold to the European Union’s (EU) emissions reduction targets by 2030 that were signed as part of the Paris Agreement in 2016.

“Unless the Council intervenes to substantially strengthen the System, the EU ETS will now become simply an accounting mechanism, leaving meaningful climate action to happen elsewhere. The fact that the carbon price is unchanged as a result of the vote, still at a paltry Euro5, speaks volumes. Without being realigned with real emissions levels in 2020, the EU ETS may well end up existing for 25 years by 2030 without giving the any substantial impetus to decarbonisation,” said Rachel Solomon Williams, Managing Director at Sandbag.

Belgium: Cembureau, the European cement association, has lobbied members of the European Parliament with its opinion that the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) must maintain free allowances at the level of best-performers in order to achieve real emission reductions whilst maintaining a competitive industry in Europe. It expressed its views ahead of a scheduled vote in the plenary session of the Parliament in February 2017. One of its key demands was that fairness should be a key principle of policy making and that jobs in one sector are just as important as those in other sectors.

Cembureau called for the proposal to amend the EU ETS to ensure that all energy-intensive industries are on the carbon leakage list and all installations receive a free allocation based on ‘ambitious but realistic’ benchmarks, and benefit from free allocation based on actual production. It wants a sufficient number of free allocations for energy intensive industries at risk of carbon leakage to be made available, hence the auction share should not be higher than 52%. It also wants no further burden to be imposed on EU-ETS sectors. The 43% reduction objective and the 2.2% linear reduction factor for phase IV should not be further increased. Lastly, it has asked for support for innovation focus on energy intensive industries with an extension to cover the whole range of low carbon technologies including industrial carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). The Innovation Fund should be fully financed from the auctioning share.

In response to an amendment made by the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee (ENVI) the cement association said that it did not believe that this proposal could work. Its main concerns were: that introducing such a mechanism with a consequential loss of free allowances could create legal uncertainty and hamper further investments by the cement sector in Europe; that it would be impossible to measure the CO₂ performance of third country producers; an overall lack of clarity as to how such scheme would operate; serious concerns about World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatibility; that application to a few sectors would only lead to discrimination in the downstream market where cement competes with other building materials (steel, glass, wood, asphalt) that are not subject to such a scheme; and that the suggested scheme would lead to a competitive disadvantage for European cement producers on export markets where local cement players are not subject to similar CO₂ constraints.

Cembureau also used the opportunity to highlight some of the research projects the local sector is undertaking to improve its environmental performance, reduce CO₂ emissions and improve energy efficiency.