Displaying items by tag: Calcined Clay

France: NeoCem plans to build a €50m clay calcination plant at Saint-Maximin, Picardy. The company recently raised €23m in investments in its Series A funding round. The Le Journal des Enterprises newspaper has reported that the Saint-Maximin plant will enter operation in 2025, and will subsequently grow to 200,000t/yr in capacity. NeoCem aims to employ 100 people by 2030.

Head of industrial deployment Guillaume Luu said “To be used in concrete, limestone must be heated for several hours at 1400°C. Our clay-based binder generates CO₂ emissions of 120kg/t, compared to almost 1000kg/t of limestone binder, and our technology can transform all types of clays available. The idea is not to open new quarries, but to give a second life to materials already on the surface." He continued “The up-cycling of clays and their transformation into a low-carbon binder addresses several challenges for the construction sector. On the one hand, the reuse of clay waste, and on the other hand, the decarbonisation of the building materials sector.”

Oman: Middle East Calcined Clay and Netherlands-based Kaolin Group International plan to build a limestone calcined clay cement plant in Oman. The partners have hired Spain-based turnkey plant engineer IPIAC to supply equipment including its Plug and Clay clay calcination unit. The new plant will produce limestone calcined clay cement with 40% lower CO₂ emissions than ordinary Portland cement (OPC), according to the supplier.

IPIAC previously introduced the technology in Cuba and Ivory Coast, and is currently retrofitting it to a clinker line in Angola.

Switzerland/UAE: The COP28 UAE Presidency named École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) among its Energy Transition Changemakers in the Heavy Emitting Sectors category. EPFL won the prize for its LC3 limestone calcined clay cement, which replaces 50% of clinker content with calcined kaolinite clay and limestone. LC3 cement reduces CO₂ emissions by 40% compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC), and is a readily available solution that can be scaled worldwide. EPFL noted the special importance of LC3 cement for CO₂ reduction efforts in developing countries, and sees it as having the potential to eliminate 500Mt/yr of global CO₂ emissions by 2030. In a post to LinkedIn, the LC3 Project said that nine plants around the world currently produce LC3 cement, with a further 20 planned before 2025.

Ghana: CIMPOR has appointed Germany-based ThyssenKrupp Polysius to build a 1280t/day flash activator for clay. The activator will supply calcined clay for use in the production of cement with a clinker factor as low as 50%. This can reduce the cement’s CO₂ emissions by 40% compared with ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The supplier’s contract covers engineering, supply of core equipment and supervision of the project. The equipment includes parts for clay handling, a hammer mill, a flash dryer and preheating and cooling equipment, as well as storage silos. The activator will be natural gas-fired.

Polysius Activated Clay product owner Leo Fit said "Our technology is not only more environmentally friendly, but also creates cost benefits for our customers like CIMPOR. In many regions, limestone is scarce and clinker has to be imported at high cost. At the same time, suitable clay sources are available. The increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is leading cement manufacturers to rethink. They need an alternative that is cost-efficient and at the same time provides high-quality cement. This is exactly what Polysius activated clay offers."

West Africa: Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF) plans to produce limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) at cement plants in West Africa. Parent company Omnium des Industries et de la Promotion (OIP) plans to build a calcined clay production facility in Burkina Faso to supply the material. Gulf Oil & Gas News has reported that OIP secured a Euro45m loan from World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation on 10 October 2023. It will invest Euro32.4m in construction of its upcoming calcined clay production facility and Euro12.6m in
construction of solar power plants for three CIMAF subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali.

CIMAF CEO Anas Sefrioui said "IFC's green loan provides essential long-term financing for our projects in Africa. Through the green loan structure, we are bringing the best practices in financing decarbonisation initiatives in the region. We look forward to reducing our carbon footprint and replicating these best practices in our African operations.”

Spain: Switzerland-based Synhelion and Cemex España plan to build a new clinker plant near Madrid. The plant will use Synhelion’s synthetic fuel to produce clinker from clay and crushed sand at 1200°C. The fuel consists of a gas produced from green hydrogen and captured CO₂, using solar heat. La Tribune de Genève Online News has reported that Synhelion’s thermochemical reactor further helps to capture CO₂ emissions from clinker production. A study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne indicated that this can halve the cost of carbon capture at cement plants, to below Euro85/t.

France: Germany-based Heidelberg Materials announced a planned Euro65m upgrade to its Bussac-Forêt cement plant in Charente-Maritime Department on 14 May 2023. The project will involve the installation of systems for the production of calcined clay cement. The producer says that this will enable the 0.8Mt/yr plant to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 20%.

Chief sustainability officer Nicola Kimm said “In Bussac-Forêt, we are investing in a technology with great potential. It will allow us to significantly expand the range of low-carbon products. Using calcined clay as a clinker substitute is an important measure to reduce the carbon footprint of cement and concrete. In principle, a CO₂ reduction of up to 40% is possible when substituting cement clinker with calcined clay.”

Heidelberg Materials is already involved in the on-going pilot trial of a 400,000t/yr clay calcination plant in Ghana.

India: More than 75 representatives from academic institutions and businesses from across the world are attending the Innovandi Global Cement and Concrete Research Network (GCCRN) Spring Week taking place in New Delhi. The GCCRN has brought together 450 researchers and scientists from more than 40 universities and institutions, including the EPFL in Switzerland, South East University in China, University of Toronto in Canada, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, the University of Cape Town, Imperial College London in the UK, as well as 35 cement and concrete manufacturers and their suppliers. The focus of the conference is to work towards reaching net-zero CO₂ concrete production, including sourcing and improving alternatives to clinker, work on calcined clays, concrete recycling – plus its carbonation and durability - as well as kiln electrification and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS).

Claude Loréa, the Innovation and ESG Director at the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA), said “Global Innovation collaboration and research will help unlock our industry’s decarbonisation mission. Spring Week is the key date in the GCCA’s Innovandi calendar. It provides an opportunity for our partners to meet face-to-face, exchange ideas, run workshops, and measure progress on key research projects in line with our industry’s 2050 Net Zero Roadmap. Our industry and our key partners are stepping up to the challenge and it’s fantastic to see the progress on some of the 75 PhD candidates supported by the GCCRN.”

The event is also updating attendees about progress made by projects involved with the Innovandi Open Challenge. This initiative matches start-ups with GCCA member companies from around the world, to help scale up research and technical innovation. Two of the six start-ups selected in 2022 at the first ever Innovandi Open Challenge, which focused mainly on carbon capture and utilisation, have already gone to pilot stage. Applications for the second challenge, which focuses on low carbon concrete, close on 15 May 2023.

The GCCRN was set up by the GCCA, a lobbying group representing more than 80% of the world’s cement and concrete manufacturers outside of China. All GCCA member companies are committed to decarbonising the industry by the mid-21st Century, in line with the GCCA’s Concrete Future 2050 Net Zero Roadmap.

China/Germany: CBMI Construction and mill supplier Gebr. Pfeiffer have signed a cooperation agreement to supply integrated calcined clay plants to the global cement industry. The partners say that their plants will offer clay calcination and grinding, giving cement producers a high performance solution, all in one place.

CBMI Construction and Gebr. Pfeiffer have carried out numerous recent cement projects in overlapping geographies, including Western and Southern Africa and Russia.

Congratulations to Lafarge France for launching the first calcined clay cement unit in Europe. The subsidiary of Holcim says that the unit, based at the integrated Saint-Pierre-la-Cour cement plant, is the first of its kind on the continent. It is using the company’s proprietary proximA Tech technology and will produce up to 500,000t/yr of cement in its ECOPlanet range. The operation is also powered with biomass alternative fuels and uses a waste recovery system to further drive down overall CO₂ emissions. Once production ramps-up the producer expects that 30% of cement from the Saint-Pierre-la-Cour plant will be from the ECOPlanet range by 2024.

The investment at Saint-Pierre-la-Cour was Euro40m. Holcim is also producing calcined clay cement at its La Malle plant in France. It received an investment of Euro6m in 2022 to produce low-carbon cements. Together, both plants are aiming to produce over 2Mt/yr of calcined clay cement by 2024. As is usual for these kinds of projects, the French government partly funded the clay calcination unit at Saint-Pierre-la-Cour as part of the ‘France Relance’ scheme investing in large-scale decarbonisation and energy efficiency initiatives.

Calcined clay cements in Europe aren’t exactly new, but Holcim’s new unit in France does appear to be the first full-scale line located at a cement plant. Research by OneStone Consulting, for example, reckons that the first flash activated clay unit expressly set up to supply the cement sector was commissioned in 1995 in Toulouse, France. More recently, Hoffmann Green Cement inaugurated its 50,000t/yr pilot plant at Bournezeau in France in 2018. This site produces cements made from flash calcined clay and blast furnace slag, although it is unclear how demand for the different products varies. A new 0.25Mt/yr plant in the Vendée department was scheduled for commissioning in the second half of 2022. Another 0.25Mt/yr plant in Dunkirk is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2024.

Cementir Group launched its calcined clay cement product FUTURECEM in Denmark in 2021 with production via a pilot plant. It then extended this to the Benelux and French cement markets in 2022. As part of its industrial plan for 2021 - 2023 it was planning to build a clay calcination unit to support the growth of FutureCem. FLSmidth revealed in June 2021 that it had won a contract to build a 400t/day clay calcination unit for Vicat’s Xeuilley integrated cement plant. The deal was worth around Euro27m and commissioning is scheduled for 2023.

Firstly, it is interesting to see a focus on France for some of the projects above. The presence of Lafarge’s technical centre in Lyon may explain the interest for that company. However, Hoffmann Green Cement and Vicat are also active in the field. It is worth noting that France also holds a busy secondary cementitious material market with standalone operators including Ecocem, Cem’In’Eu and Hoffmann Green Cement. Secondly, despite the early start, clay calcination for cement is currently more active outside of Europe. In Africa, for example, there is at least one live full production line and a number of other projects on the way. Various other pilots and projects are also happening elsewhere around the world, often in conjunction with the limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) initiative. Where calcined clay cement production in Europe goes from here is uncertain at present as it is one solution among many for lower carbon cement products in the future. Yet, the projects that have made it so far to the commercial scale will be watched closely by the companies that have invested in them - and their competitors.