Displaying items by tag: Canada

Canada: A court has fined Lafarge Canada US$145,000 for a dust spill from its Bath, Ontario, cement plant in October 2019 that 'covered' homes, gardens and cars. The court found that the emission 'caused or was likely to cause adverse effects.' The Belleville Intelligencer newspaper has reported that the Canadian Ministry of Environment previously concluded that no harm to health resulted from the incident.

Plant manager Ignacio Arroyo said "Myself and our plant team unreservedly apologise for the upset and concern that our dust release has caused all of you. We intend to make it right and make sure it never happens again."

Canada: Progressive Planet is preparing to build a 3200t/yr pilot plant for its PozGlass product at its headquarters in Kamloops, British Columbia. The company aims to commercialise its process, which produces pozzolan from recycled glass for use in cement or concrete production. The pilot unit will also sequester CO₂ released by a gas dryer at the site, from which it will produce sodium carbonate. The pilot plant is expected to go under construction in 2023 and be operational in 2024.

Steve Harpur, the chief executive officer of Progressive Planet, said “With PozGlass, a CleanTech breakthrough from our C-Quester Centre of Sustainable Innovation in Kamloops, we are producing one of many upcoming private-sector solutions that are needed to meet the 2050 Net Zero targets to fight climate change.”

Progressive Planet aims for PozGlass production to be situated at cement kilns, where PozGlass could be mixed with Portland cement at a 50:50 ratio.

Canada: The Mohawk Council of Kanesatake has written to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change asking for more consultation over plans for Colacem to build a new cement plant at L'Orignal, Ontario. The council also urged the government to reconsider the plan altogether. The Review newspaper has reported that the government previously rejected a request from the Kanesatake community that it consult the Impact Assessment Authority of Canada over the planned project. The plant is to be situated on the Ottawa River, opposite the area of Quebec in which the Kanesatake community's lands lie.

Canada: Lafarge Canada has signed an agreement with power provider TransAlta to recover and process fly ash from the site of the latter's decommissioned Edmonton coal-fired power plant. The project will use Ash-TEK's Ponded Ash Beneficiation System (PABS) fly ash beneficiation technology. The processed ash will then be able to replace up to 25% of cement in low-CO₂ concrete production.

TransAlta previously secured with Lafarge Canada for the supply of renewable power to its Exshaw, Alberta, cement plant in February 2022.

Canada/US: Lehigh Hanson has rebranded as Heidelberg Materials North America, with immediate effect. The cement producer said that the new brand reflects its broad, innovation-driven approach to becoming the North American industry leader in sustainability and digital solutions.

President and chief executive officer Chris Ward said “This is a major step change for our company, both globally and here in North America. We are thrilled to begin this transformation in North America today, and continue our global journey to grow our business beyond cement and aggregates and become the most sustainable company in the sector.”

Canada: Lafarge Canada has announced a five-year in-kind donation with the Nicomekl Enhancement Society (NES) in British Columbia. The agreement will see the building materials producer donate around US$15,000/yr in aggregates, concrete and labour to enhance the sustainability of the wild Pacific salmon population and ecosystem within the coastal area of the Nicomekl River.

Lincoln Kyne, Vice President and General Manager of Lafarge Canada in British Columbia and the US Pacific Northwest, said, “This key initiative led by NES is a great example, as we will be able to provide the required green construction materials and labour to stabilise, re-shore and line critical spawning beds for returning salmon until 2028.”

US: Canada-based CEMSI Specialties, a subsidiary of Kontrol Technologies, has received an order for an emission analyser product from an unnamed global cement company. The analyser will provide real-time analysis of continuous emissions from the plant. The contract also includes ongoing annual preventative maintenance. Delivery and installation is scheduled for late 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Canada: Lafarge Canada’s Brookfield plant in Nova Scotia has switched to Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) production. The unit will now manufacture the company’s OneCem PLC product. It is the cement producer’s third plant to transition to PLC production in 2022 following the Bath plant in Ontario and the Richmond plant in British Colombia.

Andrew Stewart, the Vice President of Cement at Lafarge Canada (East), said, “We have been steadily moving the needle forward when it comes to cement decarbonisation and we will continue to honour our commitment in progressing our greener portfolio in Eastern Canada over the coming years.”

Canada: Chevron New Energies (CNE), a division of Chevron USA, is the lead investor in Svante’s Series E fundraising round, which raised US$318m. The capital will be used to accelerate the manufacture of Svante’s carbon capture technology. Other fundraising round participants include existing shareholders Temasek, OGCI Climate Investments, Delek US and Hesta AG, and new investors, 3M Ventures, Full Circle Capital, GE Vernova, the Japan Energy Fund, Liberty Media, M&G Catalyst, Samsung Ventures, TechEnergy Ventures and United Airlines Ventures.

Chevron Technology Ventures made an initial investment in Svante in 2014. In 2020, Chevron launched a project to pilot Svante’s technology to capture CO₂ from post combustion of natural gas. The project has received funding from the US Department of Energy. In collaboration with Svante and the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the technology will be tested at Chevron’s Kern River facility in San Joaquin Valley, California, with start-up scheduled for December 2022.

Svante was founded in 2007 and it has developed carbon capture and removal technology using structured adsorbent beds, known as filters. The latest funding will support Svante’s commercial-scale filter manufacturing facility in Vancouver. Trials using Svante’s technology in the cement sector have been run at Lafarge Canada’s Richmond cement plant in British Colombia and Holcim US’s Florence cement plant in Colorado.

Canada: The government and the Cement Association of Canada have published the ‘Roadmap to Net-Zero Carbon Concrete by 2050.’ The document details how cement and concrete producers and legislators could achieve net-zero CO₂ emissions from the cement and concrete sector by 2050. The joint government-industry working group next plans to release an action plan explaining how the sector will reduce its CO₂ emissions by up to 40% by 2030 and a plan for research and development required to meet the 2050 target. The country’s cement and concrete industry says it has committed to reducing over 15Mt of greenhouse gases cumulatively by 2030 and achieving net-zero by 2050.

“Decarbonising concrete is a necessity, and Canada’s cement and concrete industry has demonstrated that it is up to the task. This roadmap demonstrates our industry’s leadership in CO₂ emissions reduction and positions us to achieve our goal of net-zero cement by 2050,” said Marie Glenn, chair of the Cement Association of Canada. Association president and chief executive officer Adam Auer added, “While we are steadfast in our commitment to reduce our emissions by 15MT cumulatively by 2030 and reach true net-zero by 2050, we know we can’t do it alone. Together in collaboration with government we will continue to support the innovation and investment needed on our path to delivering net-zero concrete, while at the same time preserving its properties as a durable, resilient, versatile, and cost-effective material.”