Displaying items by tag: Canada

Canada: Holcim subsidiary Lafarge Canada has extended its biodiversity collaboration with the Forêt-Boucher Foundation. Under the expanded partnership, Lafarge Canada has committed to annual contributions of US$11,200/yr until 2028.

The collaboration will focus its efforts on conservation of the Boucher Forest in Quebec, near the site of Lafarge Canada’s Klock quarry. Boucher Forest contains habitats with 1150 different species.

Canada: The district council of Capital Regional District (CRD) says that it expects to resume sending biosolids to Lafarge Canada's Richmond cement plant in early June 2023. This follows a reported reduction in production at the unit in 2023 and 2022, according to the Times Colonist newspaper. The 1.1Mt/yr cement plant previously used biosolids supplied by the CRD as an alternative fuel in its cement production. However, during the current hiatus the biosolids have been sent to landfill instead.

The Richmond cement plant is the site of the CO₂MENT carbon capture and utilisation project. The project proceeded to its third phase, which consists of a capture capacity expansion and the installation of a liquefaction plant, in May 2023.

Canada: A study led by Douglas Geoffrey in Calgary, Alberta, has patented a method of producing cement from calcium carbonate precipitated in the carbonation of brine. The method mixes the mineral with magnesium oxide and cures it to form cement.

Geoffrey noted that the brine may derive from multiple industrial processes, including fossil fuel and potash production, geothermal power generation and desalination.

Canada: Lafarge Canada signed a tri-partite agreement with Dimensional Energy and Svante Technologies for the construction of a synthetic hydrocarbons plant to use captured CO₂ from its Richmond cement plant on 15 May 2023. The upcoming plant will convert the Richmond cement plant's 1t/day captured CO₂ emissions into 1.5 barrels/day of synthetic hydrocarbons. The producer, a subsidiary of Holcim, selected this particular solution due to the lack of CO₂ transport and sequestration infrastructure in the area of British Columbia where the Richmond plant is located. The project marks Phase 3 of the installation of Lafarge Canada and Svante's carbon capture project at the Richmond plant.

Holcim's Western Canada regional head of sustainability and environment, Stephanie Voysey, said "Carbon capture is an important lever in our net-zero roadmap. However, for a carbon capture project to succeed, it must be paired with permanent geologic sequestration or utilisation technology that will permanently isolate the CO₂ in a specific media or product. If this pilot can be scaled to capture and use all facility emissions, it would be a first-of-its-kind project for Lafarge and advance export and global adoption of this technology.”

Canada: Lafarge Canada has renewed its partnership with fuel logistics company 4Refuel to launch renewable diesel use in its operations in Manitoba. The producer says that trucks will run on renewable diesel produced from waste oils and fats. This will eliminate 39% of the producer's Scope 3 CO₂ emissions in the province.

Lafarge Canada's vice president Manitoba and Saskatchewan Tina Larson said "Switching to renewable diesel is a significant step forward in our sustainability journey. We recognise that climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing our planet, and we are committed to doing our part to reduce our impact on the environment. We believe that renewable diesel is an excellent solution to help us achieve our sustainability goals while maintaining the high level of performance that our customers expect.”

Lafarge Canada previously implemented renewable diesel in its operations in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, in November 2022.

Canada: The Cement Association of Canada (CAC), with its members and partners in the concrete sector, has released Concrete Zero, an action plan to help the local cement and concrete sector reach net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050. The five priority areas it is focusing on include: eliminating the use of coal and petroleum coke as fuel sources for clinker production; reducing the volume of clinker used to produce cement; increasing the use of supplementary cementitious materials; working towards building carbon capture, utilisation and storage capacity; and advocating for performance-based codes, standards and specifications, procurement policies and increased material efficiency in construction. Targets include reaching a 100% fuel mix from non-fossil-based sources by 2050. The latest plant follows the goal of achieving a 40% emissions reduction by 2030 as part of its Roadmap to Net-Zero Carbon Concrete by 2050.

Adam Auer, the president and chief executive officer of CAC, said “Our net-zero action plan is ambitious and cannot be achieved by industry action alone. Working with government, industry, and partners in the design, architecture, and construction industry will be essential for success. Canada’s cement and concrete industry are committed to doing our part to help Canada build a better, cleaner future. Working together, we can deliver Concrete Zero.”

Russia/Uzbekistan: The US Department of State has imposed sanctions upon USM Holding including its subsidiaries Akkermann Cement and USM Cement in Russia, and Akhangarancement in Uzbekistan. The action is intended to target company owner Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov and his various business interests. Other USM companies in the iron, steel, copper, gold, telecommunications and real estate sectors are also affected.

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control noted that Usmanov was, “one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, with vast holdings across multiple sectors of the Russian Federation economy as well as internationally.” It added that he was linked to multiple senior Russian officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Dmitry Medvedev, current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia and former President and Prime Minister of Russia. Usmanov has also been sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the European Union (EU), Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and the UK.

These latest US sanctions are in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Companies on the sanction list are forbidden to conduct business transactions with any US citizens.

Akkermann Cement operates two cement plants and a network of 12 terminals in Russia. It acquired a majority stake in Uzbekistan-based Akhangarancement in early 2022.

Canada: Heidelberg Materials and the Canadian government have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the installation of a carbon capture system at the company’s Edmonton cement plant in Alberta. The project is scheduled for completion in 2026, at a total cost of US$1.01bn. When operational, the system will capture 100% of the Edmonton cement plant’s CO₂ emissions - 1Mt/yr – for transportation and storage in nearby Wabamun. Canada Newswire has reported that construction of the system will create 2000 jobs.

The government said that it would be a ‘significant partner’ for the project. The size of funding will depend on other provisions under its Investment Tax Credit for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage scheme, which is currently being finalised.

Canada: The Cement Association of Canada (CAC) said that it is 'confident that Canada will lead in building clean technologies for a sustainable future' following the publication of the government's Budget 2023 on 29 March 2023. The budget includes US$26bn-worth of green tax credits. US$19.2bn-worth of this is allotted to renewable energy. It also includes a final design for Canada's Investment Tax Credit for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS). CAC president and CEO Adam Auer said that, when finalised, the budget will help to 'close the gap' between existing Canadian legislation and incentives offered under the US Inflation Reduction Act and EU Green Deal Industrial Plan.

Auer said “With close to 60% of our emissions resulting from the immutable chemistry of making cement, deep investment in innovative and expensive technologies, like CCUS, are both vital and unavoidable. With Budget 2023, the government clearly affirmed its understanding of the final role this technology plays in our industry’s efforts to reach net-zero." He continued “We were also pleased to see references to carbon contracts for difference (CCfD). Canada’s cement companies, like many industries in Canada, are part of large multinationals, and divisions must compete within their companies for projects. Investing in net-zero projects requires predictability. The certainty that CCfDs can provide is the difference between attracting investment, building projects and creating clean jobs - or conceding the opportunity to our competitors."

Canada: Progressive Planet has secured a contract to supply its PozGlass recycled glass-based supplementary cementitious material (SCM) to Lafarge Canada. The cement producer says that it will test the commercial viability of all PozGlass produced at Progressive Planet's Kamloops pilot plant in British Columbia, once the plant commences PozGlass production in 2024.