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Displaying items by tag: Cembureau
Europe: A joint statement by Cefic, Cembureau, Eurofer, Eurometaux and WindEurope has called for accelerated wind deployment as part of a new industrial deal to further support the Green Deal in the European Union (EU).
The organisations say that Europe's energy-intensive industries, like cement and steel, are vital for the wind energy supply chain. However, they assert that current policies lack frameworks that effectively support these industries, which have faced production curtailments due to the energy crisis. Addressing these challenges is fundamental to a new Industrial Deal for Europe, aimed at boosting renewable energy deployment to reduce energy costs. According to the International Energy Agency, the growth in solar photovolatics and wind capacity from 2021 to 2023 helped keep electricity prices lower than they would have been otherwise. Coupling the EU Green Deal with an industrial deal is seen as a strategy to provide regulatory stability, encourage investments in decarbonisation, and enhance competitiveness.
Koen Coppenholle, CEO of Cembureau, said "Cement is a critical component in the construction of wind turbine foundations and their recycling, while the growth of renewable energy is indispensable to achieve the cement sector’s net zero ambition. We look forward to a good cooperation with the wind energy sector to support a strong EU industrial policy and help building the business case for decarbonisation investments," said Coppenholle.
Ban ‘green’ cement!
05 June 2024The Indonesian government emphasised its intention this week to use ‘green’ cement in the construction of its new capital city Nusantara in Borneo. However, this begs the question: what exactly is ‘green’ cement?
In this case, Mohammad Zainal Fatah, the secretary general of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, told state media that his department was “seeking to encourage the supply of domestic-industry-based material resources and construction equipment, which can support sustainable infrastructure development principles." The ministry is working with state-owned cement producers such as Semen Indonesia (SIG) to ensure the provision of sustainable cement and related products. SIG was selected as a supplier for the project in late 2022 and, as of February 2024, has reportedly provided 400,000t of cement from its plants at Balikpapan and Samarinda.
This is admirable stuff. However, the timing of the announcement is curious given that both the head and deputy head of the Nusantara Capital City Authority resigned this week forcing the government to reassure investors that the project was still on. Cue some swift discussion about ‘green’ cement! Previously it was hoped that the first phase of the US$34bn project could be inaugurated on the country’s independence day in August 2024 with civil servants scheduled to start relocating to the site in the autumn.
SIG sells a number of ‘green’ blended cement products and some of these have received Green Label Cement certification from the Green Product Council Indonesia. The group says that these products have contributed up to a 38% drop in CO2 emissions compared to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). This compares to the group’s clinker factor reduction rate of 69% and its Scope 1 emissions intensity reduction of 17% to 585kg/CO2/t of cement in 2023 compared to 2010 levels.
Along similar lines, the Alliance for Low-Carbon Cement & Concrete (ALCCC) in Belgium also announced this week that it had released a new policy roadmap aimed at achieving net zero emissions by 2040. Amongst its recommendations were a focus on the standards for cement and concrete to promote low-carbon products and encouragement to create lead markets to develop demand for them.
Crucially, the ALCCC uses low-carbon cement in place of ‘green’ cement and this makes its definition clearer. ‘Green’ cement is a marketing term intended to associate cement with environmentalism. Yet there is no accepted definition describing how these products are more sustainable than, say, OPC. For example, a so-called ‘green’ cement could use 100% clinker manufactured with no CO2 emissions-abatement, but it might be sustainable in other ways such as saving water. For the purposes of this article we’ll assume that ‘green’ cement means a low-carbon one. To further add to the confusion, ‘green’ concrete can be made using OPC in various ways but that’s beyond the scope of this piece. Clearly the world could do with some universal definitions.
US-based research and consulting company Global Efficiency Intelligence came to the same conclusion when it published its ‘What are Green Cement and Concrete?’ report in December 2023. It decided that - despite there being plenty of standards, protocols, and initiatives - there is no general agreement on the definition of ‘green’ cement or concrete. Its emissions intensity for cement summary table can be viewed below. It demonstrates the massive range of emissions intensity between the various standards. It is worth noting here that the description the Indonesian government may have been using for ‘green’ cement could already meet SIG’s Scope 1 emissions intensity reduction for its cement in 2023 depending on the standard being used.
Standard / Initiative / Policy Name | Emissions intensity target (t/CO2 per tonne cement) |
Climate Bonds Initiative | 0.437 & 0.58 |
IEA and IDDI | 0.04 – 0.125 |
First Movers Coalition | 0.184 |
U.S. General Services Administration IRA Requirement | 0.751 |
New York (USA) Buy Clean | 0.411 |
Table 1: Emissions intensity definition for cement as stated by standards, protocols, initiatives, and policies with stated numerical quantity targets. Source: Global Efficiency Intelligence.
Part of the problem here is that there is a language gap between the simple definition of a cement that is less CO2 emissions-intensive than OPC and the technical definitions used in the specifications and standards. Simply describing a cement product as ‘green’ can potentially cover anything that is slightly better than OPC down to a bona-fide net-zero product. Added to this is pressure from the manufacturers of new and existing cement products that use less or no OPC for regulators to move to performance-based standards to replace existing prescriptive standards, because it makes it easier for their products to be used. For more on this issue see Global Cement Weekly #606. Cement associations such as Cembureau and the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) have also called in their respective net zero roadmaps for changes to the standards system to promote low-carbon cement and concrete products.
The answer to what is ‘green’ cement is whatever the promoters want it to be. So, it might be helpful if the use of the word ‘green’ were banned in connection to any marketing activity related to cement products. Everyone could then adopt some kind of universal grading system using simpler language. One approach might be to copy the colour-coding scheme used by hydrogen to describe how it is made. One could use yellow for limestone blends, silver for slag, orange for clay, black for OPC made with carbon capture and so on… but not green! Another route might be to mandate the use of the carbon labels that some cement producers have used for at least a decade. Or something like the alphabet energy rating system used in the UK and EU for electrical appliances could be used. It’s too much to hope for a global system but simpler systems in the main markets would make it much easier to determine what exactly is ‘green’ cement.
Delegates at the Global CemCCUS Conference last week applauded when Anders Petersen, the Senior Project Manager Brevik CCS, Heidelberg Materials said that the Brevik cement plant will be capturing CO2 and permanently storing it within the year. Rightly so. This moment will mark a historic milestone for the sector when it arrives. Net zero cement production is coming.
Last week’s event in Oslo delivered an overview of the current state of carbon capture in the cement and lime industries. It explored the practical challenges these industries face in capturing CO2 emissions and - crucially – then working out what to do with them afterwards. Incredibly, delegates were able to view the construction site of Heidelberg Materials’ forthcoming full-scale carbon capture unit at its Brevik plant in Norway. On the same day as the tour, Holcim broke ground on the Go4Zero carbon capture project at its Obourg plant in Belgium.
The key takeaway at the conference was that a (dusty) bulk solids sector is starting to work with handling (clean) gases in a way it hasn’t before. This recurred repeatedly throughout the conference. Petersen summarised it well when he described Brevik as a meeting pointing between the cement industry and the petrochemical one. It looks likely at present that there will not be a single predominant carbon capture technology that the majority of cement plants will deploy in the future. Similarly, CO2 storage infrastructure and sequestration sites differ. Utilisation plans are less developed but also offer various options. Yet, if carbon capture becomes common at cement and lime plants, then these companies will need to learn how to filter and handle gases regardless of the capture method and destination for the CO2. So presentations on filtration and compressors were a revelation at CemCCUS.
The key obstacle remains how to pay for it all. By necessity, most of the big early projects have received external funding, mostly from governments. Although, to be fair, the private companies involved are often investing considerable amounts of their own money and taking risks in the process too. In the European Union (EU) CO2 is being priced via the Emissions Trading Scheme and investments are being made via the EU Innovation Fund and other schemes. In the US the approach lies in tax breaks, on-shoring and investment in new sustainable technologies.
However, other countries have different priorities. Or as a South Asian contact told Global Cement Weekly at a different conference, “How can our government think about sustainability when it can’t feed everyone?” The world’s biggest cement producing countries are China and India, and then the EU and the US follow. Brazil, Türkiye and Vietnam are at similar levels or not far behind. The EU and the US represent about 9% of global cement production based on Cembureau figures for 2022. China and India cover 61% of production. Neither of these countries has announced a plan to encourage the widespread construction of carbon capture units. Once China ‘gets’ cement carbon capture though, it seems plausible that it will dominate it as it has in many other sectors such as solar panel production. Exporters such as Türkiye and Vietnam will have to adapt to the rules of their target markets.
The march by the cement and lime sectors towards carbon capture has been long, difficult and expensive. It also has a long, long way to go. Yet, the next decade promises to be exciting as new technologies are developed and tested, full-scale projects are commissioned and CO2 pipelines, sequestration sites and usage hubs come online. The next key milestones to look out for include the first full-scale installations using other capture methods (such as oxy-fuel kilns), the first CO2 pipeline network that hooks up to a cement plant, the first land-based sequestration site, the first industrial hub that uses CO2 at scale to manufacture a product, new government policies in China and India, and the first large unit that is funded entirely from private finance. To end on a positive note, a Cembureau representative at the Global CemCCUS Conference reckoned that Europe will be able to capture 12Mt/yr of CO2 by 2030. If it happens, this will be a major achievement and a serious statement of intent towards net zero for the sector.
The 2nd Global CemCCUS Conference will take place in Hamburg in May 2025
Europe: Cembureau has released an update to its net zero roadmap. The roadmap now aims for a 37% reduction in CO₂ emissions related to cement production by 2030, 78% by 2040 and net zero cement production by 2050, with potential to become carbon negative.
The roadmap also states the key policy measures needed to meet these updated goals, including: The implementation of a watertight carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), the increase in funding for decarbonisation initiatives, the need for guaranteed access to affordable decarbonised energy, infrastructure and raw materials, as well as the creation of lead markets for low carbon, circular products.
President of Cembureau, Ken McKnight said "In the past four years, the European cement sector has clearly moved from ambition to deployment. We have the potential to scale up our climate ambition, but we need policymakers to match this ambition through decisive policies."
EU: The European Commission has introduced a Draft Guidance document regarding the Free Allocation Regulation (FAR), now expanded to include ‘alternative hydraulic binders’ within the cement clinker benchmark. To qualify for allocation under this benchmark, these binders must meet three specific criteria: they must be used in cement production, not be included in any other benchmark under the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), and must not be by-products of waste or other production processes.
The European Cement Association (CEMBUREAU) has expressed concerns regarding these criteria. Namely, that the proposed changes suggest a shift from a clinker to a cement-based benchmark approach, making current methodologies and regulations inconsistent and impractical, especially as cement production often occurs outside ETS-covered sites. CEMBUREAU also states that some materials like pozzolana and calcined clay, requiring activation by lime or grey cement clinker, do not fit the hydraulic binder definition. Lastly, the association suggests that only materials covered by the standard EN 197-1 should be considered as alternative hydraulic binders, implying that the current definition in the FAR is overly broad and potentially problematic.
Cembureau sets manifesto for industrial transformation
10 January 2024EU: Cembureau has published its manifesto for industrial transformation for the European Parliament’s 2024-2029 legislative term. The manifesto calls for an ambitious EU agenda focused on the implementation of the European Green Deal along five key lines: 1 - turbo-charging EU and national funding and developing national industrial decarbonisation plans; 2 – Rolling out the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to create a level playing field for EU industries; 3 – Building a pan-European CO2 capture network and moving towards circular carbon feedstocks; 4 – Placing circular economy at the heart of industrial decarbonisation; 5 – Enhancing the EU buildings’ agenda to significantly cut emissions.
Cembureau said “The European cement industry was one of the first sectors to present a 2050 Carbon Neutrality Roadmap following the publication of the European Green Deal. The past five years were marked by the development of a comprehensive EU legislative framework and the launch of significant decarbonisation investments in our industry. Now, with the deployment of carbon-neutral cements within our grasp, we need to implement transformative measures on innovation, infrastructure, public acceptance, digitalisation and skills development.”
Cembureau calls on EU to facilitate co-processing of waste composite materials in cement
05 July 2023Belgium: The European cement association, Cembureau, has asked the Europen Union (EU) to provide a regulatory framework to support the work of the European cement industry in co-processing waste composite materials as alternative raw materials. The materials in question consist of glass, carbon or other fibres and polymer matrices. The association called on the EU to recognise co-processing as ‘recycling’ under the EU Waste Framework Directive, to establish waste composite materials collection schemes and phase out landfilling, and to introduce dedicated waste codes for the materials. Cembureau said that the last of these proposals would help to increase visibility and attract investments.
Cembureau set out its proposals in a joint statement with resins associations Cefic UP/VE and Cefic Epoxy Europe, boating association EBI, composite materials association EuCIA, glass fibre association Glass Fibre Europe and wind energy association WindEurope.
Update on synthetic fuels, June 2023
28 June 2023Cemex highlighted its Clyngas project at its Alicante cement plant in Spain this week. The project will produce synthesis gas (syngas) from different types of waste for direct injection into the burner at the plant during the combustion process. It is being run in conjunction with Waste to Energy Advanced Solutions (WTEnergy), a company that Cemex invested in at the end of 2022. It is also receiving Euro4.4m in funding from the European Commission (EC) as part of its innovation fund for small scale projects. The initiative estimates that it will save over 400,000t of equivalent CO2 during the first 10 years of the project's life by replacing petroleum coke with syngas.
Clyngas is another example of Cemex’s innovation with alternative fuels for cement and lime. It follows on from the group’s work with hydrogen injection into cement kilns. As presented at the 15th Global CemFuels Conference 2022 it has been using hydrogen in low volumes as a combustion enhancer in more than 20 plants worldwide. However, it was also looking into using hydrogen more directly as a fuel and as a feedstock for other alternative fuels. WTEnergy’s gasification process could potentially link up to this as it converts waste streams such as wood chips, agricultural waste, refuse derived fuel (RDF), solid recovered fuel (SRF), dry sewage sludge, meat and bone meal, poultry litter and plastics into syngas. WTEnergy then proposes that its gasification process and/or the syngas can be used for power generation and thermal applications. In the case of the Clyngas project it will be the latter, as the gasification process will be used to boost the burnability characteristics of RDF with a high biomass content. One part of this to note is that the syngas can potentially be used to manufacture hydrogen. This would be a useful capability for a cement company, for example, that was already using alternative fuels and was now considering further decarbonisation by switching to using hydrogen.
A few other cement companies have been looking at synthetic fuels too, but this has generally been as a by-product of carbon capture and utilisation. This week Lafarge France, for example, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Axens, EDF and IFP Energies Nouvelles for a synthetic fuel production trial. Its plan is to build a unit that will produce synthetic kerosene using captured CO2 from a carbon capture installation at Lafarge France's Saint-Pierre-La-Cour cement plant. The kerosene will then be sold to airlines. Other examples of cement companies looking at using captured CO2 to manufacture synthetic fuels include Finnsementti’s pre-engineering study with Aker Carbon Capture to consider producing methanol as a fuel for transport, Holcim’s and TotalEnergies’ various plans of what to do with the CO2 captured from the-to-be upgraded Obourg cement plant and Cemex Deutschland’s ambitions for its Rüdersdorf plant.
As can be seen above there are different types of synthetic fuels and cement companies are at the research and pilot stages. Although there isn’t a commonly accepted definition of what a synthetic fuel is, the general meaning is that of a fuel made from feedstock using a chemical reaction as opposed to, say, a refining process. The wide variety of potential synthetic fuels puts the confusion over the different types of hydrogen into perspective. However, this may be a problem for a later date if usage by cement companies becomes more serious.
What is a problem, though, has been the EC’s planned legislation to phase out the use of industrial CO2 in synthetic fuels by 2041. Cembureau, the European cement industry association, warned in late 2022 of the issues this would pose for industries trying to find a way to utilise their CO2 emissions where storage was too difficult or expensive. Its view was that while synthetic fuels using industrial CO2 are not fully net-zero, as the captured CO2 is later released into the atmosphere, it is a necessary short to medium term step for sectors trying to make the transition. Companies trying to build industrial-scale chemical plants for synthetic fuels need running periods of 20 to 30 years to achieve payback. As of March 2023 Cembureau was still concerned about the implication of proposed regulations, specifically with regards to the proposed criteria for which synthetic fuels could be used, based on their greenhouse gas emissions savings (at least 70% compared to the regular fuels being replaced). It directly linked this to synthetic fuels projects being launched by the cement sector that might be adversely affected by the new rules. The EC published the legislation in late June 2023 and it is set to become legal in mid-July 2023.
Using synthetic fuels either as a fuel or a by-product from cement production is an area of interest currently with the projects detailed above and others in progress. One vision for their use in Europe, at least, is that they might offer a route for carbon capture for cement plants without access to the logistic networks necessary for sequestration. Whether they find a place in cement manufacture either on a transitional basis or over a longer term should become clearer over the coming decade. Yet the EC’s new rules are likely to slow this process down as at least some of the planned pilots may become unviable in Europe. Other jurisdictions around the world take note.
Ken McKnight elected as president of Cembureau
21 June 2023Belgium: Cembureau, the European Cement Association, has elected Ken McKnight as its president and Jon Morrish as vice-president. McKnight, a member of the CRH executive committee, succeeds Isidoro Miranda in the role. Morrish is the chief executive officer for Western & Southern Europe of Heidelberg Materials.
Cembureau welcomes EU Nature Restoration Law
16 June 2023Europe: The European cement industry association, Cembureau, has welcomed the enactment of the Nature Restoration Law, which aims to restore ecosystems through binding targets in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy. The European Commission says that the law provides a framework to 'secure the things nature does for free, like cleaning our water and air, pollinating crops and protecting us from floods,' as well as to help limit climate change to +1.5°C.
In a joint statement with other extractive industry bodies, Cembureau told the EU that member states' national restoration plans should take into account industry efforts to plan and implement nature restoration, that member states should protect pioneer species in line with the Nature Directives Species Protection Guidelines' definition of temporary nature and that restoration efforts outside of designated Natura 2000 areas should be addressed on a case-by-case basis in recognition of sectoral specificities.