Displaying items by tag: France
Vicat reports growth in first-half financial results
26 July 2024France: Vicat’s results for the first half of 2024 showed a turnover of €1.94bn, up by 1.3% compared to the same period in 2023. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the period increased by 12% year-on-year. The group expects 3 – 8% growth in full-year EBITDA in 2024. Despite an unfavourable exchange rate effect, mainly due to the depreciation of the Turkish and Egyptian Pounds against the Euro, consolidated net income rose by 5% year-on-year to €115m.
France: Irish cement producer Ecocem plans to industrialise a new technology that will be implemented at its Dunkirk site in northern France by 2025. The technology, called ACT, replaces clinker with limestone filler to reportedly reduce the carbon footprint of cement by 70% compared to the average French cement.
The company is relying on public funding from Bpifrance, the Hauts-de-France region and the urban community of Dunkirk.
France: The Eqiom Lumbres cement plant, part of CRH, has commissioned ThyssenKrupp Polysius to construct a fine grinding plant. The new plant will include the Polysius booster mill and the Sepol ultra-fine classifier, along with necessary auxiliary equipment. ThyssenKrupp Polysius is set to deliver the equipment by late summer 2025, aiming for commissioning in the fourth quarter of 2025. It will also provide on-site service and technical support for performance optimisation.
Project Manager Layal Haddad said "We are proud to be contributing to decarbonisation with the ultra-fine grinding plant and reducing the CO₂ footprint of cement. This is the first ultra-fine grinding plant based on a Polysius booster mill to be sold worldwide. We look forward to a successful project together with the Eqiom/CRH team."
Update on hydrogen use at cement plants, July 2024
10 July 2024Both Limak Çimento and Cemento Yura revealed plans to work with hydrogen this week. Additionally, Lhyfe and Fives signed a deal to sell decarbonised products and services to industries, including cement, covering hydrogen production to combustion.
Türkiye-based Limak Çimento said that it had successfully conducted a hydrogen-enhanced alternative fuel test at its integrated Anka plant near Ankara. As part of the project it blended hydrogen with an alternative carbon-neutral fuel and then operated the plant’s kiln at a 50% substitution rate. The cement company says that the trial achieved a world first by feeding the hydrogen-enhanced fuel directly into the calciner instead of the main burner in the rotary kiln. According to local press, Air Liquide supplied grey hydrogen for the test, although this could be switched to green hydrogen in the future. As a reminder, ‘green’ hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water using renewable energy sources. ‘Grey’ hydrogen is made from steam reforming using fossil fuels.
Limak’s wider ambition is to use hydrogen-blended alternative fuels at all of its cement plants by 2030. By doing so it aspires to reduce its CO2 emissions by 700,000t/yr. Its CEO Erkam Kocakerim remarked in mid-2023 that focusing on the carbon risks that energy-intensive industries might face exporting to the European Union (EU) paled in comparison to the potential payback from the green energy transition. At a climate change summit in mid-2023 organised by the United Nations and the Turkish government, he called for the Turkish Emission Trading System to be put into action as soon as possible, the creation of an updated renewable energy roadmap with renewable hydrogen, CCUS and renewable fuels, and the publication of a hydrogen and CO2 country atlas. At the same time, he stated that the local cement sector could meet the EU’s 2030 emissions targets through the increased uptake of alternative fuels and blended cements.
Meanwhile in Peru this week Juan Carlos Burga, the general manager of Grupo Gloria subsidiary Cemento Yura, told the Gestión newspaper that its cement plant near Arequipa is preparing to start a green hydrogen trial in 2025. The catalyst for this is a solar power unit at the site that is currently scheduled for commissioning in early 2025. Once it is ready then the plant’s hydrogen project can use the renewable energy source to manufacture hydrogen and inject small quantities of it to stabilise the burning process and reduce the amount of coal used.
By contrast the memorandum of understanding that Lhyfe and Fives announced this week looks like the pair are marking their territory in the hydrogen supply and equipment chain for heavy industry. As part of the agreement the companies are targeting the metals, glass and cement industries and some other selected industrial heating processes and applications in Europe and North America. France-based Lhyfe develops, builds and runs green hydrogen production plants both for external clients and itself. It operates one plant at Bouin in France and is building other plants in France and Germany. However, the output of these sites is low. In spite of this, it says it is set to become the largest producer of renewable hydrogen in France in 2024. Fives, well known as a cement equipment supplier, says it has been a “technological leader in hydrogen for over 50 years” and that it sells “the widest range of hydrogen-proven burners available on the market to serve all industries.” The Lhyfe-Fives agreement follows a similar deal between Air Products and ThyssenKrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers in 2020.
Projects in West Asia and South America such as those discussed by Limak Çimento and Cemento Yura are not necessarily where one might expect them to be. Typically all the sustainability news in the cement sector tends to be dominated by companies in Europe and North America. This is reflected in the continents that Lhyfe and Fives have targeted this week. Yet, the focus by Limak and Yura on hydrogen suggests that these companies are hunting for decarbonisation options that are cost effective ahead of potential legislative enforcement. Both appear to be using hydrogen as a fuel enhancer or additive rather than on its own.
We have reported upon a steady stream of hydrogen projects for the cement sector in the last year. These include Heidelberg Materials' study looking at using ammonia as a hydrogen source for fuelling cement kilns at its Ribblesdale cement plant in the UK, Fives work with Holcim at the La Malle plant in France and much work by Cemex such as the increase of its stake in green hydrogen production technology developer HiiROC in late 2023. As with Global Cement Weekly’s previous reporting on hydrogen, the jury is still out on whether it is a ‘goer’ for heavy industry at scale. An executive at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries told a conference in March 2024 that the infrastructure investment to support the use of hydrogen would cost over US$1Tn in the US and Europe alone. The head of Saudi Aramco then pointed out at the same event that oil and gas, for now at least, cost far less than hydrogen. Despite this, the projects keep coming.
France/Europe: Eurazeo, via its Smart City fund, alongside the EIC Fund and existing investors, is supporting Materrup with a €26m fundraising effort to expand its low-carbon cement technology across France and Europe. This investment will accelerate the deployment of Materrup's circular low-carbon cement plants using its non-calcined clay technology. Already operational with its first scale plant in Landes, Materrup plans to establish an additional 10 plants, in collaboration with European industrial partners.
Ghizlane Ruf appointed as Chief of Staff at Ecocem
12 June 2024Ireland: Ecocem has appointed Ghizlane Ruf as its Chief of Staff. The role will see her work with the company’s senior executives to prioritise strategic business decisions and enhance team efficiency. She has been in post since the start of 2024.
Ruf previously worked for LafargeHolcim from 2016 to 2022 in a variety of customer service roles eventually becoming the Head of Customer Services for Cements and Aggregates and Standards France. She has also worked for Salesforce and Teksial.
Spain: Heidelberg Materials plans to stop clinker production at its Añorga plant near San Sebastián and run the site as a cement grinding plant instead. It says it intends to use the change to focus on low-carbon cement products in Spain and the South-West of France. The clinker required to supply the markets in Northern Spain and the South-West of France will be produced at Heidelberg Materials Spain’s Bilbao plant instead. The closure of the clinker production line at Añorga will start once staff negotiations at the plant are completed. The company said that, “socially acceptable solutions for all affected employees are being sought.”
Rohrdorfer appoints Fives FCB to supply clay calcination unit for Rohrdorf cement plant
11 June 2024Germany: France-based Fives has won a contract to build a 50t/day clay calcination unit at Rohrdorfer’s Rohrdorf cement plant in Bavaria. The unit will integrate into the plant’s clinker line in order to allow it to test the production of limestone calcined clay cement with up to 40% reduced CO2 emissions. Fives’ clay calcination unit uses a flash calcination process, based on a three-stage preheater, flash calciner and decolourisation system.
Rohrdorfer’s Net Zero Emissions Labs team is responsible for the project to decarbonise the Rohrdorf cement plant by 2038. Its managing director Helmut Leibinger said “After a detailed technical review, we decided that the flash calciner with an integrated clay calcination unit from Fives FCB was the best solution in terms of reliability, efficiency and colour control. We are confident that the unit will be essential in moving forward on our pathway to net zero.”
Cem’in’log expands operations at Sète
06 June 2024France: Cem’in’log has surpassed 1Mt of clinker processed at the Sète site since its inception over four years ago, encouraging parent company Cem’in’EU to continue investments there. Since 2019, the Port of Sète has served as a key entry point for Cem’in’EU’s clinker imports, mainly from North Africa. The site's storage capacity was expanded to 300,000t/yr in 2023. A new warehouse set to increase capacity to 500,000t/yr will begin construction in summer 2024 with a €5m budget. Cem’in’log will also boost its equipment, expecting to operate six rail services weekly by the end of 2024, supporting future expansion.
General manager Jean-Yves Apard said "We are currently dispatching four to five trains per week from Sète, loaded with 1850t of clinker. By the end of 2024, with a second locomotive provided by Regiorail and handled at the port by Viia, we will increase to six trains per week."
France: Holcim has committed €200m over the past three years to decarbonise its French manufacturing sites. This initiative is part of a roadmap signed with the French government in November 2023, aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions by over 50% by 2030 and 95% by 2050 compared to 2015 levels.
At the 7th Choose France summit on 13 May 2024, Holcim announced an additional investment of €64m for developing new technological and industrial platforms across its seven French plants located in Saint-Pierre-la-Cour, Martres-Tolosane, Port-la-Nouvelle, Val d'Azergues, Le Teil, Altkirch and La Malle. These platforms, set to be operational between 2025 and 2026, will focus on CO₂ capture technology (€9m at Martres Tolosane), integration of construction waste in cement processes (€24m across all plants), and the use of biomass waste fuels (€13m at Saint-Pierre-la-Cour, €11m at Martres-Tolosane, and €1m at Port-la-Nouvelle). An additional €6m will be allocated to recycling and transformation platforms for construction waste in five urban areas: Laval, Le Havre, Martres-Tolosane, Orange and Lyon.
These investments are expected to reduce Holcim's CO₂ emissions in France by over 120,000t/yr and create more than 40 jobs.