Displaying items by tag: Memorandum of Understanding

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) plans to install carbon capture systems at cement plants in Southeast Asia. Reuters has reported that the producer signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a subsidiary of Nippon Steel to carry out the projects.

Sri Lanka: INSEE Cement and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) have signed a memorandum (MoU) of understanding to extend their global biodiversity management partnership until 2026. Projects include quarry restoration, wildlife rescue and release and field surveys of the Koggala and Aruwakkalu mangrove restoration sites and Unawatuna manmade coral reef.

INSEE Cement's environment and corporate social responsibility manager Rohan Lakmal said "Biodiversity is one of the fundamental pillars of INSEE's Sustainability Ambition 2030. Our partnership with IUCN enables INSEE Cement to meet our own ambitious sustainability targets, while also creating more awareness of the general decline in Sri Lanka's biodiversity, and the urgency to do our part to conserve our natural habitats."

Belgium: Holcim and TotalEnergies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work towards the full decarbonisation of the Obourg cement plant. Various energies and technologies will be assessed for the capture, utilisation and sequestration (CCUS) of around 1.3Mt/yr of CO₂ emitted by the unit. The project will include working towards building an oxyfuel switchable kiln as part of an upgrade project at the plant and the transportation and use of the captured CO₂ by TotalEnergies for a synthetic fuel producing scheme and/or deposit in geological storage in the North Sea.

TotalEnergies will also assess the development of renewable projects to power a new electrolyser, which would generate the green hydrogen needed to produce synthetic fuels. This new renewable energy production capacity would also power Holcim’s new oxyfuel kiln. Finally, the oxygen emitted by the electrolyser would be used to fuel the new kiln.

Bart Daneels, the chief executive officer of Holcim Belgium said “Cement industry decarbonisation is extremely challenging because of the process's inevitable CO₂ emissions, which put us firmly in the hard-to-abate sector. CCUS is vital for Obourg to become the first net carbon neutral clinker plant in northwest Europe. We are very happy to work with TotalEnergies to accelerate the development of these CCUS solutions for GO4ZERO. By joining the first movers, we want to set the standards for future clinker manufacturing plants.”

Saudi Arabia: Qassim Cement has concluded a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hail Cement for acquisition of the latter’s issued shares. After any acquisition takes place, Qassim Cement plans to issue US$377m-worth of share capital in favour of Hail Cement’s existing shareholders.

Qatar: The Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) and Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (GORD) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the research and development of low-carbon building products. The organisations will also lead capacity building and knowledge sharing exercises to encourage the industry-wide transition to low-carbon solutions and green building practices.

Essa Mohammed Ali Kaldari, the chief executive officer of QNCC, said, “We are pleased today to sign a MOU with the GORD, which aims to enhance the cooperation towards scientific research in the area of green and low carbon products, achieving sustainable development, and establishing an integrated system that serves all the people of Qatar.” He added “In line with Qatar National Vision 2030, QNCC started significantly supporting institutions that focus on capacity building and create a strong sustainability culture that combines the economy and the environment.”

Gabon: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and the United Cities and Local Government of Africa (UCLG Africa) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at Africa Climate Week 2022 that is intended to collaboration towards decarbonising cement and concrete industries in Africa. The MOU was signed by UCLG Africa’s Secretary General Jean-Pierre Elong-Mbassi and the GCCA’s Director of Concrete and Sustainable Construction Andrew Minson. The agreement was made during Africa Climate Week 2022 in Gabon and sets out how both parties will work together to strengthen stakeholder advocacy towards net zero and encourage local governments to take policy action towards decarbonisation targets.

Through this agreement the two organisations will work together towards building sustainable and resilient cities, with a focus on an initial first five pilot cities to scope out opportunities and challenges. The two parties will jointly organise events that strengthen advocacy for the involvement of local governments in decarbonisation. Both parties will also aim to help make low carbon cement manufacturing more attractive to investors in Africa, as well as stimulate demand for low-carbon concrete products and to cultivate a positive environment for circular and Net Zero manufacturing across Africa.

To reach these objectives, both parties will work to ensure African cities have more capacity to embrace innovative cement products and that these cities can be mobilised effectively to join the Net Zero by 2050 efforts. GCCA and UCLG Africa will also look to build stakeholder support for multi-level governance in urban planning and housing across Africa.

Coolbrook has been in the news recently with collaboration deals struck with Cemex and UltraTech Cement. First the Finland-based company officially launched its Roto Dynamic Heater (RDH) technology with a memorandum of understanding signed with Cemex in May 2022. Then, this week, it signed a similar agreement with UltraTech Cement.

The specifics of either agreement are unknown but the target is clearly to build an industrial pilot of an electric kiln – or something like it - at a cement plant. Coolbrook says it has run a pilot of its RDH technology in Finland. Further tests are now scheduled to continue for two years starting from September 2022 at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus at Geleen in the Netherlands. Commercial scale demonstrations are scheduled from 2022 with the hope of commercial use from 2024. Links with Cemex and UltraTech Cement seem to suggest progress. At the same time Coolbrook will be testing its RotoDynamic Reactor (RDR) technology, which promises to electrify the steam cracking process used in plastic manufacturing.

Publically available details on the RDH technology are light. In its promotional material Coolbrook says that it can achieve process temperatures of up to around 1700°C. This is crucial to achieve full clinker formation in a cement kiln. Reaching this temperature with non-combustion style kilns, such as solar reactors, has previously been a problem. Notably, Synhelion and Cemex said in February 2022 that they had managed to produce clinker using concentrated solar radiation. Retrofit possibilities and compact equipment size are also mentioned in the promotional material for the RDH. The former is an obvious attraction but size of equipment footprint is increasingly emerging as a potential issue for cement plants looking to reduce their CO₂ emissions. Rick Bohan from the Portland Cement Association (PCA) presented a summary of the potential and problems of emerging carbon capture and utilisation/storage (CCUS) technologies for cement plants in the US at the Virtual Global CemCCUS Seminar that took place on 14 June 2022. He noted that installing CCUS equipment makes cement plants start to look different (more like petrochemical plants in the view of Global Cement Weekly) and that they may require more space to install it all.

Coolbrook hasn’t been the only organisation looking at kiln electrification. The installation with the most available information on kiln electrification has been the Decarbonate project, led by the VTT, formerly known as the Technical Research Centre of Finland. The project has built a pilot rotary kiln with a length of 8m inside a shipping container. It has a production capacity of around 25kg/hr. The system reportedly uses fixed radiant heating coils around the kiln, surrounded by insulation materials. Early results presented to the 1st Virtual Global CemPower Seminar in late 2021 were that the kiln started up, sufficient calcination was occurring and the system was operated continuously for three days at a temperature of 1000°C with no problems reported. Further research was scheduled to carry on into 2022 with longer trials planned for three different materials.

HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary in Sweden, Cementa, completed a feasibility study on implementing electrified cement production at its Slite plant in 2019. It then said that it was conducting further study with electricity producer Vattenfall as part of CemZero project. This consists of three projects running to 2025. Namely: heat transfer with plasma in rotary kilns; direct separation of carbon dioxide from calcination of carbonate-based raw materials in the production of cement clinker and burnt lime; and carbon dioxide-free products with electrified production - reactivity of cement clinker with secondary additives. HeidelbergCement has since announced plans to build a full scale 1.8Mt/yr carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant at the Slite cement plant by 2030.

How this would fit with any kiln electrification plans is unknown. However, one attraction of moving to an electrical kiln, for all of the projects above, is to cut out the 40 – 50% of a cement plant’s CO₂ emissions that arise from the fuel that is burnt. Taking a kiln electric also makes CO₂ capture easier. Much of the remainder of the CO₂ released comes from the decomposition of limestone during calcination when clinker is created. Substitute out fossil or alternative fuels and the flue gas becomes much purer CO₂.

It is early days for cement kiln electrification but progress is happening both commercially and scientifically. The next step to watch out for will be the first pilot installation at a cement plant. One point to finish with is a comment that Rick Bohan made at the IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference that took place in May 2022: carbon capture is expected to double a cement plant’s energy consumption. Kiln electrification is one potential route for cement production to reach net zero. CCUS is another. If one or both occur then a low carbon future could be a high energy one also.

Watch out for Global Cement’s forthcoming interview with Coolbrook in the September 2022 issue of Global Cement Magazine

For more on CCUS, download the proceedings pack for the Virtual Global CemCCUS Seminar 2022

For more on Synhelion and Cemex read the interview in the December 2020 issue of Global Cement Magazine interview

India: India Cements has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with 3D printing equipment supplier company Tvasta Manufacturing. The agreement establishes mutual strategic support between the partners in their efforts to develop new raw materials for use in 3D printing.

India Cements director Rupa Gurunath said "We are excited that Tvasta Manufacturing's technology delivers a cost-effective construction method that offers quicker turn-arounds as compared to conventional methods. But what we are particularly enthusiastic about is that this methodology is more eco-friendly, with lower consumption of water and sand."

Mexico: Cemex and Coolbrook have signed a memorandum of understanding to test technology to electrify the cement kiln heating process. Coolbrook says that its Roto Dynamic Heater (RDH) technology can heat a cement kiln to 1700°C using electrical power. If generated from renewable sources this could potentially remove around 45% of the carbon emissions in cement production that normally arise from the use of fossil fuels. The companies expect the technology to be ready for commercial use at an industrial scale in 2024. They will jointly evaluate the best production site to test and develop this technology.

Ilpo Kuokkanen, the executive chair of Coolbrook, said "Coolbrook has set a target to build a comprehensive ecosystem around its revolutionary technology and to test its use in as many industrial processes as fast as possible. Together with Cemex, we can bring the technology to cement production and achieve significant emission reductions in one of the most energy and CO₂-intensive industrial processes.”

Finland-based Coolbrook is a technology and engineering company that is developing processes to replace the burning of fossil fuels in major industrial sectors. Its RDH has potential applications in cement, steel and chemical production process. Its Roto Dynamic Reactor (RDR) is intended to eliminate CO₂ emissions from the steam cracking process used in the production of plastic.

UK: Hanson has signed a memorandum of understanding with Shell to work together to explore opportunities that help the construction industry’s transition to net zero emissions.

Under the agreement the companies plan to explore: using hydrogen for transport and industrial processes; using capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) in cement production; looking at lower carbon fuels and electric vehicles; digital innovations in energy production, consumption and efficiency; improving bitumen and asphalt technology; and renewable energy sources such as solar installations and batteries to replace diesel generators. In addition, the companies say they will consider the possibility of collaborating in future business opportunities or new business models, which will create value and scope for further decarbonisation.

Hanson’s chief executive officer Simon Willis said, “We are already working together on several initiatives to decarbonise asphalt with bitumen materials and innovations which promote long life, increased use of recycled materials, low carbon products and the circular economy.” He added that “Hanson and Shell have a long-established working relationship and are committed to sharing knowledge and resources to jointly work on projects that will facilitate our transition to net zero emissions.”