Displaying items by tag: SCM

Latvia: Stiga RM is investing more than €32m in a new wood-wool cement board plant in Tukums, expected to complete construction by late 2024 and be operational by the end of 2025. Covering 15,000m², the plant will create almost 100 new jobs and focus on high-quality wood products, primarily for export markets in Europe, Scandinavia and North America. The plant has a capacity of 4.5Mm²/yr of acoustic wood-wool cement boards. The company has an agreement with SCM Group for the supply and installation of the production equipment at the plant.

Manager Sandis Fogelmanis said "We are pleased that the construction of the new plant is progressing according to plan and, at some stages, is even ahead of the original schedule."

UK: UK-based startup Cocoon has raised €4.9m in pre-seed funding to develop technology that repurposes byproducts from electrified steel furnaces into a ‘near-identical replacement’ for blast furnace slag, according to the company. The modular technology integrates into existing steel-making processes without disrupting operations or requiring high capital expenditure, reports UK Tech News. Cocoon targets a 50% replacement of cement in concrete, aiming to reduce emissions for producers. Initial tests are underway at a steel plant in northern England, followed by another in the US.

Cocoon CEO Eliot Brooks said "We’re turning a byproduct with little use into a valuable product that the market badly needs and can be easily integrated into existing supply chains. By repairing a broken link in the circular economy, Cocoon provides steel makers with a new revenue stream while meeting the low-carbon material needs of the concrete industry. For every 1t of Cocoon’s slag-based cementitious material used, 1t of CO₂ can be avoided."

Brooks hopes Cocoon's climate technology will be integrated into a pilot plant by late 2025.

US: Queens Carbon has secured a US$14.5m grant from the US Department of Energy under its SCALEUP program. The funding will support the pilot of Queens Carbon's low temperature, ‘zero CO₂’ emission technology at an existing cement production site. Queens Carbon's supplementary cementitious materials, which replace 20-50% of the high-CO₂ binder in cement, will be produced at a pilot plant with a capacity of 10t/day.

CEO Daniel Kopp said “This SCALEUP grant is a tremendous step forward on our path to commercialisation. Partnering with the Department of Energy and a major cement industry player to deploy, operate, and optimise our 10t/day pilot plant will put us on an accelerated path to gigatonne-scale CO₂ reductions.”

US: Germany-based Heidelberg Materials has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire The SEFA Group Inc., the largest fly ash recycling company in the US. Based in Lexington, South Carolina, the operations of The SEFA Group include five business units, five utility partners, 20 locations and more than 500 employees. The group currently supplies quality fly ash to more than 800 concrete plants in 13 states.

Heidelberg Materials said that the reuse of fly ash from energy generation in alternative products such as composite cements enhances its circularity efforts within its value chain by reducing the CO₂ emissions of its cement and concrete. The transaction is anticipated to close in June 2023.

“Fostering circularity by increasing the use of by-products and recycled materials from other industrial sectors is an essential part of our strategy,” said Dr Dominik von Achten, Chairman of the Managing Board at Heidelberg Materials. “Our focus is on rapidly and significantly reducing our CO₂ emissions and The SEFA Group will make an outstanding contribution in this regard to our US business.”