Displaying items by tag: Sustainability

Singapore: Pan-United Concrete has started a partnership with Surbana Jurongto study the feasibility of using electric and hydrogen fuel cells to power a fleet of more than 1000 trucks. The agreement is intended to support Pan-United’s sustainability targets to offer only low-carbon concrete by 2030, carbon-neutral concrete products by 2040 and to become a carbon-neutral ready-mix concrete company by 2050.

Yeo Choon Chong, the Chief Executive Officer of Surbana Jurong's Association of Southeast Asian Nations division, said, "We applaud Pan-United's ambition to decarbonise its heavy vehicle fleet and are excited to contribute to its sustainability initiative by leveraging our expertise in electrification and hydrogen solutions. Partnerships are a key method of accelerating our collective efforts to build for a safe, sustainable and resilient future for all."

China: Hebei province will screen out a total of 1000 existing factories for replacement with less-polluting alternatives under the Chinese government’s 14th Five Year Plan, which covers the period up to the end of 2025. The Xinhua News Agency has reported that factories, including cement plants, will undergo upgrades in order to conform to the plan’s emissions restrictions or close down. The province currently has a total of 233 green factories. Under the 13th Five Year Plan, which concluded in 2020, it reduced its installed cement production capacity by 12Mt/yr.

Norway: Germany-based MAN Energy is supplying a compressor system for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) unit being built at Norcem’s Brevik cement plant. The scope of supply includes an RG 63-7 type electrically-powered compressor train. The steam generators cool the CO₂ mixture between the compressor stages and generate steam that is in turn used for capture. The project will be the first to use the ‘Carbon Capture Heat Recovery’ technology (CCWHR) developed by MAN and Aker Carbon Capture. This new process allows the heat emerging from the compressor system to be recovered and used as steam to meet approximately one third of the total heat demand from the Aker Carbon Capture plant. Consequently, MAN says that the system solution demands less energy compared with conventional carbon-capture technologies.

Alexander Sobolyev, Head of Standardisation & Solutions at MAN Energy Solutions, said: "As part of the Norcem project, the digital-twin-based engineering approach of MAN Energy Solutions has led to concrete optimisations. The dynamic process simulation showed that originally planned system components, including heating, valves and additional pipes for safe plant operation, were not required. The time taken for a cold start of the plant can thus be reduced from around 12 hours to 20 minutes – an important characteristic as quick-start capability is always a central criterion for renewable energies."

Germany: Holcim Germany has published environmental reports for 2020 focused on each of its cement plants. The subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim has decided to target its reports on local issues by issuing separate reports for each of its four integrated plants in the country, at Beckum, Höver, Lägerdorf and Dotternhausen respectively. Each report covers national developments for the sector and the company. Local data is then included as well as data on connected cement grinding and concrete plants. The reports can be downloaded from Holcim Germany’s website.

Australia: Boral says that its emissions reduction targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) as being consistent with the levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Boral released its targets in August 2021 when it said it intends to reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050. It subsequently joined the SBTi’s Business Ambition for 1.5°C and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Race to Zero campaign.

The Australia-based building materials company plans to reduce its Scope One and Two emissions by 46% by 2030. It also plans to decrease its relevant Scope Three emissions per tonne of cementitious materials by 22%. It intends to do this by: transitioning to 100% renewable electricity by 2025 and increasing alternative fuels usage at its Berrima plant kiln; growing the proportion of revenue from its lower carbon concrete product range and optimising the efficiency of its cement plant; reducing transport emissions in its own and contractor fleet; prioritising lower carbon intensity suppliers; and exploring and testing emerging carbon capture use and storage technologies.

Boral’s Chief Finance and Strategy Officer, Tino La Spina, said “Boral is determined to become a leading innovator in sustainability through decarbonisation of cement and concrete and increasing our contribution to a more circular economy” He added “We continue to support our customers in their transition to net zero, broadening our range of high performing lower carbon concrete products to cater for all building and infrastructure applications, and offering Climate Active−certified net carbon neutral concrete.”

Honduras: Cementos Argos plans to expand the production capacity of its 1Mt/yr Piedras Azules cement plant by 35%. The plan is part of a group of planned projects, including solar power and alternative fuels, with a total investment value of US$23m. The company expects to complete all of the work before 2024. It says that the expanded operations will generate 500 new direct job opportunities.

The company will increase its energy supply from the Comayagua solar power plant to 25% of the plant’s requirements from 20% at present. It will also establish a new 1.2MW solar power plant at Río Blanquito. The cement producer will also strengthen its industrial waste co-processing operations with the aim of achieving 12% refuse-derived fuel (RDF) substitution rate by 2030, the equivalent of 5500t/yr. If reached, this will reduce the company’s carbon footprint in the country by 14%.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Luis Eduardo Tovar said "This investment is a vote of confidence of Argos in Honduras and represents our commitment to the country's economic reactivation and our firm determination to contribute to the consolidation of prosperous and sustainable communities based on competitive and visionary initiatives.” He continued “We will continue our efforts to promote the development of Honduran families through the creation of social value at a national level."

Mexico: Cemex has joined the United Nations (UN) Global Compact’s Chief CFO Taskforce for the Sustainable Development Goals. The taskforce engages global chief finance officers (CFOs) in integrating the UN’s 10 sustainable development goals (SDG) into strategy, financing and investor relations in order to create a broad sustainable finance market. Its aims include providing the global development community with a modern view of how capital markets can contribute to financing the SDGs at scale, developing innovative financial instruments and contributing to a broad market of diversified investment opportunities, supporting companies in securing financial capital to transform their business and production models, connecting companies’ SDG investments with increasingly impact-orientated investors, developing internal tools and resources to embed sustainability in corporate finance, promoting partnerships between chief executive officers and CFOs and helping to translate sustainability strategies into financial language for investors and rating agencies.

Cemex’s CFO Maher Al-Haffar said “Climate change is perhaps the biggest challenge of our times, affecting lives and disrupting economies. Only by aligning our financial and climate action strategies will we be able to overcome this challenge.” He added “At Cemex, we share the beliefs embodied in the CFO principles and are honoured to join the UN Global Compact CFO Taskforce for the SDGs, through which we will actively contribute to the innovation of corporate finance that will enable the building of a more resilient future for all.”

India: First Construction Council and the Indian Cement Review have named Dalmia Cement Bharat managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Mahendra Singhi as Person of the Year at the Cement Expo on Cementing India’s Future for the 2022 financial year. Singhi won the title for his exemplary contribution towards transformational changes in the Indian and global cement sectors, significantly facilitating the transition to a more circular economy. Singhi is the previous president of the Indian Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) and the previous chair of the National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCCBM). He has achieved recognition as a Conference of the Parties (COP) 26 Business Leader and a World Bank Group Carbon Pricing Champion.

Singhi said “I am honoured to receive this award on behalf of people with whom I worked in the last 43 years in various companies who have shaped my clean and sustainable journey and I dedicate this award to them. I feel fortunate that I have been able to have visionary mentors and committed colleagues who could support my cemented journey.” He added “I am hopeful about the future as we transition towards newer business models that will drive us to remain profitable, ensure value creation and, at the same time, achieve environmental sustainability.”

Denmark: Aalborg Portland Cement says that the market ‘warmly welcomed’ its new FUTURECEM calcined clay cement in 2021. The product has reached its sales expectations for the year and is now nearly sold out for 2022. The company says that its plan to ramp up FUTURECEM production to replace 50% of grey cement production at its Rørdal cement plant is on track.

Parent company Cementir Holding says that the success of FUTURECEM rests on four pillars, namely its suitability for intended applications, targeted communication, close dialogue with concrete producers and the entire value chain and strategic partnerships with leading construction clients. It said “The lesson learned is that the market needs thorough information about new products and its industrialisation to rely on and implement them in place of conventional products.” The group added that its experience in Denmark paves the way for limestone calcined clay technology rollouts in other markets in line with its sustainable roadmap towards 2030.

US: Performance materials and technologies conglomerate Honeywell has entered into a collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin for the development of carbon capture systems. Honeywell has obtained a licence to use the university’s proprietary advanced solvent technology. The University of Texas at Austin will provide consulting services for the company as it seeks to develop a carbon capture system for industrial implementation using the technology. Honeywell will target ‘hard-to-abate’ CO₂ emitting industries such as cement to which to supply its system.

University of Texas at Austin McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering professor and Texas Carbon Management Program (TxCMP) lead Gary Rochelle said “We are thrilled that our decades of research has led to carbon capture technology that can significantly reduce carbon emissions. The licensing agreement with Honeywell enables us to commercially scale this in ways that can make major contributions toward zero emissions efforts to address global warming and to reduce pollutants in surrounding communities.”