Displaying items by tag: Sustainability
Boral invests in chlorine bypass technology at Berrima cement plant
21 February 2022Australia: Boral plans to install chlorine bypass technology at its Berrima cement plant in New South Wales. The Illawara Mercury newspaper has reported that the installation will help the plant to double its alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate to 100%. This is one of the ways in which the producer aims to reduce its Scope One and Two emissions by 46% between 2020 and 2030.
Honduras: Cementos Argos is investing US$23m on various projects including increasing its alternative fuels substitution rate. The cement producer is targeting a 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%. The company says it has also co-processed 1.5m waste tyres in Honduras. It has now signed a partnership agreement with Fundesur and Fundación Herco for the collection and delivery of 5,000 tires/month in Choluteca for co-processing.
Other projects Cementos Argos is working on include increasing the production capacity of its Piedras Azules cement plant and increasing the plant’s use of solar energy.
ThyssenKrupp to upgrade Ciments Calcia’s Airvault cement plant
07 December 2021France: Germany-based ThyssenKrupp has won a contract for the installation of a new 4000t/day clinker line at Ciments Calcia’s Airvault cement plant in Poitou-Charentes. The supplier expects the new line to double the plant’s clinker capacity while also reducing its CO2 emissions. It is intended to replace the two existing lines at the site.
ThyssenKrupp will supply a 1200t/hr double-shaft hammer crusher, a longitudinal blending bed, a 370t/hr Quadropol QMR² 45/23 type vertical roller mill and a 10,000t tangential blending silo to process raw materials for the line. A single-string, five-stage Dopol type cyclone preheater with integral calciner will be supplied that is suitable to use with alternative fuels, with the possibility of conversion to oxyfuel in future. ThyssenKrupp plans to preassemble the preheater, reducing anticipated construction time ‘by several months.’ The plant also includes a Polytrack clinker cooler, a solid recovered fuel (SRF) preparation line and dedusting systems. Commissioning is scheduled for mid-2024.
No value for the project has been disclosed by Ciments Calcia or ThyssenKrupp. However, Ciments Calcia previously announced a proposed investment of Euro300m in January 2021.
Canada: St Mary’s Cement plans to apply for a licence to substitute alternative fuel (AF) for a part of its coal, gas and petcoke fuel mix. The plant previously held a two-week AF substitution trial in May 2011. CBC News has reported that the subsidiary of Votorantim Cimentos will present its plan at an evening meeting for the general public on 18 November 2021. The company says that it plans to implement similar AF arrangements to those at its Bowmanville plant, where it uses 90,000t/yr of biomass, wood from construction and demolition and non-recyclable paper and plastics.
Environmental manager Ruben Plaza said "Lower CO2 emissions is the first consideration and, equally as important, the material has to be approved and available in sufficient quantities with a reliable and sustainable long-term supply."
Sumitomo Osaka Cement’s Ako cement plant to receive future disaster waste from Hyogo Prefecture
18 November 2021Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has secured an agreement with Hyogo Prefecture for the future reception and processing of the prefecture’s waste from disasters such as earthquakes. The company says that the agreement will facilitate the rapid reception of such materials and to best support clean-up efforts.
President Hironori Morohashi said “We will continue to strengthen our cooperative relationship with Hyogo Prefecture and work to form a sustainable society and develop and improve the region.”
Italy: The Italian cement association Federbeton has launched its comprehensive plan for cement industry decarbonisation in line with the EU’s European Green Deal target of a 55% reduction in CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. The strategyidentifies increased alternative fuel (AF) substitutionas an immediately achievable strategy to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint by 12%. It contrasted the change with others such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) whichrequire further development. The sector’s primary fuel is petcoke, mainly imported from the Gulf of Mexico.
In total, the association’s strategy entails Euro4.2bn of new investments andEuro1.4m/yr of extra operating costs across the industry.
Federbeton’s 2019 sustainability report shows increased alternative fuel substitution rate
03 December 2020Italy: The Italian cement and concrete association Federbeton says that investments in sustainable technologies in domestic cement production totalled Euro110m between 2017 and 2019, reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 311,000t in 2019 alone, up by 12% year-on-year from 278,000t in 2018. An increased alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate of 6.7% in 2019 contributed to the reduction, up by 0.7% from 6.6%. Producers’ full-year alternative fuels consumption was 1.6Mt.
LafargeHolcim to double waste derived fuels usage by 2030
21 September 2020Switzerland: LafargeHolcim says it will double the use of waste derived fuels in production by 2030 from a baseline set in 2018. It made the announcement as it signed the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) Business Ambition for 1.5°C pledge, which commits it to net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050. It says it is the first building materials company to join the pledge.
The company has committed itself to a 20% reduction in its CO2 intensity between 2018 and 2030. It says that over the period it will: “accelerate the use of low-carbon and carbon-neutral products such as ECOPact and Susteno, recycle 100Mt of waste and by-products for energy and raw materials, scale up the use of calcined clay and develop novel cements with new binders, reach net CO2 emissions 475kg/t of cementitious material and open and operate its first net-zero CO2 cement plant.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jan Jenisch said, “I believe in building a world that works for people and the planet. That’s why we are reinventing how the world builds today to make it greener with low-carbon and circular solutions. I am very excited to be working with SBTi, taking a rigorous science-based approach to shape our net zero roadmap and accelerating our efforts to substantially lower our CO2 footprint. I will not stop pushing the boundaries to lead the way in green construction.”
Vicat showcases Vicat Circulère
29 November 2018France: Vicat has showcased Vicat Circulère, its construction waste management plant, at the Pollutec environmental exhibition in Lyon. The building materials producer has set itself the goal of no longer using fossil fuels at its cement plants by 2023. At present it has an alternative fuels substitution rate of over 50% at its cement plants in France.