Cemtech Europe explores CCS
On 30 September the Cemtech Europe 2024 conference and exhibition began with delegates from 40 countries congregating at the impressive Hilton hotel in Warsaw, Poland. The event was generously supported by the Polish Cement Association (SPC), allowing full engagement with the local industry.
Thomas Armstrong, International Cement Review’s managing editor, welcomed delegates, setting the scene for the next two days of networking and expert insight. He provided an overview of the decarbonisation timeline for the cement industry, highlighting how achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is now the operational reality for EU cement producers. He detailed the considerable challenges for the EU cement sector, where 200 plants must find a credible pathway to decarbonisation.
Regulatory barriers for carbon capture
Further insight on the Polish cement industry was given by Jan Deja, the CEO of the SPC. His keynote speech laid out the industrial development of the Polish cement sector, including consideration of the decarbonisation process. Poland’s cement industry is the third largest producer in Europe with an output of 16.6Mt of cement in 2023, concentrated around 12 cement and grinding plants. Jan stated that because of investment of over PLN12bn (US$3.05bn) over the last three decades, cement plants have been able to increase capacity and reduce the CO2 emission by more than 30 per cent. Poland is a world leader for alternative fuels (AFs) use in cement production, with 80 per cent of thermal energy consumed by the industry made from waste. This is compared to 53 per cent across Europe. Annually, cement plants in Poland use more than 5Mt of production waste from other industries.
Critically, Jan cited the importance of carbon capture and storage (CCS) for the future decarbonisation of the Polish cement industry, and highlighted three regulatory barriers:
• absence of a national strategy for CCS
• a lack of legal framework covering the transport and storage of CO2 on land
• the need to appoint a national operator of CO2 transport and storage system.
As part of the same session, Koen Coppenholle, CEO, cembureau, presented on the policy conditions for successful decarbonisation. These include the implementation of a ‘watertight’ carbon border adjustment system (CBAM) to level the playing field on CO2, access to affordable decarbonised energy, and the frontloading of ETS revenues to supply financial support for investments in decarbonisation projects and above all, carbon capture.
Jim O’Brien, Jim O’Brien CSR Consulting (Ireland), revealed the industry’s positive trend in AF utilisation, reduction in clinker-to-cement ratios and also a reduction in overall net kgCO2/t of cementitious product in 2023. The average net emissions decreased by 10kgCO2/t to reach 590kgCO2/t. Jim enthused that this level of progress points to the industry realising ~500kgCO2/t by 2030.
Next, a high-level panel debated regulatory and policy hurdles for carbon capture in Poland. Chaired by Peter Hoddinott, independent consultant (UK), the participants included:
• Krzysztof Bolesta, Secretary of State, Ministry of Climate and Environment, Government of Poland
• Wojciech Nowak, director of the Centre of Energy, AGH University of Krakow (Poland)
• Andrzej Losor, director and member of the Management Board, Heidelberg Materials (Poland)
• Wojciech Lewandowski PhD, EU policies analyst, European Bank for Reconstruction (Poland).
Mr Bolesta argued that the success of CCS will depend on governmental approval of legislation for carbon transport and storage, something expected to happen by 2025 in Poland. The Polish ministry along with stakeholders, including the cement sector, are finalising a “Letter of Intent” to establish a cooperation agreement between all parties ahead of adopting a full carbon capture strategy. Mr Bolesta is optimistic that the letter will be finalised by December 2024. Once this vital piece of the jigsaw is in place, it is hoped that Poland will become a beacon for industry decarbonisation in Europe and beyond. The panel concluded that while local producers are developing carbon capture projects – including Holcim Polska’s Kujawy Go4ECOPlanet project that aims to be one of the first net zero plants in the world – the most important hurdle to full cement decarbonisation is the availability of economic CO2 transport and storage infrastructure.
How will the industry reach its Net-Zero goals?
Having heard from policymakers and industry leadership on these policy hurdles for successful decarbonisation, Cemtech speakers proposed exactly how decarbonisation is going to be achieved in the industry.
Duncan McLachlan of io consulting (Netherlands) underlined the complexity of CCUS for the cement industry. Duncan reinforced that utilisation of stored CO2 must be considered for temporal, economical and logistical reasons. Different innovations for capture and storage must be considered, including amine absorbers, calcium carbonate looping and adsorptive processes.
On day two of Cemtech Europe 2024, delegates were given an exploration on CCU in China by Zhiwei Gu of sinoma cbmi construction. Zhiwei explained that there are now 11 CCUS projects in China compared to just three in 2020, having risen from none at all as recently as 2015. Zhiwei highlighted both chemical absorption and pressure swing adsorption as carbon capture technologies currently implemented in the Chinese cement industry.
Next, Gary Rock (CRH, Ireland), outlined how CRH’s ambitious decarbonisation targets – to reduce CO2e emissions by 30 per cent from a 2021 base year – would be met substantially by increased utilisation of alternative fuels. CRH, already the world-leader in this field, used 32 per cent AF in 2021 (including a 10 per cent share of biomass), and targets a level of 65 per cent AF by 2030 (including 25 per cent biomass). This will be achieved by optimising kiln front-end firing with solid recovered fuel (SRF) and biomass, and he cited a satellite burner installation case study, which achieved a substitution rate of 20 per cent (including 38 per cent biomass) while maintaining process stability and the same clinker quality. He also noted the importance of modernising existing combustion technology, including the integration of pre-combustion chambers and gasifiers. Low fossil fuel costs and permitting delays were noted as the main challenges to increasing AF rates.
Technological advancements
Jan Theulen, director technologies and partnerships at Heidelberg Materials (Belgium), detailed the pipeline transport for the Anthemis CCS project. Heidelberg have partnered with Equinor and Fluxys (Belgium) for the CO2 pipeline from Belgium’s Anthemis plant to Norwegian, offshore CCS.
Elsewhere, Bengt Steinbrecher (Holcim Maqer Ventures) and Jean-Jacques Bois (Nanolike) gave delegates a presentation on the success story of the collaboration between their two companies. The companies partnered up to deploy smart silo sensor technology for supply chain optimisation.
Similarly, Kenny Wong and Ryan Courts detailed an ongoing partnership between Carbon Re (UK) and ABB (UK) to deliver AI systems to cement plants. Heidelberg have integrated Carbon Re’s AI technology on top of its ABB Ability™ Expert Optimizer for cement at its Mokra plant (Czechia). The integration of Carbon Re’s software led to a 4.1 per cent reduction in the fuel cost index.
Plant tour to Cemex Chelm
The final day of the event saw 50 delegates make the trip to Cemex’s Chelm cement plant. After a welcome and short history of the plant from Chelm’s director of plant operations, Tadeusz Radzieciak, the in-depth tour began. Delegates were shown the central control room, RDF plant, AFs installations, quarry and tyre recycling plant.
Due to the high moisture level of the chalk raw material, the plant operates a semi-dry process and is, unusually, equipped with a three-stage preheater with calciner. The plant operates with a thermal substitution rate of 95 per cent, supported by the AF dryer, which utilises hot gas from the clinker cooler, plus a satellite burner to maximise front-end kiln firing.
Additional networking opportunities
Cemtech’s 29-stand exhibition allowed delegates a unique opportunity to explore the latest innovations in cement production technologies with equipment manufacturing experts from across the world. Cement producers could hear about how these innovations can reduce their costs, increase outputs and aid them in their important net zero targets.
The event concluded with its trademark Gala Dinner, with brilliant entertainment and hospitality to close the event.
Cemtech and International Cement Review would like to extend a huge thank you to all of its exhibitors, speakers, delegates and sponsors for supporting this major industry event.
This article was first published in the November 2024 issue of International Cement Review.
