Joint venture announces raw clay low-carbon cement plant

Only a few months after its creation, the Borda Occitanie joint venture of Vicat and Materrup has announced the start of a project to build a low-carbon cement plant based on raw clays in Carbonne in Haute-Garonne, southwest France, to produce 60,000tpa of cement named MCC1.  

The raw clay used comes from the circular economy with the recovery of quarry co-products. Developed by Materrup and qualified then assessed by Vicat R&D experts, MCC1^© Occitanie has the same technical characteristics as conventional type 42.5 cement. Its carbon footprint amounts to less than 330kg eqCO₂/t, ie a reduction of more than 45 per cent compared to a 42.5 type CEM II A cement.

Composed of raw clay, based on Crosslinked Clay Cement (CCC^®) technology, the low-carbon cement makes it possible to formulate concrete emitting up to less than 100 kg eqCO₂/m³. Requiring low energy intensity, the technology makes it possible to decarbonise the cement industry and the construction sector. The Carbonne unit will be located on the site of the Granulats Vicat quarry, which will supply clay directly from the deposit. Béton Vicat will market a range of very low-carbon ready-mix concretes formulated from this MCC1^© Occitanie cement.

Vicat and the new start-up in the cement sector have a vision for the future and plan to build four further raw clay cement production units in France to respond to the decarbonisation challenges of the construction sector. Created in 2018, winner of the EIC Accelerator category Fit For 55 of the European Union, Materrup is a young industrial company producing a local and decarbonised clay cement based on raw clay.