Brookfield plant produces clinker from recycled materials

Lafarge Canada and Geocycle Canada (Holcim group) are proud to announce the completion of a pilot at the Lafarge Brookfield Cement plant in Nova Scotia, Canada, to produce high-quality clinker made of recycled minerals. The recycled materials are recovered from waste sources, which can potentially reduce CO₂ level by 60 per cent per tonne of clinker. 

Over the past year, Lafarge Canada, Geocycle Canada and the Holcim Group Innovation Centre have been collaborating on a 100 per cent circular production of clinker at the Brookfield plant. The new production method involves substitution of virgin raw materials with lower-carbon options from waste sources and utilisation of fuels from materials otherwise destined for landfill. The positive industrial trial was performed in February and cement from this clinker will be produced in spring for further testing and development of the technology.

“This new clinker product will be used to produce a 100 per cent recycled cement during this pilot, which will in turn be employed in ready-mix concrete operations to produce a 100 per cent recycled concrete product,” explains Andrew Stewart, vice president Cement, Lafarge Canada (East).

In order to be able to produce 100 per cent recycled material clinker, Geocycle Canada collaborated with waste and by-products generators in Nova Scotia to secure a solution that contained the necessary components. “

In 2022 Holcim’s Altkirch plant (France) was the first cement manufacturing facility in the world to produce clinker made entirely of recycled minerals, claims Holcim.