Displaying items by tag: sustainability
Interbeton launches Velter circular ready-mix concrete
25 October 2024Greece: Titan Cement Group subsidiary Interbeton has launched Velter, a circular, 30% reduced-CO2 ready-mix concrete. The product comes with a Type III environmental product declaration from Eurocert.
Director of concrete operations Christoforos Voulgaris said "This new product line gives engineers, architects, builders and investors the opportunity to differentiate their projects with improved durability and a meaningful contribution to mitigating the effects of climate change.”
Canada: Climate technology company CarbonCure Technologies has announced that it has ‘saved’ over 500,000t of CO₂ across 7.5m truckloads of concrete. CarbonCure uses a technology that injects captured CO₂ into fresh concrete, which is mineralised and permanently stored, and which enables concrete producers to reduce cement usage while maintaining strength. The solution integrates into existing concrete plant operations, allowing for both environmental benefits via a reduced CO₂ footprint and cost savings through reduced cement consumption, according to the company. The company also claims that for every 1t of CO2 that is mineralised in ready mix concrete, another 50t of CO₂ is ‘avoided’ by reducing emissions from cement adjustments.
CEO of CarbonCure Technologies Rob Niven said “This milestone reflects the strong sustainability leadership of CarbonCure’s innovative concrete producer partners. Together, we are proving that reducing the carbon footprint of concrete is not just a goal for the future — it can happen, and it is happening, today at scale.”
Saudi Arabia: City Cement subsidiary Nizak Mining Company has entered talks with UK-based calcined clay producer Next Generation SCM about a possible joint venture. The proposed joint venture will build a reduced-CO2 concrete plant in Riyadh, with further such plants to follow. TradeArabia News has reported that commercial-scale production will commence in mid-late 2025, with an initial target capacity of 350,000t/yr.
City Cement CEO Majed Alosailan said "This joint venture is a significant step in our commitment to the continued growth of Saudi Arabia as a global materials and infrastructure hub. Not only will it support domestic job creation, it will also dramatically improve accessibility to critical low-carbon materials that we will soon be able to export around the region. As the materials transition continues to accelerate, finding solutions that support the Kingdom’s infrastructure ambitions hand in hand with sustainability targets is essential to realise the opportunity ahead."
Next Generation SCM CEO Christian Husum said "There are over 4bn people who live in urban areas right now, and that is going to increase by 2bn over the next 30 years. This is a massive, global building project, which is equivalent to building an additional New York City every month. Those cities will also need the infrastructure to cope with an influx of people and there is no way to do that without concrete. There is also no way for our planet to cope with concrete production at that scale unless we find a way of producing it without generating enormous amounts of carbon emissions. Now, there is a way. This joint venture will put the process into practice to bring about a revolution in how we build everything from stadiums to skyscrapers in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and then the world.”
Holcim and Climate Pledge Fund co-invest in Paebbl and 14Trees
10 October 2024Sweden/Switzerland: Holcim has partnered with US-based retail company Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund to invest in CO2-sequestering concrete filler developer Paebbl and 3D printers 14Trees. The Paebbl investment is part of a US$25m Series A funding round jointly led by Germany-based venture capital firm Capnamic. Holcim says that the new investment will help Paebbl to scale up. Meanwhile, 14Trees, which is a joint venture of Holcim and British International Investment, will also scale up its operations to begin 3D printing larger buildings, including data centres.
Paebbl co-CEO Marta Sjögren said "We are thrilled to welcome first movers in their respective fields, Amazon and Holcim, as first commercial partners to bring our vision to market. This funding round enables us to take even bolder steps in our mission to make the built environment a cornerstone of the decarbonised economy."
14Trees managing director Francois Perrot said "We are excited to count Amazon and Holcim as investors in 14 Trees, to take our successful 3D-printed technology from homes and schools to data centres, to deliver low-carbon and high-performance buildings."
Holcim’s chief sustainability officer Nollaig Forrest said "By investing with Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund into 14Trees and Paebbl, we can scale up these pioneering technologies to push the boundaries of sustainable building, from 3D printing to making concrete a carbon sink."
Japan: Taiheiyo Cement says it is progressing with its C4S project to develop a novel concrete imbued with CO2 from direct air capture (DAC). The project is a collaboration with the University of Tokyo, with support from the Japanese New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO). Taiheiyo Cement says that concrete developed by the partnership aids faster CO2 capture via DAC, increasing strength, confirmed seismic resistance and carbon neutrality per full life-cycle assessment.
Taiheiyo Cement says that the eventual certification of DAC-carbonated concrete will play a significant role in the decarbonisation of the Japanese construction sector.
Canada: Canal Block will begin to produce CarbiCrete's cement-free concrete products under licence from 2025. The partners say that they have installed a new curing system for the purpose at Canal Block’s Port Colborne plant. Innovation cluster NGen awarded them US$4.04m in funding for the project.
Canal Block president Durk Bylsma said "We look forward to offering a carbon-negative masonry unit to Ontario's construction market in 2025.”
CEO Jacob Homiller said "We are tremendously pleased to bring our cement-free concrete technology to Ontario through Canal Block."
Ready-mix concrete producers in Jeonju to obtain environmental product declarations
26 September 2024South Korea: 13 small and medium-sized operators of ready-mix concrete plants in Jeonju, North Jeolla, have announced their intent to procure environmental product declarations (EPDs) for their products. The companies include Daeyeon Concrete and Seoji Ready-mixed Concrete. The Maeil Business Newspaper has reported that construction firm Posco E&C will cover part of the costs of the certifications.
Posco E&C said that this collaboration will help it to ensure a supply of reduced-CO2 concrete for its upcoming residential property developments in Jeonju.
US: Carbon Limit has announced the launch of CoolCrete, an additive designed to lower the temperature of concrete by over 10°C through advanced thermal emittance and enhanced solar reflectance. The company says that CoolCrete-treated concrete will help to tackle the urban heat island effect. By reducing the proportion of cement in concrete, it also lowers its CO2 emissions by up to 40%. Licensed affiliates Bison Innovative Products and NCP Industries are set to incorporate CoolCrete in commercial and residential concrete products later in 2024.
The launch page for CoolCrete on Carbon Limit’s website can be found here.
Dublin City Council enacts Low-Carbon Concrete Code
13 September 2024US: The city council of Dublin, California, has enacted the Low-Carbon Concrete Code, requiring a given reduction in CO2 emissions of all ready-mix concrete used in public and private construction projects. Independent News has reported that suitable alternatives to conventional concrete are locally available and offer cost parity, according to the city council.
Néolithe supplies Anthropocite circular aggregates for Marseille bus depot project with Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies
11 September 2024France: Circular aggregates producer Néolithe has partnered with Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies and Groupe GCC to produce a fuel loading slab for a temporary bus depot in Marseille. The slab will be made of Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies’ H-UKR clinker-free cement and Néolithe’s mixed circular materials-based Anthropocite aggregates. The resulting slab will serve as a test for the use of H-UKR concrete in future Groupe GCC projects.
The partners say that a mix of H-UKR cement with 20% Anthropocite reduces CO₂ emissions by 63% compared to CEM II/A cement-based concrete produced using conventional aggregates, to 62kg CO₂eq/m³.
Groupe GCC executive vice-president Patrick Dubourg said "This project perfectly illustrates one of GCC's key priorities: implementing sustainable solutions. The work we've been doing for several years with Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies enables us to take tangible action in this direction, and the partnership with Néolithe enables us to take a further step in the direction of decarbonisation, an essential issue for construction.”
Laurence Hemerit, infrastructure director at customer Marseille Metropolitan Transport Authority (RTM), said "RTM found GCC's proposal very interesting in that it enabled us to carry out a large-scale, long-term comparative test to assess the qualities of low-carbon concrete. Our temporary bus storage site was therefore the ideal candidate for this experiment."