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World Cement News

Lafarge Srbija acquires Jazovnik stone quarry

Cement manufacturer Lafarge Srbija said it has acquired Jazovnik stone quarry in Serbia’s northwestern town of Vladimirci.
Lafarge Srbija acquires Jazovnik stone quarry

The quarry, located some 30 km from Larfarge’s planned cement factory in Belgrade’s Obrenovac municipality, will allow for the establishment of the entire logistics chain for the development of the company’s new industrial complex, Lafarge said in a press release earlier this month.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The quarry has an annual capacity of 350,000 tons of stone ore, according to the website of Jazonik’s former owner, local stone materials producer Tribex.

In August last year, Serbia’s government said Lafarge plans to invest 110 million euro ($115 million) in the first phase of opening the cement factory in Obrenovac.

Lafarge Srbija, part of Swiss building materials manufacturer Holcim Group, already operates a cement factory in Serbia’s northwestern city of Beocin and several concrete plants across the country.

Cambridge engineers invent world’s first zero emissions cement

Three Cambridge engineers, Dr Cyrille Dunant, Dr Pippa Horton and Professor Julian Allwood, have filed a patent and been awarded new research funding for their invention of the world’s first emissions-free route to recycle Portland cement.
Combining steel and cement recycling in a single process powered by renewable electricity could secure the supply of the basic materials of construction to support the infrastructure of a zero emissions world and to enable economic development where it is most needed.
Professor Allwood
Replacing today’s cement is one of the hardest challenges on the journey to a safe climate with zero emissions. There are many options to make cement with reduced emissions, mainly based on mixing new reactive cement (clinker) with other supplementary materials. However, until now, it has not been possible to make the reactive component of cement without emissions. The new invention achieves this for the first time within the parameters of established industrial processes.

The inspiration for Cambridge Electric Cement struck inventor Cyrille Dunant, when he noticed that the chemistry of used cement is virtually identical to that of the lime-flux used in conventional steel recycling processes. The new cement is therefore made in a virtuous recycling loop, that not only eliminates the emissions of cement production, but also saves raw materials, and even reduces the emissions required in making lime-flux.

The new process begins with concrete waste from demolition of old buildings. This is crushed, to separate the stones and sand that form concrete from the mixture of cement powder and water that bind them together. The old cement powder is then used instead of lime-flux in steel recycling. As the steel melts, the flux forms a slag that floats on the liquid steel, to protect it from oxygen in the air. After the recycled steel is tapped off, the liquid slag is cooled rapidly in air, and ground up into a powder which is virtually identical to the clinker which is the basis of new Portland cement. In pilot-scale trials of the new process, the Cambridge team have demonstrated this combined recycling process, and the results show that it has the chemical composition of a clinker made with today’s process.

The new cement was invented as part of the large multi-university UK FIRES programme led by Professor Allwood, which aims to enable a rapid transition to zero emissions based on using today’s technologies differently, rather than waiting for the new energy technologies of hydrogen and carbon storage. Invention of the cement has been rewarded with a new research grant of £1.7m from EPSRC, to allow the inventors to collaborate with Dr Zushu Li at Warwick University and Dr Rupert Myers at Imperial College, to reveal the underlying science behind the new process. The new grant will fund an additional team of researchers, to probe the range of concrete wastes that can be processed into Cambridge Electric Cement, evaluate how the process interacts with steel making, and confirm the performance of the resulting material.

Professor Allwood said ‘If Cambridge Electric Cement lives up to the promise it has shown in early laboratory trials, it could be a turning point in the journey to a safe future climate. Combining steel and cement recycling in a single process powered by renewable electricity, this could secure the supply of the basic materials of construction to support the infrastructure of a zero emissions world and to enable economic development where it is most needed.’

HeidelbergCement announces plans for world’s first carbon neutral plant

German materials producer HeidelbergCement has announced plans to build the world’s first carbon neutral plant in Sweden.

The company’s Slite factory, on the Swedish island of Gotland, presently produces around 75% of the cement used in Swedish concrete, and emits around 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. If all goes according to plan, all of this carbon will be captured and sequestered underground.

• The plan is explained here:

Dominik von Achten, chairman of Heidelberg, said the aim was to make the company “the leader in the global cement industry on its transformation path towards climate neutrality”.

He said the goal was to “find, apply and scale technical solutions for carbon capture and utilisation or storage”.

The company estimates that the authorisation processes and the construction period will take around 10 years. It has already launched feasibility study to examine technology, environmental impact, legal issues, financing, logistics, and energy supply.

Heidelberg is currently building the world’s first full-scale installation for carbon capture at its Brevik plant in Norway, capturing 400,000 tonnes annually, or half of its emissions from 2024 onwards.

Giv Brantenberg, general manager of HeidelbergCement Northern Europe, commented that the company’s positive experiences at Brevik had persuaded it to “significantly ramp up” its ambitions for carbon capture.

Additionally, the use of biofuels in will be increased in line with the Heidelberg’s commitment to raising the share of biomass in its fuel mix.

RCFD responds to cement plant fire

RAPID CITY, S.D. — a structure fire broke out shortly before 3 p.m. on Wednesday at the Rapid City Cement Plant.


A fire on a conveyor belt spread into a nearby building, however, workers from the plant were able to put out part of the blaze with fire extinguishers before Rapid City firefighters arrived on scene. RCFD was then able to successfully put out the rest of the flames.

No one was injured during the incident.


 Source  : newscenter1.tv

Taiwan Cement building PV power station

Taiwan Cement has started constructing a PV power station on fish culture ponds in central Taiwan.

TCC Green Energy, Taiwan Cement’s wholly-owned subsidiary which develops renewable energy, is responsible for the project, and Taiyen Green Energy is the EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contractor.

With total investment of over NT$2 billion (US$69 million) and installation capacity of 43.6MWp, the PV power station will begin generating electricity in July 2021, with annual output of 54 million kWh, equivalent to power demand by 16,000 households, the company said.

Taiwan Cement will continue building PV power stations on fish ponds, setting a mid-term target of 200MWp in cumulative installation capacity.

TCC Green Energy has completed renewable energy generation facilities of 35MW in total, and is constructing another 49MW.

Source: digitimes

Ghana: Government Gets Gh₵250,000 Support From Diamond Cement Group to Fight COVID-19

The COVID-19 National Trust Fund set up by the President to support government’s effort in curbing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has received a GH₵250,000 support from Diamond Cement Group.

The cement manufacturing company presented a cheque for GH₵100,000 to the fund and in addition a total of 250 tonnes of cement worth GH₵150,000 towards the rehabilitation of isolation centres across the country.

A top delegation from the Diamond Cement Group including the Chairman, Mr Mukesh Patel, Mr Himesh Patel, a Director and Mr B.V.K Raju, the General Manager were present at the Ministry of Information in Accra on Tuesday to present the cheque.

The delegation was accompanied by the Executive Secretary of the Cement Manufacturers Association of Ghana (CMAG), Reverend Dr George Dawson-Amoah, who was on hand to endorse the donation as Diamond Cement Group is a member of CMAG.

This donation brings to GH₵1.25 million as donations from cement manufacturers in Ghana.

Presenting the amount to the Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Chairman of the Diamond Cement Group, Mr Mukesh Patel said the group saw the need to donate to the fund considering how crucial we all need to work together to help minimise the negative impact of the pandemic on economic activities.

Mr Patel commended the government for taking giant steps towards preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and urged the entire citizens to follow the protocols outlined by the government to avoid a possible spread.

He hoped the cement donated would be used for its intended purpose to cater for cases recorded and isolation centres for effective management.

The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah thanked the Diamond Cement Group and members of the Cement Manufacturers Association for their commitment in supporting the government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

He observed this as a patriotic gesture and assured of government’s commitment to fight the pandemic with every resource available.

Read the original article on Ghanaian Times.