Groundbreaking technology lowers CO2 emissions cement industry

Concrete is one of the most widely used building materials in the world, but it is also responsible for a significant CO₂-emissions. If concrete is to continue to be used in the future, it is imperative that the material is rapidly made more sustainable worldwide. Many initiatives are being taken, for example, to reduce CO₂ capture, but that requires very expensive and large investments that are likely to take years before they are operational. If we want to achieve something before 2030, there is no time to lose. Speaking is Paul Roos, managing director of Ecocem Benelux. Under the name ACT, Ecocem offers a new technology that will enable the cement industry to achieve its CO₂-emissions by as much as 70%!

Making cement and concrete more sustainable has been Ecocem's mission since its founding in 2001. "We do this very successfully in the Netherlands by using ground blast furnace slag," says Roos. "For example, the standard CEM III/B cement now contains only 30% clinker and 70% blast furnace slag. It leads to enormous CO₂-reductions. It is only a drop in the bucket on a global scale. Blast furnace slag has limited availability. That leaves the clinker share worldwide still at about 70-75%. So if we want to contribute on a global scale to preventing global warming, it is important to look for alternatives to blast furnace slag." 

Ecocem has now found that alternative, it seems. The company has developed a breakthrough technology with ACT to reduce the amount of clinker in cement with locally available raw materials, such as limestone flour and other inert materials. This allows the CO₂-emissions from cement production can be reduced by as much as 70%. "With the ACT technology, we are able to get those inert materials working properly through specially developed additives, because until recently that was the biggest challenge. An additional advantage of this technology is that the concrete ends up being not only more durable, but also stronger. Moreover, the amount of water required to arrive at the concrete mixture is also significantly lower than according to the traditional recipe. And finally, applying the ACT technology does not require large investments or adjustments to the existing infrastructure of cement and concrete companies."

Ecocem plans to obtain CE marking on the ACT technology this year with the goal of rolling out the technology worldwide starting in 2025. Later this year, according to Roos, equipment will already become available for experimental purposes. "The idea is to also start producing the technology under license so that we can quickly scale up in the world. Of course it can also be applied in the Netherlands, but for the time being the availability of blast furnace slag makes it a lot less urgent. This does not alter the fact that we are using this technology in the Netherlands to prepare for the future, because the availability of blast furnace slag will decrease as the steel industry becomes more sustainable. We therefore strongly encourage parties to start experimenting with it. In our Paris plant, where our innovation center is also located, the necessary tests have already been carried out. Not only on a laboratory scale, but also on an industrial level, albeit still to a limited extent. The first results are promising and we will share them with the market in the foreseeable future."