Lehigh Cement, the International CCS Knowledge Centre and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group are moving forward with the engineering design for a feasibility study of a carbon capture and storage system at Lehigh’s Edmonton, A.B., Canada plant.
A first for the North American cement industry, the Lehigh CCS feasibility study looks at the viability of capturing 90% to 95% of the carbon dioxide – an estimated 600,000 tonnes of CO2 annually – from the cement plant’s flue gas.
Builders FirstSource (BFS) and BMC revealed on Dec. 4 the names and titles of executive and field leaders who will lead their combined operation once their merger is finalized this month or early in 2021. The companies also revealed how their combined business, which will carry the BFS name, will be organized regionally.
The names were announced in a memo from BFS Chad Crow that became a Dec. 4 SEC filing. Here is the text of Crow's all-staff memo, which also noted that longtime BFS executives Ed Waite, Tom Adams, Wayne Canada, and Don McAleenan will be retiring next year:
ACI 301 is a reference specification that engineers, architects, and specifiers can apply to projects involving concrete construction. Evaluation requirements for concrete made with self-consolidating concrete and structures with defined requirements for modulus of elasticity of the concrete are also included. Compliance details throughout ACI 301-20 have been updated to align with ACI 318-19, Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete – providing clarity on the information engineers must provide in the construction documents.
Along with the release of ACI 301, the Institute has also published a new ACI Field Reference Manual. The ACI Field Reference Manual includes the complete ACI 301-20 specifications and more than 20 selected reference documents on measuring, mixing, transporting, and placing concrete; concrete pumping methods; hot- and cold-weather concreting; consolidation; and concrete formwork – providing a convenient resource for use in field offices, jobsite trailers.
Fifty-two percent of the coal ash produced during 2019 was recycled, marking the fifth consecutive year that more than half of the power generating station byproduct in the United States was beneficially used rather than disposed. The volume of fly ash used in concrete, 12.6 million tons, marks a 1 percent increase over 2018 consumption. Year-over-year use of fly ash and other coal combustion products (CCP) in portland cement production dropped 22 percent, to 5 million tons. Other CCP end use areas saw significant declines from 2018 to 2019, leading to an overall 31 percent decrease in recycling activity.
There’s never been an underground parking garage built like this anywhere in Miami. Una Residences in Brickell is getting a 100,000-square-foot, 236-car garage that reaches nearly 50 feet and three stories below sea level. The cost: $25 million for the garage alone – triple the expense of a normal garage, according to contractor Civic Construction
.Building a subterranean garage like this not only costs money but also takes time. It will take around a year and a half to build, and it won’t be until late 2021 when ground-level vertical construction begins, even though groundbreaking took place earlier this year.
The garage is now being built by the building’s general contractor, a joint venture between Civic Construction and Ant Yapi U.S.
General Shale, a leading U.S. producer of building material solutions, announced today that it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire Meridian Brick, the nation’s largest manufacturer of masonry solutions. With the announcement, General Shale will become the leading supplier of innovative and sustainable masonry solutions in North America. The acquisition is a continuation of General Shale’s value-driven growth strategy and combines the company’s commercial platform and system solutions with the innovative product portfolio and production and distribution infrastructure of Meridian Brick.
On this episode of Zooming in on Infrastructure, Roads & Bridges Media Senior Managing Editor Brian W. Budzynski sits down (virtually) with Portland Cement Association President and CEO Mike Ireland and Senior Sustainability Director Rick Bohan to discuss PCA's recent strides toward boosting sustainability in the concrete industry and its present plans to be fully carbon neutral - or even better - by 2050.
Cement production accounts for up to 8% of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions each year (Miller, John, Pacca, & Horvath, 2018). This large amount of CO2 emissions can be attributed to the manufacturing process of cement. Cement is manufactured through a closely controlled chemical combination of calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron and other ingredients. Calcium carbonate, added as limestone and heated to high temperatures converts to calcium oxide and releases CO2 into the environment. This results in one pound of CO2 emitted for every one pound of cement produced (Goguen, 2013). In addition, heating these materials to temperatures over 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, which is necessary for cement production, requires the combustion of large quantities of fossil fuels, further contributing to CO2 emissions.
Dinah McLeod became chief executive of the Global Cement and Concrete Association in July this year. She tells Guy Woodford that it’s been a great time to join the key London, England-headquartered association, given its leading role in coordinating efforts to secure a more sustainable worldwide cement and concrete sector
Led by the world’s top 40 international cement companies, the GCCA is dedicated to developing and strengthening the sector’s vital contribution to sustainable construction. The association also fosters innovation throughout the construction value chain in collaboration with industry associations, architects, engineers and corporate innovators.
CEMEX has signed an agreement with Carbon Upcycling Technologies (Carbon Upcycling) to improve the processing of residue or by-products of industrial processes, capturing CO₂ emissions to produce nanomaterials with greater reactivity and a lower carbon footprint.
Carbon Upcycling technology transforms residues such as fly ash and slag, making them more reactive and increasing their cementitious properties. The use of CO₂ previously captured, combined with a physical transformation of the material during the process, generates a new addition for the cement that allows the production of concrete with a low environmental footprint. The improvement in the cementitious capacity of materials achieved by the Carbon Upcycling technology will expand the range of sources that can be used to reduce the amount of clinker needed in cement production and the amount of cement required in concrete.
During a keynote speech and high-level panel discussion staged during the first-day plenary session of the recent two-day virtual Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) annual conference, senior trade and industry executives, including two from major building material supply companies, highlighted their commitment to building the sustainable world of tomorrow.
An interview with Pratima Rangarajan, chief executive, OGCI (Oil & Gas Climate Initiative) & Climate Investments, conducted by conference moderator, the renowned broadcaster Gavin Esler, was followed by a moderator-led panel discussion featuring Jan Jenisch, CEO of LafargeHolcim; Sanda Ojiambo, executive director, UN Global Compact; Daniel Balthasar, senior portfolio manager and head of Basic Industries & Utilities, Norges; and Mahendra Singhi, managing director and CEO of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited.
“Why did competitors come together? It was the realization that the climate challenge is much too large a problem for any one company to tackle. In fact, we now realize it’s much too large for any one country to tackle,” said Rangarajan.
Schuler was invited to the Global Countdown's first virtual event to explain how cement and concrete contribute to the global carbon challenge and the potential impact of new production technologies for Solidia Cement and Solidia Concrete.
"To address global warming, innovation in both cement production and carbon utilisation are absolutely
essential," Schuler said. "Our new technology for ready-mix concrete is currently being tested for infrastructure applications. And we have already pushed our research beyond that with a technology that enables concrete to become a carbon sink; that means we consume more carbon dioxide (CO2) than we emit during production."
Magali Anderson, Chief Sustainability Officer: “I am very proud of how our company is turning our net-zero pledge into action across more than 70 countries, with our broad range of green building solutions. The EcoLabel is a key milestone on this journey, confirming LafargeHolcim’s commitment to lead the way in sustainability and innovation.”
EcoLabel applies to all cement and concrete with at least:
30% lower CO2 footprint compared to local industry-standard or
20% recycled content
Tesco has specified Hanson’s reduced emission asphalt (REA) to resurface four customer car parks across the country. The product, which helps to minimize the impact of asphalt production and laying on local air quality, is being produced using the company’s energy reducing asphalt (ERA) warm mix technology to provide a complete sustainable solution.
“Tesco was looking for an innovative new surfacing solution to meet its sustainability targets and those of its stakeholders,” said Haroon Rashid, managing director at NMC Surfacing. “Hanson REA combined with its ERA technology, ticked this box as well as the retailer’s key drivers of innovation and value.
Purdue University engineers have developed a white paint that can keep all surfaces cool — specifically, up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit (-7.778°C) cooler than their ambient surroundings. Moreover, the "super-white" paint reflects 95.5% sunlight and efficiently radiates infrared heat.
"It’s very counterintuitive for a surface in direct sunlight to be cooler than the temperature your local weather station reports for that area, but we’ve shown this to be possible," said Xiulin Ruan, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering.
The paint works by absorbing nearly no solar energy and sending heat away from wherever it is used. It can even help with climate change by sending heat away from Earth into deep space where it can no longer affect our planet.
Following its parent company LafargeHolcim becoming the first construction materials company to sign the Net Zero Pledge and the recent launch of its ECOPact low carbon concrete, this is the latest in a series of steps taken towards more sustainable materials by Aggregate Industries.
While SuperLow is already an established brand in the Aggregate Industries range, new SuperLow features reduced carbon levels when compared to standard asphalt as it is made at reduced temperatures. All remaining emissions are then offset through carbon reduction projects on the customer's behalf through Aggregate Industries' offsetting partner, Circular Ecology, all without any change to product performance.
As years and decades come and go, so do trends throughout any industry. The building enclosure industry is no stranger to this either. Preferences change over the years in the types of metals used, the looks of facades and even where products are sourced from. For example, a driving factor in sourcing products and systems has historically been price, regardless of where they were sourced from. However, there has been a shift away from this tribal thinking to focus more on where products are sourced from and the quality of the products.
There has also been an increase in the focus on understanding what the building components’ impact is on the building itself. While energy efficiency and sustainably have been top of mind for at least the last decade, people are now looking at it on a more micro level.
Many new questions are now being asked. Are these products sustainable and are they contributing to my building being sustainable? Are the products smart? These products meet code, but what would it take to be code plus?
Cement making is particularly energy-intensive. To reduce the use of valuable primary fuels like coal, German building materials giant HeidelbergCement uses alternative fuels, including waste tyres, at its cement plant in Lengfurt, Bavaria. The calorific value of rubber is comparable to that of hard coal. And because the iron from the armouring can be incorporated mineralogically into the cement, it reduces the need to add ferrous corrective substances.
For the Lengfurt plant, BEUMER supplied and installed a fully automated waste-tyre transport system, including conveyors, that sorts, separates and regulates the tyres of different sizes and weights and feeds them to the rotary kiln inlet. Thanks to the new system, the cement plant’s kiln is now fed with a constant stream of material.
“With every tonne of waste tyres that we’re using, we’re replacing the same amount of valuable hard coal,” explains Michael Becker, director of HeidelbergCement’s Lengfurt site.
he groundbreaking advancement is an important element of CEMEX’s current Climate Action strategy. Synhelion, based in Switzerland, is a global pioneer in the field of sustainable solar fuels and process heat.
The radically new approach is based on replacing the use of fossil fuels in cement plants with high-temperature solar heat, and capturing 100% of the carbon emissions, which are then utilised as feedstock for fuel production, enabling cement manufacturing to achieve net-zero level. This is made possible by the unprecedented temperature levels of solar heat provided by Synhelion’s technology and its pioneering process to turn CO₂ into synthetic drop-in fuels, such as kerosene, diesel, and gasoline.
Creating solutions capable of maximising transport efficiency through advanced automation is the goal of an entire industry. Volvo Autonomous Solutions believes it’s likely to happen first in the controlled world of quarrying and mining.
After developing steadily, step-by-careful-step, for more than 100 years, the automotive world is currently in the grip of a two-sided revolution: on the one side under pressure to reduce emissions by going electric, and on the other, striving to reach the Holy Grail of transport – the vehicle/machine that doesn’t need an operator. While great strides have been taken in the switch to hybrid and all-electric drive, creating autonomous transport is proving harder to perfect.
Concrete Results | P.O.Box 4027 Jupiter, FL 33469 | 817.680.5733 | mark@concrete-results.com