Researchers from Denmark are currently testing a new technology that aims to reduce the cement industry’s CO2 emissions significantly. This is happening in collaboration between the Technological Institute, DTU, FLSmidth Cement, and Lhoist, which owns Faxe Kalk A/S and is part of the INNO-CCUS partnership.
The global cement production industry accounts for nearly 8 percent of the world’s total CO2 emissions. Several researchers from Denmark aim to solve this climate challenge in collaboration with the cement industry in the innovation project NEWCEMENT. The project tests the implementation of a process technology that uses pure oxygen in the combustion processes of the cement industry.
Jens Christiansen, section leader at Danish Technological Institute and project leader for the collaboration, explains:
“This is a new way to produce cement. We are developing oxy-fuel technology, where the calcination of the raw materials, which occurs at up to 800-900 degrees, is done by combustion in pure oxygen instead of atmospheric air, which is part of the process today. This way, we can create a high concentration of pure CO2, which can be captured, deposited, or even better used – for example, to produce new additives for cement or concrete, green fuels, or basic chemicals for plastics,” says Jens Christiansen, who expects to be able to implement a fully tested technology for demonstration in a production facility in the cement industry after the project is completed.
Tangible CO2 reductions
The NEWCEMENT project is supported by the Innovation Fund with 7.6 million kroner as part of the INNO-CCUS partnership, which encompasses a series of projects focusing on CCUS – capture, use, and storage of CO2.
“Collaborating in a mission-driven partnership on CCUS between public and private actors helps support green technology development that will contribute to Denmark’s climate goals in the long term. NEWCEMENT is one of several examples of tangible efforts that are well on their way to contributing to CO2 reductions. We are proud to support the project and look forward to following the results from the collaboration towards 2025,” says Karina M. Søgaard, Partnership Director for INNO-CCUS.
From transition model to green electricity
In 2023, researchers from the Technological Institute built a laboratory pilot in Taastrup, where the cement process can be examined in more detail, for example, regarding the oxygen and safety around the process. Safety is critical because it is a high-temperature process with risks of explosions and similar because fossil fuels such as coal and oil are still used in cement production today.
“Reducing dependency on fossil fuels constitutes the first significant step towards CO2-neutral cement. Many cement factories replace fossil fuels with alternative fuels primarily from waste, such as combustible municipal waste, biomass, and non-hazardous industrial or commercial waste. Today, these fuels represent a much more economical and practical way forward than expensive green hydrogen or electrification of the process,” says David Jayanth, project leader for CO2 capture at FLSmidth. “The CO2 from the combustion of such alternative fuels will end up in the pool along with CO2 from the calcination process and therefore needs to be captured.”
“We are currently looking at a technology that allows cement factories to continue to use combustion and increase the amount of alternative fuels, and where we then control the CO2 produced along the way. The implementation of our technology can, in other words, take place in plants that are design-wise similar to the existing factories. The future factories will be based on renewable energy sources and with the replacement of some of the raw materials. When we get there, we have a climate-neutral cement production,” says Jens Christiansen.
Data from the experiments at the Technological Institute are currently being transferred to project colleagues at DTU, who are developing a digital simulation model that can provide a picture of the flows in the cement process. Finally, the plan is to use the simulation model to design an efficient Oxyfuel Calciner with optimal operating conditions to produce a CO2-enriched flue gas stream for carbon capture. Faxe Kalk A/S is involved in the project as a potential raw material supplier and recipient of the developed technology.
