The Leading News & Information Service For The Facilities, Workplace & Built Environment Community

Three New Cement Technologies for Lowering Scope 3 Emissions

Three New Cement Technologies for Lowering Scope 3 Emissions
04 February 2025
 

With cement significantly contributing to the embodied carbon from construction, new green cement solutions could enable companies to decrease their scope 3 CO2 emissions. 

In this Opinion piece, Eve Pope from IDTechEx explores three emerging development areas in the decarbonisation of cement.

Eve is a Technology Analyst at IDTechEx, focusing primarily on sustainability and carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS). Before joining IDTechEx, Eve graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Natural Sciences. 

 

Making Cement From New Materials

 

Modern life is built upon billions of tonnes of new concrete each year. Concrete has reliable characteristics, and due to its excellent performance in construction applications it is the second most consumed material on Earth (behind only water). Cement, concrete’s key ingredient, is made from limestone. However, the underlying calcium carbonate chemical composition of limestone means that the CaO compound crucial for cement can only be unlocked by releasing CO2, resulting in a high carbon footprint.

Therefore, green cement players are exploring new starting materials other than limestone that can produce similar or identical cements with well-understood and reliable properties. For example, other cheap abundant calcium sources include basaltic rocks and calcium silicates. Some of the players innovating in this space including Solidia Technologies, Brimstone, Sublime Systems, and C-Crete. Each company has developed its preferred approach to cement-making - from lower-temperature kiln processes, to using electrochemistry, or mechanochemical activation. 

Another option, with added circularity benefits, is to reactivate cement paste recovered from demolition concrete. This has been trialed by industry leader Heidelberg Materials via the recycling of captured CO2. Also, start-up Cambridge Electric Cement is developing its own approach based on co-processing during steel-making in electric arc furnaces.

 

Replacing Cement with Waste Materials (New Cement Chemistries)

 

The cement sector is no stranger to valorizing waste materials and preventing them from going to landfill. Repurposing waste such as coal fly ash from the energy sector and GBFS (granulated blast furnace slag) from the steel sector as supplementary cementitious materials (partial replacements for cement) is already well-established. But green cement innovators want to take this further, utilising even greater amounts of industrial waste streams through alternative cement chemistries.

Alternative cements based on alkali-activation and CO2 mineralization for hardening and strengthening are being developed. These different routes can produce cements with desirable properties using increasing amounts of fly ash or steel slag.

 

Replacing Fossil Fuels with Renewable Power

 

Taking inspiration from the transportation sector, electrifying the cement production process and using renewable energy is another pathway towards cement decarbonisation. The difficulty here is achieving the high temperatures required for cement making economically and efficiently that does not involve fossil fuel combustion.

Key development areas include efficient heat transfer and thermal energy storage (to account for the intermittent nature of certain renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar). Finland-based Coolbrook has developed rotodynamic heating technology, which enables fully electric high temperature heat generation up to 1700oC with a high electricity-to-heat generation efficiency. Synhelion’s approach, currently being developed with major cement producer CEMEX, skips the electrification stage by utilising heat directly from the Sun (concentrated solar power), deploying thermal energy storage and its own solar receiver design. Such technologies are promising not only in the cement sector, but also for decarbonising other high temperature carbon intensive industries such as steel and petrochemicals.

 

What Does this Mean for Businesses Seeking to Lower Scope 3 Emissions?

 

While businesses may have limited involvement in the selection of materials when constructing new premises, the green cement space is working to expand access of low-carbon cement to bigger pools of buyers. Over recent years, this may have taken the form of carbon credits, or the emerging book and claim chain of custody model. 

Already used by some businesses to lower aviation-related scope 3 emissions from transportation/travel via the purchasing of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), book and claim enables businesses to purchase the sustainability benefits of green cement when access to the physical concrete product is limited. Microsoft championed this environmental attribute certificate approach to cement decarbonisation and is expected to become increasingly popular as companies strive to reduce scope 3 CO2 emissions.

To find out more about the report visit www.IDTechEx.com/Cement.

Picture: a photograph showing a trowel on top of a tile. Image Credit: Unsplash

Article written by Eve Pope | Published 04 February 2025

Share



Related Articles

Waste Clay and Brick in Cement Production Could Help Cut Emissions

A new study suggests that using waste brick and clay in cement production could reduce the embodied carbon of cement by up to 30 per cent. UK reclaimed clays and...

 Read Full Article
Concrete and Nitrogen Mix Could Help Reduce Pollution

Adding nitrogen to concrete could help the construction industry on its journey to decarbonisation. The concrete sector currently generates 8 per cent of global CO2...

 Read Full Article
NHS Hospital Manages RAAC With New Geospatial System

Airedale General Hospital in West Yorkshire is using a new geospatial system to help manage its RAAC monitoring and repairs programme.  The software from...

 Read Full Article
Datore Partners With Acclaro Advisory on SFMI Framework

Business intelligence platform Datore has been appointed to provide analytics services for the Sustainable Facilities Management Index’s Scope 3 Emissions Framework...

 Read Full Article
Should Carbon Offsetting be a Last Resort?

The Science Based Targets initiative has announced plans to allow carbon offsetting for scope 3 emissions. A press release from the UN-backed climate certification...

 Read Full Article
Government Publishes Plan to Remove RAAC From all Schools in England

A final list of schools and colleges affected by Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in England has been published, alongside a plan to remove it from all...

 Read Full Article
World's Largest Concrete Companies Unite to Decarbonise Concrete and Cement

Ten of the world’s largest concrete companies and cement plants have pledged to make net-zero concrete and cement a reality.    This includes brands...

 Read Full Article
Sodexo Issues Net-Zero Deadline to Suppliers

Sodexo has stated that it will only work with suppliers who demonstrate tangible net-zero progress “through published reporting” in the future. As part of...

 Read Full Article
RAAC Concrete Found in Houses of Parliament

A government spokesperson has confirmed that reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete has been found in one part of the Palace of Westminster. According to the...

 Read Full Article
UK Concrete School Closures – What’s the Latest?

The government has announced that over 100 schools in England will need to close buildings because they are at risk of collapse. ThisWeekinFM looks at the latest on this...

 Read Full Article