CarbonCure’s Consortium Closes the Carbon Loop for the Cement and Concrete Industries

CarbonCure's NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE consortium reaches a historic milestone - the successful demonstration of a fully integrated CO₂ capture and utilization (CCU) solution for the cement and concrete industry.

Calera, AL - CarbonCure Technologies (CarbonCure) has reached its next major milestone in accelerating the adoption of CO₂ capture and utilisation technologies for the concrete and cement industries. CarbonCure led a team of five companies to demonstrate the world’s first integrated CO₂ capture and utilisation (CCU) from cement for concrete production in January 2018. Cement is the binding agent that when added with ingredients like sand, aggregate, admixtures, and water, is used to form concrete products, which is the most widely used building material in the world. This project built upon previous cement plant CO₂ capture demonstrations and was the first project to collect cement kiln CO₂ for subsequent utilisation downstream in concrete production and construction.

The Global CO₂ Initiative (GCI) estimates a potential $400B market opportunity for CO₂ utilisation products in the concrete sector alone, with the prospect of reducing 1.4 gigatonnes of annual CO₂ emissions by 2030. The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), a global effort by 23 major cement producers with operations in more than 100 countries who are responsible for 30% of the world’s cement production, has identified that carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies will be required to achieve 440 of the 790 megatonnes of annual CO₂ reductions needed to meet the sector’s greenhouse gas targets. The global CO₂ reduction potential of the CarbonCure portfolio of technologies exceeds the CSI CCUS targets by contributing between 550 to 700 megatonnes of annual reductions and creating $26 billion in new net production efficiencies.

The project demonstrates a turn-key solution for the cement and concrete industries that could create an opportunity to profitably capture and convert cement production CO₂ emissions into value-added concrete for construction projects. Specifically, CO₂ emissions from the Argos Roberta cement plant near Calera, Alabama, were captured by Sustainable Energy Solutions’ (SES) Cryogenic CO₂ Capture technology, transported by Praxair and reused in Argos' Glenwood (Atlanta) concrete operations equipped with CarbonCure's CO₂ utilisation technology. This concrete manufactured with the waste CO₂ from the Argos Roberta cement plant was then used in a local construction project in the greater Atlanta area. Design partners and fellow members of CarbonCure’s Carbon XPRIZE team such as LS3P Architects, Uzun + Case Structural Engineering, and Walter P. Moore Structural Engineers complete the end to end integrated solution by creating demand for CarbonCure concrete products in the marketplace. Kline Consulting oversaw the commissioning and reporting of the industrial demonstration.

The project was an extension of Team CarbonCure's participation in the $20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE Challenge, which incentivizes and accelerates the development of integrated CCU technologies and new markets that convert CO₂ emissions from coal and natural gas power generation into valuable products. Team CarbonCure took the additional step of demonstrating the potential of its CCU technologies using CO₂ emissions the cement sector considering that cement production is responsible for 5% of global CO₂ emissions and is expected to be both the earliest and largest market for CCU technologies.

The consortium believes this project is vitally important to the industry, since it demonstrates an immediately scalable and profitable low-cost CO₂ utilisation solution that benefits each member of the value chain - from the cement producer through to the construction site. An integrated, scalable and cost-effective solution is essential for the industry to meet its WBCSD CSI low-carbon technology roadmap targets, while also creating value from CO₂, which is typically considered a waste product.

About CarbonCure Technologies Inc.

CarbonCure is the world leader in CO₂ utilization technologies for the cement and concrete sector. Its retrofit technology chemically mineralizes waste carbon dioxide during the concrete manufacturing process to make greener and stronger concrete. CarbonCure’s technology is being used by nearly 100 concrete producers today to reduce concrete’s carbon footprint, create new production cost savings and gain a competitive sales advantage. Concrete plants are retrofitted in a single day and require no CAPEX or changes to their materials and production practices. Join our new Industry Advisory Council if you are an industry veteran interested in promoting concrete profitably and green innovation. For more information, contact info@carboncure.com or visit carboncure.com.

About Cementos Argos S.A.

Cementos Argos S.A. (OTCMKTS: CMTOY US and CMTRY US), member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, is a Colombia-based company engaged in the production of cement, aggregates and concrete products. The company operates cement and concrete production plants located throughout Colombia, Central America, the Caribbean and the United States. The Argos USA operation includes more than 300 ready mix plants, four cement plants, three grinding facilities, and 20 cement terminals, located throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. For more information, visit Argos.co or Argos-US.com.

About Praxair, Inc.

Praxair, Inc., a Fortune 300 company is a leading industrial gas company in North America and South America and is one of the largest worldwide. The company produces, sells and distributes atmospheric, process and specialty gases, and high-performance surface coatings. Praxair products, services and technologies are making our planet more productive by bringing efficiency and environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, primary metals and many others. For more information, visit www.praxair.com.

About Sustainable Energy Solutions (SES)

Sustainable Energy Solutions (SES) was founded in 2008 in response to a growing need for solutions to sustainability problems within the energy industry. SES is primarily focused on the development and commercialization of Cryogenic Carbon Capture™, a patented carbon capture technology developed in 2008. Since its founding, SES has filed several additional patents on multiple technologies to help realize SES' mission: Create practical solutions to help solve energy problems on a regional and global scale.  For more information, visit www.SESinnovation.com. 

Kline Consulting LLC

Kline Consulting assists sustainable building material companies (start-ups to global producers), to improve their operational and environmental performance. John Kline, the principal, has over 40 years in the mineral processing industry working in research, sales, plant design, engineering, commissioning, and operations. He retired from Lafarge in June of 2012 after 21 years, with the last 18 years in various international, executive positions. Kline Consulting is currently specializing in green building products, CO₂ reduction technologies and environmental performance improvement.