The building materials construction industry has established an innovative consortium of "carbon peak carbon neutrality" The double carbon target has forced the transformation and upgrading of the cement industry

Half of the world's cement is produced by China, and cement, as one of the important basic industries in China, is also a veritable "carbon emitter". In 2020, China's cement industry emitted about 1.23 billion tons of CO2, accounting for about 14% of the country's total carbon emissions. Under the background of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", domestic cement industry giants are continuing to exert efforts around "carbon emission reduction".

Recently, 18 building materials construction enterprises, including China National Building Materials Group Co., Ltd., Anhui Conch Cement Co., Ltd., Huaxin Cement Co., Ltd., China Resources Cement Holdings Co., Ltd., and China Gezhouba Group Cement Co., Ltd., jointly with Wuhan University of Technology, have established an "carbon peak carbon neutrality" innovation consortium (hereinafter referred to as "innovation consortium") in Wuhan.

In the past 20 years, the cement industry has reduced the energy consumption of cement clinker from 112 kg of standard coal/ton in 2015 to 108 kg of standard coal/ton in 2020 through scientific and technological innovation. However, under the 2015 Paris Agreement(s) 2DS, the global cement industry aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, which is to achieve a carbon reduction of 40 percent by 2030. Compared with the 2-degree agreement (2DS) requiring that the carbon dioxide emissions per ton of cement be reduced to 520 to 524 kilograms, the current carbon emissions of cement in China are about 597 kilograms, and the industry is still facing greater pressure to reduce carbon emissions.

Li Yeqing, president of Huaxin Cement Co., Ltd., said in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that carbon peak carbon neutrality is bound to promote a new round of technical structure adjustment in the cement industry, and this technological innovation is an industry problem, which requires core enterprises and university resources to work together to tackle key problems.

"The building materials construction industry is the main battlefield for the implementation of China's double carbon action strategy." Wang Fazhou, vice president of Wuhan University of Technology, believes that the scientific and technological innovation of the building materials construction industry has always faced problems such as lack of top-level design, divergence of task focus, and dispersion of innovation resources. After the establishment of the innovation consortium, it will cooperate with high-level scientific research institutions and industry-leading enterprises to undertake major national scientific research tasks, decompose and transform industrial needs and major engineering problems, and organize low-carbon materials, carbon reduction technologies and equipment, and low-carbon construction technologies to cooperate in research.

Since June this year, with the arrival of hot summer days and rainy seasons, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong and other places have issued notices requiring cement companies to implement summer peak production. In addition to staggered peak production becoming a normalized measure to reduce carbon emissions, carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals are forcing the industry to study low-carbon methods.

Summer peaks become the norm for carbon emission reduction

At the beginning of 2021, the China Building Materials Federation issued an initiative to require the building materials industry to achieve carbon peaking by 2025, and the cement industry to take the lead in achieving carbon peaking by 2023. According to McKinsey data, carbon emissions from the cement industry come mainly from clinker production, which accounts for 95% of the total production process.

At the end of 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the Notice on Further Normalizing the Staggered Peak Production of Cement, which requires the normalization of the national cement peak production area and time, and all cement clinker production lines should be staggered peak production.

Since the beginning of summer, the provinces that have begun to produce at the wrong peak include Shandong, Jilin, Hebei and other places. The reporter noted that all localities have closely linked "carbon emission reduction" with summer peak production, saying that peak production can alleviate the overcapacity pressure of the cement industry, promote the adjustment of the supply side structure of the industry, and help cement enterprises save energy and reduce emissions.

The Shandong Cement Industry Association requires 72 cement clinker enterprises in the province to carry out staggered peak production from 0:00 on June 11, 2021 to 24 June 30, 2021. As a province with better implementation of staggered peak production, during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the cement industry in Shandong has reduced the cumulative production of clinker by 220 million tons, reduced limestone consumption by 290 million tons, and reduced coal consumption by 29.12 million tons through peak production.

The Hebei Building Materials Industry Association requires that cement clinker enterprises in the province carry out a 20-day carbon emission reduction activity starting from 0:00 on June 11. The emission reduction targets are to reduce coal by 652,000 tons, carbon dioxide by 5,375,000 tons, and dust by 932.1 tons.

Jilin Building Materials Industry Association requires that from June 10, 2021, all kiln enterprises in the province will uniformly implement the staggered peak shutdown for 15 days, and the kiln suspension time can be appropriately extended according to the supply and demand situation.

With staggered peak production, the cement industry has entered the off-season market. In May this year, the national cement production was 243 million tons, down 2.3% from the same period last year. Last week, the average price of cement in key cities across the country was 452 yuan / ton, down 8.1 yuan / ton week-on-week, the national price continued to decline, and the price reduction area was mainly concentrated in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, etc., generally falling by 10-30 yuan / ton.

However, Yu Sijie, an analyst at BOCI Securities, believes that in May 2020, the resumption of work and production across the country, the cement supply accumulated by the epidemic was released centrally, becoming the highest cement production in recent years. Overall, most of the cement industry data in May this year was better than the average for 2018-2020. Judging from the staggered peak production this year, the high level of self-discipline in the industry will be conducive to the improvement of cement supply and boost the trend of cement in the later period.

Forcing enterprises to transform and upgrade

In addition to staggered peak production becoming a normalized measure to reduce carbon emissions, carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals are forcing the industry to study low-carbon methods. Zhi Xiao, director of the Science and Technology Management Department of China National Building Materials Group Co., Ltd., believes that the cement industry should set a scientific carbon emission reduction path and formulate a carbon peak roadmap, and it must be driven by leading enterprises to drive the development of the industry, support small and medium-sized enterprises from the technical, industrial and financial aspects, and the scale advantages of large groups are more prominent.

The reporter combed and found that the current emission reduction path of leading cement enterprises focuses on fuel substitution, collaborative disposal of cement kilns, carbon capture, carbon trading, etc.

At present, Conch Cement has built the world's first cement kiln flue gas carbon dioxide capture and purification demonstration project, with a scale of 50,000 tons of CO2/year. In May this year, Wang Cheng, chairman of Conch Cement, visited Dalian University of Technology, which is an important technical support unit for the cement kiln carbon capture and purification demonstration project, and signed a joint research center agreement with Conch Cement. This has been interpreted by industry insiders as a large-scale layout of carbon capture technology for conch cement.

Conch Cement's 2020 annual report shows that its research and development expenses reached 650 million, an increase of 245% year-on-year, "mainly due to the company's increase in costs for ultra-low emission technology development and cement manufacturing green energy development projects." ”

As a new environmental protection technology developed in recent years, the collaborative disposal of cement kilns has become an important direction for the transformation of cement enterprises, and Huaxin Cement, Tapai Group, China Resources Cement, etc. have launched collaborative disposal production lines. Taking Huaxin Cement as an example, its cement kiln collaborative disposal uses RDF technology, and the current 5,000 tons of clinker kiln can process 900 tons of RDF per day. The 1 tonne RDF contains a calorific value equivalent to 300 kg of raw coal, and the Heat Substitution Rate (the heat of alternative fuels as a proportion of all heat consumed in clinker production) can reach up to 50%.

"Carbon neutrality is the best way to link large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises." Yi Qiaomu, chairman of Wuhan Changli New Material Technology Co., Ltd., believes that due to financial strength, research and development capabilities and other restrictions, 90% of small and medium-sized enterprises have not yet found a reasonable path to reduce carbon emissions.

Previously, the China Building Materials Federation joined hands with 15 professional associations to formulate the "Guidance Catalogue for the Elimination of Backward Production Capacity in the Building Materials Industry", and by the end of 2021, the cement industry should eliminate cement clinker production lines below 2500 tons / day (inclusive). Yi Qiaomu said that under the pressure of capacity reduction, small and medium-sized enterprises are still confused about how to promote carbon reduction technology. If technology sharing and policy support can be achieved through the innovation consortium, it will help to enhance regional industrial concentration and promote industrial restructuring.

Wang Fazhou said that the innovation consortium will build a management model of top-level design, task-driven, platform operation and third-party evaluation, connect the high-quality resource chain and the scientific research and innovation chain, establish a technological innovation fund and an industrial development fund, and provide talent science and technology support for the double-carbon route of the building materials and construction industry.

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