Low Carbon Cement Initiatives in Africa

African countries are booming economies and are in a continuous process of upgrading their habitat to match the developing world’s standards.This leads to an exponential rise in the cement market in Africa. TARA, the social enterprise wing of the Development Alternatives Group has been providing its services to African cement companies by introducing LC³ a low carbon cement in their portfolio. As huge clay reserves are present in African countries, there is great scope for adoption of Limestone Calcined Clay Cement in Africa.

With a 4.3 billion metric tonne global industry, cement is the second most consumed product, after water¹. Cement production is linked with huge emissions of CO₂. Globally, this is a serious concern which poses a huge threat to the environment. Therefore, cement companies around the world have started looking for possible alternatives that can reduce their carbon footprint. To address the shortfall, an alternative approach has been developed by EPFL, Switzerland. Limestone Calcined Clay Cement, popularly known as LC³ or simply low carbon cement is an innovative and sustainable cement and has several advantages over the existing commercial cement. LC³ is blended cement that uses limestone and low-grade clay and has low CO₂ emissions, low energy input and production cost. A consortium of EPFL, TARA (social enterprise wing of the Development Alternatives Group), CIDEM-Cuba, IIT Delhi and IIT Madras has been continuously pushing their efforts in scaling up and commercialising LC³ in the global cement market. Extensive research by the consortium validates that LC³ can reduce CO₂ emissions by upto 40%.

Two special purpose vehicles (LC³ Technology Resource Centre, LC³TRC) have been established in Cuba and in India. In India, LC³TRC under the aegis of TARA, promotes LC³ in the global cement market. LC³TRC enables an ecosystem that facilitates technical handholding through feasibility services, life cycle assessment, advisory and support, pilot production advisory services and sale of standard materials. LC³ technology has created a strong global presence through various initiatives across different continents.

African countries are booming economies. This is evident through the pace at which infrastructure has been created in the past decade. The projected urbanisation rate in Sub-Saharan Africa is 4.1% which is higher than the global average of 2%.⁴ The construction sector has grown with a projected growth rate of 6.4% from 2019-2024.⁵ The major development focus is on the public amenities including hospitals, schools, government establishments, ports, highways, bridges etc. This leads to an exponential rise in the cement market in Africa and opens fresh avenues for TARA to intervene in the sector. LC³TRC provides its services to African cement companies by introducing LC³ cement in their portfolio. The exploration in many of African countries is in the nascent stage. As huge clay reserves are present in African countries, there is great scope of development. The proper investigation and feasibility studies will explore potential clay reserves suitable for LC³ application. LC³TRC acts as a catalyst to mainstream LC³ adoption. Few such examples in Africa are in Uganda, Rwanda and Senegal where LC³TRC has explored potential clays for LC³.

LC³ introduction in the cement plants and market will pave the way for a more sustainable and green environment. On one hand, it will boost infrastructure development and on the other hand, it will support the environment. With the utilisation of waste clay in LC³ production, the load and dependency of cement companies on virgin resources will reduce. Through this way, mineral resources can be secured and in this effort, LC³TRC is in a continuous action to support the developing economies in different geographies. ■

References:

1. Limestone calcined clay cement as a low-carbon solution to meet expanding cement demand in emerging economies. Yudiesky Cancio Díaza, Sofia Sánchez Berriel, Urs Heierli, Aurélie R. Favier, Inocencio R. Sánchez Machado, Karen L. Scrivener, José Fernando Martirena Hernández, Guillaume Habert. Development Engineering 2 (2017) 82–91

2. https://www.greenbiz.com/article/concrete-change-making-cement-carbon-negative

3. https://www.khl.com/news/boost-for-global-cement-demand-/69957.article

4. https://www.csis.org/analysis/urbanization-sub-saharan-africa

5. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/africa-construction-market-growth-trends-and-forecast-2019-2024

Dr. Ankur Sarswat
asarswat@devalt.org