Upcycled waste takes the heat out of cement’s emissions
Australia’s manufacturing sector requires huge amounts of heat and that hasn’t really changed since our first factories were built. While there’s now plenty of robots and advanced electronics in some industries, heavy industrial manufacturing such as the production of steel and cement hasn’t really changed in over 100 years.
Production of cement alone accounts for nearly 8 per cent of global emissions.
This is because both steel and cement still require thermal energy at very high temperatures. For example, conventional steel blast furnaces operate at about 1100 degrees, and conventional cement kilns operate at about 1400 degrees. Reaching these temperatures has generally been reliant on fossil fuels with cement alone accounting for nearly 8 per cent of global emissions.
Bearing this in mind, South Australia’s largest supplier of building and construction materials, Hallett Group, have set about decarbonising cement by innovatively repurposing industrial waste for use in green cement.
The company’s green cement transformation project (GCTP) aims to replace more than 50 per cent of traditional, emissions-intensive clinker-based cement used in concrete and mining applications, and to develop a secure supply of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) – or products that can replace cement.
Supporting Hallett on this decarbonisation journey is the Commonwealth Bank, who as sole financier tailored a $100 million debt finance package, including a $51 million green loan tranche, with the remainder of the project to be funded by Hallett supported by a $20 million modern manufacturing grant from the Commonwealth government.
CBA executive general manager major client group Chris Williams says Hallett is investing in
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