The European Green Deal sets ambitious targets to GHG emission reductions for the process industry, that can only partly be reached by the transition to renewable energy. Residual, hard-to-abate CO2 emissions from industrial processes such as steel and cement production will need to be captured, and wherever possible, processed and recycled into new products. The shift towards low carbon processes may disrupt existing industrial symbiosis pathways. If no alternative linkages are developed, this may lead to increasing emissions in downstream sectors. The transitions in steel and energy production lead to dwindling supplies of low carbon resources for cement production such as blast furnace slag and coal fly ash. The core concept of Carbon4Minerals addresses the simultaneous use of CO2 from industrial flue gases with current and future waste streams to unlock a vast stock of resources for innovative low carbon binders and construction materials (80-135% lower CO2-emissions than reference). A total of 8 industrial pilots will be built and operated across the process value chain from CO2 capture to cement production and low carbon construction products. This cross-sectorial innovation has the potential to reduce European CO2 emissions by 46 Mt/y, equal to 10% of the EU process industry emissions, while safeguarding the competitiveness of the European industry. A consortium of technology providers, producers and research partners will develop, test and demonstrate the processes. Technical, environmental and economic feasibility will be validated by an integrated assessment, in combination with the development of a service life test package tailored to these new products. Co-learning modules are developed to support industrial implementation and market introduction.

The answer to the current Raw Material supply challenge faced today in Europe, lies in technological innovations that increase the efficiency of resource utilization and allow the exploitation of yet untapped resources such as industrial waste streams and metallurgical by-products. One of the key industrial residues which is currently not or poorly valorised is Bauxite Residue (BR, more commonly known as “red mud”) from alumina refineries. Bauxite residue reuse solutions do exist as stand-alone but pooling them together in an integrated manner is the only way to render bauxite residue reuse viable from an economical point of view and acceptable for the industry The RemovAl project will combine, optimize and scale-up developed processing technologies for extracting base and critical metals from such industrial residues and valorising the remaining processing residues in the construction sector. In term of technological aspects, RemovAl will process several by-products from the aluminium sector and from other metallurgical sectors in Europe (SiO2 by-products, SPL, fly ash,and others). The different waste streams will be combined to allow for optimal and viable processing in different technological pilot nodes. The technologies and pilots in most cases have already been developed in previous or ongoing projects and through RemovAl they will be pooled together and utilized in a European industrial symbiosis network. In term of societal or non-technological aspects, RemovAl will gather key sectors like the non-ferrous metal and cement sectors in order to secure a true industrial symbiosis through a top-down approach considering also legislation and standardisation at European level in order to facilitate the implementation of the most promising technical solutions.

LEILAC, Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement, will successfully pilot a breakthrough technology that will enable both Europe’s cement and lime industries to reduce their emissions dramatically while retaining, or even increasing, international competitiveness. LEILAC will develop, build and operate a 240 tonne per day pilot plant demonstrating Direct Separation calcining technology which will capture over 95% of the process CO2 emissions (which is 60 % of total CO2 emissions) from both industries without significant energy or capital penalty. Direct Separation technology uses indirect heating in which the process CO2 and furnace combustion gases do not mix, resulting in the simple capture of high quality CO2. This innovation requires minimal changes to the conventional processes for cement, replacing the calciner in the Preheater-Calciner Tower. For lime there is no product contamination from the combustion gas. The technology can be used with alternative fuels and other capture technologies to achieve negative CO2 emissions. The project will also enable research into novel building materials with a reduced CO2 footprint, as well the upgrade of low value limestone fines and dust to high value lime applications. The high potential of the project is complemented by high deliverability. The requested grant will secure €8.8m of in-kind funding and support from the LEILAC consortium members, which include world leading engineering, cement, lime and R&D organisations. To accelerate further development, LEILAC will deliver a techno-economic roadmap, and comprehensive knowledge sharing activities including a visitor centre at the pilot site near Brussels. In order to reach the required 80% emissions reductions by 2050, CCS will need to be applied to 85% of European clinker production, and LEILAC is uniquely placed to allow Europe to achieve these targets in a timely, effective and efficient manner.

ERICA stands for engineered calcium-silicate-hydrates for applications. Inorganic hydrates, such as C-S-H, are used in applications from construction to dentistry. In every case, there is need to optimise the hydrate properties for the application. More reactive cements are needed to lower the CO2 impact of construction. Dentistry needs improved mechanical stability. The traditional way to improve hydrates is by trial and error. This is ineffective. ERICA offers a transformative materials science approach based on gaining detailed understanding the associated nanoscience. ERICA seeks coherent understanding and control of hydrate nucleation and growth as a means to control properties; of the first water sorption cycle when hydrates undergo structural change the consequences of which for performance are only just becoming apparent; and of water transport in hydrates that severely impacts degradation. To do this ERICA exploits recent developments in understanding of hydrate chemistry, in 1H NMR relaxometry and in numerical modeling. Success with ERICA will (i) give industry ways to target design hydrates; (ii) create numerical software tools to model hydrate performance; and (iii) leave good practice and know-how to adopt emergent methods. ERICA trains 13 multi-disciplinary researchers: ESRs ready to find employment with cement product manufacturers, instrumentation manufacturers, in numerical modeling and in academia. This cohort is much needed by industry. The ESRs receive comprehensive academic and transferable skills training comprised of residential schools, workshops, peer learning and industry secondments. Training and dissemination are delivered in collaboration with the industry-academic cement science network: NANOCEM. Courses will be made into MOOCs. ERICA is led by 4 universities and an international cement manufacturer. It is supported by 5 Partner companies.

Concrete is the most widely used man-made material on Earth, with an annual consumption of around 10 billion m³. However, its fabrication is characterized by total CO2 emissions amounting to around 5% of the worldwide anthropogenic GHG emissions. More sustainable cements with lower embodied energy and CO2 footprint are needed. As stated in the European Directive on Energy Performance of Buildings (COM 2010/31/EU), the development of better performing insulation materials and lightweight systems for building envelopes is crucial, playing a significant role in the reduction of buildings operational energy while complying with the load bearing features of existing building structures. The ECO-binder project aims to implement industrial R&D activities on the results of previous research, demonstrating the possibility of replacing Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and OPC based concrete products with new ones based on the new Belite-Ye’elimite-Ferrite (BYF) class of low-CO2 binders to develop a new generation of concrete-based construction materials and prefabricated building envelope components with more than 30% lower embodied energy, 20% improved insulation properties and 15% lower cost than the actual solutions based on Portland cement. The new building envelope solutions will integrate multiple functions in a single product package, providing the higher performances in terms of acoustic insulation/absorption, fire resistance, dimensional stability, indoor air quality optimization, at an affordable cost. Demonstration of full-scale retrofitting and construction will be performed prototyping and installing a family of prefabricated concrete systems of different complexity and end-use in four different climatic conditions involving public authorities.. Results will be validated through dedicated LCAs, fostering the construction materials sector progress towards increased performing and eco-sustainable products.