In what is expected to be a key milestone in Ghana’s green transition of cement production, FLSmidth, a Swiss-owned Engineering Company will deliver and install the world’s largest clay calcination plant and the second record-breaking clay calcination solution to CBI Ghana Ltd.’s cement production.

The project is expected to provide significant reductions in the Tema facility’s carbon footprint by up to 20 per cent, thus, it is environmental friendly as compared to the use of cement clinker on site. The project includes the installation of the world’s largest gas suspension calciner system and a completely new grinding station, adding another 120 per cent to the existing grinding capacity at CBI’s Tema facility.

The company expects both financial and environmental return-on-investment from lower specific CO₂ emissions, energy and fuel savings, and reduced costs from the imports of clinker for cement production. The cement industry is one of the largest GHG polluters in the world, generating about 2.9 billion tonnes of CO₂ emissions from clinker manufacturing.

cement — Cement manufacturing plant Image Credit: ElRoi Shutterstock

Frédéric Albrecht, CEO at CBI Ghana Ltd, said:

“Ghana is the perfect location for using clay as an environmentally friendly alternative to clinker. West Africa is traditionally a clinker- and cement importing region due to the lack of suitable limestone reserves. Developing countries with their young populations and growing need for infrastructure and housing represents the future in cement consumption.

“Calcined clay cements are the most sustainable alternative to traditional clinker-based cement. With the support from FLSmidth, we will be able to operate clay calcination in a large scale.”
Frédéric Albrecht

Using Calcined clay to minimize the need for traditional, carbon-intensive clinker is a key technology in eliminating the environmental footprint from cement production, which today accounts for 7-8 per cent of the world’s CO₂ emissions.

Adopting Environmentally Friendly Processes

Carsten Riisberg Lund, Cement Industry President, FLSmidth, alluding to the commitments made by the international community– most recently at COP 26– highlighted the importance of the project as it relates with reducing carbon emissions in sectors such as the construction sector.

“…The CBI Ghana project is yet another example of how the cement industry is responding to the need for more environmentally friendly processes. We are very excited to work with CBI Ghana on the project that sets a new standard for green cement.”
Carsten Riisberg Lund

Indeed, the use of clay as a supplement in the cement production is not new phenomenon- it has been done for decades, Lund said. “But, with our new clay calciner system, we can produce a highly reactive clay that is able to substitute between 30-40% of the clinker in the final product.” If this is anything to go by, it is expected to result in up to 40% CO₂ reductions per tonne of green cement compared to traditional Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC).

The ability to significantly reduce both emissions and fuel consumption, makes the FLSmidth clay calciner system a flagship provision in FLSmidth’s Mission Zero programme. It is the sustainability ambition to enable cement producers to operate plants at zero emissions by 2030.