The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has awarded $3.2 million to Solar MEAD, a joint project led by Mexican building materials company Cemex, DoE’s science and engineering lab Sandia National Laboratories, and Swiss clean energy firm Synhelion.
The project aims to decarbonize cement production by using concentrated solar thermal (CST) energy to replace fossil fuels in clinker production, the main ingredient in cement.
Synhelion and Cemex have been partnering to introduce CST in the cement production process, and in 2022, they demonstrated a pilot at the laboratory scale by creating the first solar clinker. Sandia Laboratories will provide research facilities through the National Solar Thermal Test Facility and subject matter expertise to expedite the technology’s adaptation for cement production.
The production of clinker involves fusing limestone, clay, and other materials in a rotary kiln at temperatures nearing 1,500°C. Fossil fuels are generally used to heat the kiln and are responsible for about 40 percent of the direct CO2 emissions of the process.
With its breakthrough technology, Synhelion can produce process heat that exceeds 1,500°C, a temperature sufficient to manufacture clinker without utilizing fossil fuels, Cemex says. (Read on below for more of the story)
More on Decarbonization in the Cement Industry by EnergyTech
Lehigh Hanson hosting $4.8M Carbon Capture study at new Cement plant
Lafarge converts Canadian Cement plant to less Carbon-intensive OneCem
Subscribe to our free, tri-weekly newsletter for more stories about the C&I Energy Transition
Under the project, the partners will investigate ways to lower process temperatures, cut carbon dioxide emissions, and boost the efficiency of clinker formation using solar energy. They will also evaluate the conditions to maximize heat transfer to the raw cement mix.
“Few renewable technologies are capable of generating heat at the temperatures needed to process raw cement feedstock,” said Nathan Schroeder, Sandia researcher and principal investigator for the Solar MEAD project. “This project will advance our understanding of how to use concentrating solar technology to gather and deliver the heat to existing cement production facilities and will have crosscutting relevance to other ore processing industries such as refractory, ceramics, and battery production.”
According to Cemex, the adoption of this technology in cement manufacturing would not only allow for the complete replacement of fossil fuels but would also result in a more efficient and lower-cost carbon capture process than the current technologies.
“Cement produced with solar energy is an exciting technology with tremendous potential to reduce the carbon footprint of cement production,” said Fernando A. Gonzalez, CEO of Cemex. “Achieving our net zero carbon goal by 2050 will require relentless innovation such as this to discover and scale breakthrough technologies.”
