Cementir Launches FUTURECEM™ With up to 30 Percent Lower Carbon Emissions

On 1 January 2021, Cementir will begin distributing the cement of the future, named FUTURECEM™, which has a carbon footprint that is up to 30 percent lower compared to regular cement. As one of the biggest innovations in the construction industry over the last decades, the launch of the patented FUTURECEM™ technology constitutes a significant contribution to both the green transition of Cementir Group and the construction industry in general.

Cementir is now ready to launch its new cement, FUTURECEM™. A new grey cement innovated by the Group’s research and development department in Aalborg, Denmark, in close collaboration with its Danish subsidiary, Aalborg Portland.

FUTURECEM™ is an innovative, validated and patented technology which allows for more than 35 percent of the energy intensive clinker in cement to be replaced by limestone and calcined clay. This combination of materials in FUTURECEM™ has resulted in a much more sustainable, high grade cement with up to 30 percent lower carbon footprint compared to regular Portland cement. And the low carbon benefits of FUTURECEM™ have been achieved without compromising strength and quality.

Following the final approval and standardization in Denmark of the new cement type, 1 January 2021 has been set as the official launch date of FUTURECEM™ from the subsidiary Aalborg Portland. With cement being the main component of concrete, which is the most widely used building material in the world, the launch of the patented low carbon cement strikes a chord in the construction industry, as the introduction of the innovative FUTURECEM™ technology clears the path to more sustainable and eco-friendly constructions in the future.

FUTURECEM™ is a giant step on the way towards more sustainable cement production. This is immensely important if we are to achieve our sustainability goals at Cementir Group, but it is also an important contribution to the green transition of the concrete and construction industries in general. Thanks to the efforts of our research and development department in Aalborg, we are ready to begin distributing the FUTURECEM™ technology in Denmark and soon other subsidiaries in Europe will follow, says Chief Sales, Marketing & Commercial Development Officer at Cementir Holding N.V., Michele Di Marino.

According to Michele Di Marino, FUTURECEM™ is one of our strategic actions to climate change, aware that cement and concrete will continue to play a key role as the building materials of the future:

FUTURECEM™ is a significant but also necessary contribution to the construction industry where cement and concrete are essential building materials both in the present and in the future. The launch of FUTURECEM™ is the result of many years of research and development, placing Cementir Group at the forefront as the market leader in sustainable cement.

However, development efforts do not stop with the launch of FUTURECEM™. As the global market leader in white cement, Cementir Group and its subsidiary Aalborg Portland have invested in further development and commercialisation of the cement technology which have taken place at Cementir Group’s research and development department in Aalborg, Denmark:

By launching FUTURECEM™, we have reached an important milestone in our innovation and sustainability efforts, but we are not done. Currently, we are incorporating the technology to more cement types in our product range. This includes white cement, and we have already introduced two white UHPC (ultra-high performance concrete, edit.) premix types with FUTURECEM™ technology, Michele Di Marino concludes.

Within its innovation pipeline, under InWhite®, Cementir Group launched UHPC solutions with FUTURECEM™ technology in late 2019. The new technology has therefore already been utilised in white cement based innovative pre-mixes such as Aalborg Extreme® and Aalborg Excel®.

Collaboration pushes development

FUTURECEM™ is the result of several research and development projects since 2008, culminating with the Green Concrete II project that was supported by Innovation Fund Denmark and was backed by several companies, public institutions and knowledge centres.

The ambition was to develop a new, sustainable cement technology which could also prepare the cement and concrete industry for a future without fly ash which is becoming an increasingly scarce resource with the phasing out of coal-fired power stations.

The results were promising and have formed the basis of FUTURECEM™ which is a carbon reduced composite cement utilising the synergy between calcinated clay and limestone filler and allows replacing more than 35 percent of the clinker in cement. But where the replacement of clinker has often resulted in cement of a reduced strength, FUTURECEM™ is unique as it maintains the same qualities as pure Portland cement.

The Group’s subsidiary, Aalborg Portland, has already received the first requests for FUTURECEM™, and the Group expects interest in this new cement type to increase as focus on sustainability in the construction industry continues to grow.

For additional information, please contact:

Chief of Sales, Marketing and Commercial development Michele Di Marino, Cementir Holding, m.dimarino@cementirholding.it

Press service (including photo, text, contacts, etc.): Publicity, attn.: Jacob Mark Jensen, mobile +45 40 32 93 17 and jacob@publicity.dk

For further information about Cementir Holding, please visit www.cementirholding.com