New partnership invests $8 million in Ont. cement plant
May 3, 2013
By Lafarge Canada
May 3, 2013, Bath, Ont. – Members of a new multi-company partnership are investing $8 million in Lafarge Canada's cement plant in Bath, Ontario, to help the cement industry adopt low carbon fuels faster.
The companies
in the partnership are – Lafarge Canada Inc., Natural Resources Canada, the
Queen's Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy and Carbon Management
Canada – and are partnering to help develop innovative solutions by re-using
local surplus materials, and other energy containing material that aren't
currently recycled, as low carbon fuels.
The investment is intended to help the Canadian cement industry become more competitive while providing
better local value to local communities and, importantly, reducing carbon
emissions.
The
Canadian cement industry currently emits about 3.8 per cent of the country's
CO2 emissions and about 30 to 40 per cent of those emissions are from fossil
fuel use. With the help of its partners, Lafarge Canada's project will enable
the Bath cement plant to use renewable, low carbon fuels that can be found
locally, reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon
Management Canada, a network of Centres of Excellence that supports research to
reduce CO2 emissions, is funding Dr. Mabee and Dr. Pollard's team's low carbon
fuel research with a $400,000 grant over three years. Queen's University will
evaluate the life cycle benefits of low carbon fuels in the cement industry as
well as in-depth validation of expected emission reductions.
"We
will be measuring the impact of low carbon fuels in a real kiln, in a real
plant, making real cement, said Dr. Warren Mabee, director of Queen's
University Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy and lead investigator
on the joint project with Lafarge Canada. "This project will give us a
very good sense of how these fuels will perform in the real world."
Natural
Resources Canada is awarding $2.68 million to Lafarge Canada to construct this
full-scale demonstration plant.
"Through
the ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative, our Government is investing in innovative
clean energy technologies that create jobs, generate new economic opportunities
and protect the environment," said the Joe Oliver, Canada's minister of
natural resources.
Other
project partners include Pollution Probe, WWF Canada, Queen's University, the
Cement Association of Canada, Mesa Bioenergy, Scott Environmental, and Rail
Link, a Metis company.
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