Lafarge Subscribes To Green Cement Bond

Paris-based Lafarge Group has advanced commercialization of a magnesium oxide-based powder billed as a carbon dioxide emissions-reducing alternative to

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Paris-based Lafarge Group has advanced commercialization of a magnesium oxide-based powder Û billed as a carbon dioxide emissions-reducing alternative to portland cement Û through the Green Cement Bond. The $1.6 million initiative, whose subscribers are likewise poised for a sponsor-planned Series A Funding round, will help seed a 25,000-ton/year demonstration mill colocated at an existing cement operation.

We have always known we would need to work closely with the cement industry to tackle the carbon emissions problems [it] faces, says Novacem Chairman Stuart Evans, and couldn’t have hoped for a better first cement-industry partner than Lafarge. Green Cement Bond subscribers, he adds, will assist in demonstration-mill development; gain early access to the product for testing, certification, pilot construction applications and initial sales; and, have an opportunity to build the first commercial volume magnesium oxide powder plant under Novacem Ltd. license.

A venture capital-backed start-up of London’s Imperial College, Novacem is refining processes to convert commonplace magnesium-silicate compounds such as talc, serpentine and olivine to a magnesium oxide powder whose binding and engineering properties match calcium-heavy portland cement. Novacem powder can be derived with lower carbon-dioxide emissions than those of portland cement milling; in finished concrete, it reportedly exhibits the potential to absorb atmospheric CO2. MIT Review ranked Novacem among Top Ten Emerging Technologies.