Boral to explore re-carbonation technology to reduce emissions

Boral will explore a new carbon capture and storage technology called re-carbonation as part of its strategy to slash carbon emissions from its cement business.

On Thursday, the building products giant released its Sustainability Report 2021, outlining its path to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and detailing its progress in the 2021 financial year.

Exploring the re-carbonation technology at its Berrima Cement plant in New South Wales is among the priorities set out under Boral’s cement decarbonisation strategies, which also include a transition away from coal-fuelled kilns and transitioning to renewable sources.

In June 2021, Boral was awarded a grant of up to $2.4 million from the Australian Government’s Carbon Capture, Use and Storage Development Fund towards a pilot scale carbon capture and storage project for re-carbonation technology known as mineral carbonation.

Re-carbonation is an emerging technology, recognised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), where in materials such as recycled concrete are processed with CO2 to accelerate re-carbonation and permanently store the CO2 in a mineralised form known as mineralised carbon products.

Boral’s pilot project will develop a carbon storage technology where the carbon captured from the Berrima Cement plant will be stored permanently in recycled concrete, masonry and steel slag aggregates. The recycled aggregates will fully or partially replace the natural aggregates used in concrete products.

“The relatively low capital and operation costs, abundance of selected waste materials, and the financial return potential due to the increased value of processed aggregates are key drivers for adoption of this technology,” the Boral report said.

Boral also reported a 50,000 tonnes reduction in coal-related carbon emissions from its Berrima Cement plant in the 2021 financial year, up from 36,500 tonnes in the prior year.

Boral achieved this by increasing use of lower carbon solid waste-derived fuels (SWDFs), which include wood waste and refuse-derived fuel. In the 2022 financial year, Boral aims to further reduce coal-related emissions at Berrima as a result of increased supply of SWDFs.

Boral is also aiming to increase revenue from its lower carbon concrete range and recycling business, with Boral CEO and Managing Director, Zlatko Todorcevski, noting that the company had generated more than two billion tonnes of recycled construction material during the year.

“In FY2021, Boral expanded its lower carbon concrete offering to include Envirocrete Plus to help drive adoption and use of its lower carbon concrete. It is also increasing its contribution to a more circular economy by growing its recycling business, which processed more than two million tonnes of construction and demolition materials during the year,” Mr Todorcevski said.

Boral reported 37 per cent increase in its revenue from lower carbon concrete and Boral Recycling during the financial year from its five recycling sites in NSW and ACT and a new site in Warun Ponds, Victoria.

In working with Lendlease, Boral has delivered a net carbon neutral concrete project for the construction of Campbell Primary School in the ACT, with Boral’s ENVISA Concrete helping slash emissions from concrete production by 40 per cent and the remaining carbon offset embodied through purchase of carbon credits.

To reach its net-zero emissions by 2050 goal, Boral is targeting to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 46 per cent, and to reduce its relevant Scope 3 emissions by 22 per cent per tonne of cementitious materials produced by FY2030, from a FY2019 baseline.

The company has also set a short-term target to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 18 per cent by FY2025.

Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions are the emissions released to the atmosphere as a direct result of an activity. Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions are the emissions released to the atmosphere from the indirect consumption of an energy commodity. Scope 3 emissions are indirect greenhouse gas emissions other than scope 2 emissions that are generated in the wider economy.

“We believe that being a leader in sustainability is the right thing to do and is central to our future success. Building on our strong foundation, we’ve set a bold ambition that is embedded within our business strategy,” Mr Todorcevski said.

“We have set out to redefine our core Australian construction materials business through decarbonisation, growing our recycling business and across our broader recycling business agenda.”

Find Boral’s Sustainability Report 2021 here.