In collaboration with Boral, the University of Technology of Sydney (UTS), Transport for NSW, and the SmartCrete Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), Leilac has successfully produced the first batch of locally sourced Australian clay using its renewably powered electric calcination technology.
This achievement marks an important milestone and highlights Leilac’s commitment to advancing multiple decarbonisation pathways for the cement industry.
Leilac electric calcination technology allows for energy efficient, precise, and flexible mineral processing. It also enables the efficient capture of any unavoidable process emissions as high-purity CO2 without additional chemicals or processes, and the use of lower carbon fuels, including renewable electricity.
Cement production contributes about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. What makes these emissions deemed ‘hard-to-abate’ is that the majority are ‘process emissions’ released directly from the conventional raw material, limestone. The collaborative project led by Boral aims to avoid some of these hard-to-abate emissions by developing comparable but low-carbon intensity materials that can partially substitute for limestone in the making of cement.
This campaign utilised a renewably powered electric calciner located at the Calix Technology Centre, demonstrating the potential of the approach to produce a low-carbon intensity supplementary cementitious material (SCM). Thermal analysis and X-ray diffraction confirmed the complete calcination of the clay supplied by Boral.
Leilac continue to develop multi-pronged decarbonisation solutions through the efficient capture of process emissions, and by enabling the use of lower cost alternative fuels, renewable energy sources and lower-carbon feedstocks to avoid CO2 emissions.
Dr Salwan Alassafi, General Manager of Research and Development at Calix, emphasised Calix and Leilac’s commitment to deliver effective decarbonisation solutions for the global cement and lime industries.
“In addition to capturing unavoidable process emissions from traditional cement, the use of SCMs is an important decarbonisation pathway for the industry. Producing SCMs with renewably powered electric calcination is an exciting prospect to avoid both energy and process emissions”, said Dr Salwan Alassafi.
Boral’s Head of Sustainability and Innovation Dr Ali Nezhad highlighted the industry’s growing demand for low embodied carbon concrete.
“We are committed to supporting our customers in their decarbonisation journey. Part of this commitment is to ensure we are well positioned to meet the growing demand for lower carbon concrete in the long term.
“As supplies of traditional SCMs like fly ash and slag become more constrained in the long term, finding reliable alternatives SCMs is crucial. With clay being one of the most abundant materials in Australia, calcined clay offers a promising solution. We are excited to collaborate with SmartCrete CRC, UTS, Transport for NSW and Calix to explore its potential and bring this technology to the Australian construction industry”, said Dr Ali Nezhad.
The ongoing collaboration helps to position Australia at the forefront of global decarbonisation in the cement and concrete industry by developing expertise in locally sourced and sustainably produced calcined clay. The calcined clay produced will now enable Boral and UTS to conduct further testing of the material’s performance, laying the groundwork for future concrete field trials and exploring sustainable building materials.
SmartCrete CRC CEO, Clare Tubolets emphasised the collaboration’s significance in driving sustainable change.
“The partnership with Boral, UTS, Transport of NSW and Calix is not just about research – it is about actionable change. By leveraging our combined expertise, we aim to accelerate the adoption of calcined clay concrete, thereby significantly contributing to the sustainability goals of the construction sector”, said Clare Tubolets.
