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Novacem wins support from Lafarge

World Cement,


Novacem, the carbon negative cement company, today announced the first closing of its Green Cement Bond, together with the participation of Lafarge, the world leader in building materials, as the first subscriber. The Novacem Green Cement Bond is an innovative commercial and financial approach for engagement with major cement manufacturers to accelerate the development and commercialisation of Novacem’s negative carbon cement. The Bond is for a nominal £1 million (through a combination of Non Refundable Engineering fees and Convertible Loan Notes). It is expected that subscribers to the Bond will also participate in the Series A Funding round currently being planned by Novacem.

Novacem’s carbon negative cement is based on magnesium oxide and offers the cement industry a scalable alternative to current carbon intensive production. No carbon emissions are released from the magnesium silicate raw material used, and overall more CO2 is absorbed than emitted during production. Novacem features on MIT Technology Review’s list of the world’s ten most important emerging technologies for 2010.

Novacem will employ the proceeds from both the Bond and the Series A Funding to accelerate its development programme to construct and operate a Semi Commercial Novacem plant (up to 25 000 tpa) to be co-located with an existing cement plant. Bond subscribers will work with Novacem in the development of the plant and share valuable experience in the production of Novacem’s carbon negative cement. They will also have early access to plant output for testing, development, certification, pilot projects and early sales. Additionally, they will have the opportunity to build and operate the first Commercial Volume Novacem plants under license from Novacem. Thereafter, Novacem expects to roll out other Commercial Volume Novacem plants to the subscribers as well as to other cement companies and qualified parties.

Stuart Evans, Chairman of Novacem, commented “We have always known that we would need to work closely with the cement industry to urgently tackle, together, the very serious carbon emissions problems that the industry faces. We couldn’t have hoped for a better first cement industry partner than Lafarge.”

Lafarge, meanwhile, has placed innovation at the heart of its strategy with a focus on sustainable construction, and has engaged in a ambitious reduction of its environmental footprint, lowering by 20.7% its CO2 net emissions between 1990 and 2010. The Group has dedicated more than 50% of its research to sustainable construction not only through in-house research programs with the objective of mitigating CO2 emissions, but also through the support of think tanks and external research structures working on alternative options for the future.

“Lafarge has always placed great importance in Research and Development and its contribution to sustainable construction,” says Pascal Casanova, Lafarge’s Senior Vice President for R&D. “While considerable resources are dedicated to our in-house research projects, we are also interested in external promising technologies, which is why we support Novacem at this early stage of its development”.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/02072010/novacem_wins_support_from_lafarge/

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