Update on trial to improve our carbon footprint by reducing fossil fuels

We mentioned recently that we had commenced a three month Environment Protection Authority-approved trial at our Adbri Cement (ABC) manufacturing facility at Birkenhead to further reduce our use of non-renewable fossil fuels by replacing them with additional alternative fuel.

Our calciner at our Birkenhead facility already uses 90 percent alternative fuel – Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) – and 10 percent natural gas (a non-renewable fossil fuel).

The first stage of the trial has now been successfully completed, demonstrating that we have the machinery and supply capacity to run the calciner with 100 percent RDF. The next step is stack testing.

We will keep you posted on further outcomes of this exciting trial.

We are proud that our newly released Environmental Product Declarations verify that we produce Australia’s lowest embodied carbon Type GP cement. This is an important milestone on our journey towards our goal of net zero emissions by 2050, as outlined in our Net Zero Emissions Roadmap.

One way that we have become the producer of Australia’s lowest embodied carbon Type GP cement – and have supported the circular economy – has been by our ABC manufacturing facility at Birkenhead replacing fossil fuels with alternative fuels.

Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) is a process-engineered alternative fuel, produced from materials which would otherwise be destined for landfill, including construction, demolition and industrial materials, that are sorted and processed at an off-site facility by a third-party. RDF is a critical replacement for fossil fuel, used by cement plants globally to reduce their carbon footprint by diverting waste from landfill.

In line with international best-practice, ABC has led the way in Australia by steadily replacing natural gas with alternative fuel at Birkenhead over the last 18 years, achieving:

Switching from fossil fuels to alternative fuels is just one of the many ways that we are building a better Australia.