Burcin Temel Mckenna, Global Head of Carbon Capture

October 22, 2024

A new procurement challenge for the cement industry

Project procurement is considered one of the biggest challenges to implementing CCUS in the cement industry. We caught up with Burcin Temel Mckenna, Global Head of Carbon Capture at Ramboll, to understand why. 

1. What challenges does the cement industry encounter when trying to align the technology suppliers for carbon capture?
The cement industry is a very mature one with a simple operational procurement model. Cement manufacturing companies are used to working with established cement technology providers and usually getting a fixed price for a greenfield turnkey plant or for brownfield revamp initiatives. Carbon capture introduces new types of project development models along with varying supplier profiles where the majority of the technology providers come from the legacy oil and gas industries. So, the cement players face the need to understand how the carbon capture technology market works while adapting their ways of procuring new equipment and processing plants to those of the oil and gas industries.
2. Does the fact that carbon capture technology is still evolving for cement manufacturing create additional procurement issues?
Although there are proven carbon capture technologies available, they have not been used much outside of the oil and gas industries, and implementing carbon capture technology at a cement plant is complex, carrying new risks for the cement producers. This risk can emerge as a financial one, as the suppliers can increase the level of engineering to de-risk themselves, resulting in an additional cost for the cement producers. As the suppliers have yet to sell many capture plants, it is too early to expect well-designed modular solutions of various capacities at this stage. Without the modularisation and standardisation of the capture plants, each capture project is customised, which can increase the implementation risks and costs. On the other hand, it can also be argued that while more modular and standardised plants could create more mature plug and play solutions, customisation can result in better integration into an existing cement plant and result in optimal CAPEX and OPEX decisions. A balanced approach between modular systems and the right level of customisation potentially results in best practice in terms of minimising the financial risks and enhancing the capture plant efficiency.
3. Does this market immaturity create challenges when trying to secure long-term maintenance of the carbon capture technology at cement plants?
Certainly! A carbon capture plant operates in a similar way to a chemical manufacturing plant, whereas a cement plant is an entirely different and very lean operation. At cement plants, many of the processes are automated, meaning that a small number of on-site staff can keep such a plant operating effectively. The addition of a carbon capture plant means new resources are needed or extensive training needs to be given to existing staff members to handle the very different safety standards associated with working with chemicals.

We look at each individual project, considering the specific technology chosen, and help our clients to choose the right providers and suppliers for their needs – and we always try to ensure that the project will stay on track, within budget, and be delivered within the expected timelines.

Burcin Temel Mckenna
Head of Department

4. Is it difficult to find carbon capture technology providers or resources?
There are a good number of technology providers available, as well as personnel equipped to operate these capture plants since many oil and gas projects employ those with such skillsets. Should oil and gas operations start to be phased out, those trained resources could operate and contribute to carbon capture projects. However, in regions such as Scandinavia and Germany, there are discussions about a potential skills gap and predictions that there will not be enough resources to handle the new green technologies on the horizon.
5. Can we at Ramboll ease the challenges to encourage more cement manufacturers to implement carbon capture technology?
Yes, I believe so. When approaching every project, our ultimate goal is to give sound advice to our clients and to decrease both their technical and financial risks. As the Owner’s Engineer for our cement clients, we act as their engineering arm and also provide sound strategic advice to protect their interests. While we work for our cement clients, we follow up with their suppliers simultaneously to make sure the project is a success. After all, it is not only the cement players that need to learn. The technology suppliers also need to learn how to interact with and what to expect from their new client segment. Until this common language is found, it is a work in progress. But this is also where we can help. With experience in both industries, we can design and determine the standards, and help establish what is an acceptable project delivery criteria and standards for the cement industry.

Want to know more?

  • Burçin Temel McKenna

    Global Head of Carbon Capture

    +45 51 61 40 19

    Burçin Temel McKenna

Let’s decarbonise cement with carbon capture

By scaling carbon capture technogologies, we can decarbonise the cement industry and our world to achieve net zero emissions
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