Boliden receives support for innovative use of residual materials
The Swedish Energy Agency is granting SEK 117 million in support to Boliden through the Industrial Leap initiative. Using new technology, the company can reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the value chain by approximately 600,000 tonnes per year.
Cement production accounts for eight per cent of global emissions. The main source of CO₂ emissions in cement manufacturing is the process of heating limestone. This process produces quicklime, which is the primary component of cement. Boliden has now developed a product made from iron-rich residual materials from its own production. The product makes it possible to partially replace quicklime and thereby reduce the amount of conventionally produced cement.
“To produce, test, and verify the new product, Boliden is building an industrial demonstration plant. Demonstrating innovative new technology to manufacture products with lower carbon emissions is fully in line with the purpose of the Industrial Leap. By reusing materials in new products instead of depositing them, the project also contributes to more circular use of materials,” says Klara Helstad, Deputy Head of the Department for Research, Innovation and Business Development at the Swedish Energy Agency.
In the long term, the new product could reduce value-chain emissions by around 600,000 tonnes per year, based on use within Boliden’s own operations.
About the Industrial Leap
The Swedish Parliament has adopted the climate target that Sweden should have no net emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 2045 and thereafter achieve negative emissions. Major and complex technological leaps are required across several industries to reach this target. To support this transition, the government has launched the long-term initiative the Industrial Leap.
Since 2021, the Industrial Leap has been part of the green recovery for a climate-smart society following the COVID-19 pandemic and is included in the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
