New standards of clinker efficiency at Spenner
Building authority approval for naturecem 65 (PKH)
Reducing the proportion of clinker in cements and consequently in concretes is the joint goal of Erwitte cement manu-facturer Spenner GmbH & Co. KG and the Berlin-based technology company alcemy GmbH. The partner companies have achieved an important success in establishing a new cement - naturecem 65 (PKH) - Portland limestone slag cement in strength class 32.5 N/R with general building authority approval at the Erwitte and Berlin plants. With its exceptional composition, naturecem 65 (PKH) - with the working title “CEM X” in the project planning phase - sets new standards in the field of low-clinker cements. An outstanding innovation in the field of “sustainable construction”.
For many decades, the Spenner companies have been committed to reducing CO2 emissions and developing more environmentally friendly products. By using clinker substitutes such as granulated blast furnace slag, limestone powder and fly ash, the clinker factor in cement and thus CO2 emissions have already been significantly reduced in the past. In the production of naturecem 65 (PKH), Spenner has succeeded in reducing CO2 emissions by around 65% compared to a CEM I (DIN EN 197-1).
However, as the clinker substitutes blast furnace slag and fly ash will be less or no longer available in the future, the use of sustainable clinker substitutes that are as CO2-neutral as possible is required. For this reason, Spenner and alcemy have been working intensively in recent years on the development of new cements that contain a much higher proportion of unburned limestone powder as a clinker substitute.
The result of extensive laboratory and factory tests is the pioneering naturecem 65 (PKH), which this week received general building approval from the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt) for the Spenner plants in Erwitte and Berlin. A great pleasure, because the new sustainable naturecem 65 (PKH) can now be produced there and used in ready-mix concrete. This makes Spenner the first manufacturer and supplier of this extremely clinker-efficient cement type in Europe and sets new standards in the scalability of low-CO2 multi-composite cements.
Leopold Spenner, founder and CEO, alcemy GmbH: “For us at alcemy, the approval of the naturecem 65 (PKH) by our customer Spenner is a huge success and really motivating. We were founded with the vision of using our predictive software to help cement and concrete manufacturers bring more low-CO2 products onto the market. We firmly believe that clinker efficiency must be the foundation of any cement decarbonization roadmap. It can happen today and be highly profitable. We have proven this with Spenner and want to boldly lead the way with other customers.”
Georg Weber, Head of Sales, Authorized Representative, Spenner GmbH & Co. KG: “We have used our decades of experience with Portland limestone cements and blast furnace cements to develop an ecologically valuable multi-composite cement that can be used primarily in the ready-mix concrete industry. Spenner naturecem 65 (PKH) is another important milestone in reducing CO2 and at the same time achieving our climate targets defined in the Spenner Roadmap. The naturecem 65 (PKH) can now be ordered by our customers at the Spenner plants in Erwitte and Berlin. The DIBt approvals are available!”
