Dear ZKG, 111th anniversary of ZKG Cement Lime Gypsum, what an event, what a long time and what a great achievement. The Federal Association of the German Lime Industry e.V. and the Research Association for Lime and Mortar e.V. as well as our members congratulate very warmly, happy birthday!
The ZKG magazine – affectionately still called Zement-Kalk-Gips in the trade jargon - has always been of great importance not only to our association and research foundation but is also highly regarded by our members, the lime companies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. With its high quality contributions, including the interesting variety and preparation of topics, the ZGK is one of the most important sources of information for us in the field of mechanical and process engineering, but of course also on current and future topics of our industry and partner sectors. The good cooperation in the field of public relations, e.g. for the annual general meeting of the BVK and the International Lime Association (ILA) is just as valuable as the opportunity of publishing technical papers by our research foundation and its partners on a national and international level.
At the moment, but also in the future, one of the greatest challenges the German lime industry is facing is to reduce its CO2 emissions in the interests of climate protection and sustainability. To achieve the German and European climate targets by 2045, a comprehensive transformation of the industry is essential. Production processes and process technology will change fundamentally, new infrastructures will have to be established and necessary framework conditions created for a competitive industry in Germany. Carbon dioxide must be captured cost-efficiently and effectively in many industrial sectors, as there is no alternative way to reduce CO2 due to unavoidable emissions caused by the process and raw material. In ZKG Issue 3/2021, we presented the Roadmap 2050 of the German lime industry to illustrate the commitment of our industry sector. One of the central points of the roadmap is the implementation of a semi-industrial pilot plant for CO2 capture directly at the lime plant. The corresponding project application was submitted by a lime consortium in April 2022 within the BMWK funding program “Decarbonization in Industry”.
We look forward to being able to report on this future project and on further developments relating to lime in the ZKG and also hope for a continued good cooperation on all the other topics mentioned. Good luck for the next 111 years of ZKG Cement Lime Gypsum!
