The World Cement Association (WCA) announced that artificial intelligence company Carbon Re has become the latest addition to its international community, joining as an associate corporate member.
Carbon Re, a spin-off from Cambridge University and UCL, is the world’s first AI-powered platform developing solutions to cut costs and reduce emissions in the energy-intensive manufacturing sector. The company has developed Delta Zero, a software platform that uses deep reinforcement learning – a branch of AI particularly suited to complex problem solving – to enable instant reductions in energy consumption, costs, and carbon emissions.
“Improving energy efficiency of production and processes is one of the most important levers we have today when it comes to cutting emissions from cement manufacture,” explained Ian Riley, CEO at WCA. “We are therefore especially pleased to be welcoming Carbon Re, whose experience applying the latest technology in energy-intensive industries can certainly benefit the cement sector, and we look forward to working alongside them as we work on the net-zero transition.”
When it comes to the cement industry, Delta Zero software enables substantial efficiencies in the use of fuel in cement kilns, resulting in lower fuel costs and emissions reductions of up to 20%. The platform analyses feed rates, sensor data and control parameters to provide clear, quantifiable recommendations to reduce the mass of CO2 emitted per useful heating value (kgCO2/UHV).
“Energy intensive industries such as cement and concrete are essential to the way we live, but face a perfect storm of low margins, growing carbon prices and pressure to decarbonize,” said Sherif Elsayed-Ali, co-founder and CEO of Carbon Re. “We are especially pleased to be joining the journey to net zero with WCA and its members, as we believe collaboration is key in the pursuit of decarbonization and global emissions reduction at the Gigatonne scale.”
