Summary
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Details
Deep dive
Core Features
Carbon Re leverages AI to optimize manufacturing processes in energy-intensive industries like cement, steel, and glass, with cement being their main focus. Its software analyzes plant data to identify energy inefficiencies, reduce emissions, and help businesses meet sustainability goals. By optimizing energy use and minimizing variability, it significantly lowers operating costs. The system closely monitors critical variables across different processes and helps prevent unplanned shutdowns by alerting operators to potential issues in real time.
Results:
5% reduction in fuel emissions.
10-15 kcal/kg decrease in energy consumption.
30% reduction in process variability.
Annual savings of over $1 million for plants that adopt the software.
Source:
AI decarbonisation technology - Carbon Re (https://carbonre.com/product/)
How It Works
The software uses historical and real-time data to make accurate predictions about optimal operating conditions. These predictions are fed directly into the plant’s control systems, automating adjustments to maintain peak efficiency. The AI models are also continually updated to stay relevant, ensuring performance improvements.
Solutions for Cement manufacturing
Alternative Fuels
The cement industry is shifting toward using alternative fuels to reduce reliance on traditional energy sources. However, these fuels come with challenges like varying moisture levels and calorific values, which can disrupt the production process.
Carbon Re’s Approach: The software adapts to real-time plant conditions, ensuring optimal performance regardless of fuel type. This flexibility allows plants to achieve high efficiency without compromising production quality.
Benefit: Plants can confidently increase their thermal substitution rate (TSR) up to 100%, which is the replacement of traditional fossil fuels with alternative fuels like waste and biomass to provide the same amount of heat.
Source:
Solutions - Carbon Re (https://carbonre.com/use-cases/#alternative)
Optimized Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is a critical factor for reducing costs and emissions in cement production. Traditional methods often rely on outdated data, leading to missed opportunities for improvement.
Carbon Re’s Approach: The software learns from past plant performance and adjusts operational targets based on real-time conditions, ensuring that every day at the plant is optimized for top performance.
Benefit: Plants operate consistently within their most efficient range, lowering fuel costs and achieving peak efficiency without the need for costly upgrades.
Source:
Solutions - Carbon Re (https://carbonre.com/use-cases/#energy)
Decarbonization
With growing pressure to reduce CO2 emissions due to carbon taxes and regulatory requirements, the cement industry is adopting solutions like alternative fuels and carbon capture. However, these solutions can complicate plant operations.
Carbon Re’s Approach: The AI models adapt to the added complexity caused by decarbonization measures. They provide the control needed to maintain peak performance while reducing emissions.
Benefit: Plants can proactively meet sustainability goals and regulatory standards, ensuring long-term viability in a competitive market.
Source:
Solutions - Carbon Re (https://carbonre.com/use-cases/#decarbonisation)
AI Automation
Advanced Process Control (APC) systems in cement plants struggle to keep up with the growing variability in inputs, like alternative materials and fuels. Manual adjustments are time-consuming and inefficient.
Carbon Re’s Approach: The software acts as an autopilot for process engineers, using AI to identify and adapt to changes in real time. It optimizes fuel consumption and ensures consistent clinker quality across varying conditions.
Benefit: Engineers save time and effort on manual optimizations, focusing instead on solving larger challenges, while the plant operates efficiently and reliably.
Source:
Solutions - Carbon Re (https://carbonre.com/use-cases/#automation)
Other Solutions
Steel & Glass Decarbonisation
Steel and glass production are both energy-intensive industries, which makes reducing their carbon emissions a big challenge. Traditional methods, like redesigning furnaces or switching to cleaner fuels, can help but often aren’t enough. More advanced solutions, like using green hydrogen or capturing carbon emissions, show promise but are expensive and hard to scale up. This is where Carbon Re’s AI technology comes in.
Factories producing steel and glass collect a lot of data from sensors and machines during production, such as tracking furnace temperatures and energy usage. However, many systems don’t know how to use this data to improve performance. Carbon Re’s AI software analyzes this information to find ways to save energy, reduce waste, and cut emissions without needing costly upgrades or drastic changes.
Carbon Re also works with partners like Glass Futures to explore new ways to make glass production cleaner and more efficient.
Sources:
Steel Decarbonisation & Sustainable Alternatives - Carbon Re (https://carbonre.com/steel-decarbonization/)
Sustainable Glass and Glass Decarbonisation - Carbon Re (https://carbonre.com/sustainable-glass/)
Savings Calculator
Carbon Re offers a "Savings Calculator", a free tool that shows potential cost and emission reductions for individual plants. Simply input your operating data and they will calculate your savings and outline any opportunities for decarbonization.
Source:
Emissions Saving Calculator - Carbon Re (https://carbonre.com/savings-calculator/)
Technology
Carbon Re's software works by collecting and analyzing vast amounts of data from manufacturing plants. For example, it uses data from sensors in furnaces and kilns to monitor energy usage, production performance, and emissions. The AI identifies inefficiencies in the process, such as excessive energy consumption in a kiln, and provides recommendations to optimize operations and reduce waste.
These industries, often referred to as "hard-to-abate," face unique challenges because they rely on high-temperature processes and fossil fuels. Traditional solutions like Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) are expensive and not widely scalable, making Carbon Re’s AI technology a practical alternative. Unlike many systems that rely solely on historical data, Carbon Re's technology adapts in real time. For instance, if the raw materials in cement production change during the process, the AI adjusts the system to ensure efficiency and maintain product quality.
A key aspect of Carbon Re’s approach is its ability to integrate with emerging technologies that are transforming these industries. It supports the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), such as fly ash or slag, which reduce emissions by partially replacing traditional cement. Additionally, it helps plants efficiently use alternative fuels, like biomass or agricultural waste, which can lower reliance on fossil fuels.
What makes Carbon Re's AI crucial is its ability to unlock the potential of data that is often underutilized. Manufacturing plants generate a ton of information through sensors and monitoring equipment, but traditional systems are too slow or static to turn this data into actionable insights. Carbon Re bridges this gap by processing the data in real time and offering immediate recommendations.
Source:
Three technologies to reduce climate change - Carbon Re (https://carbonre.com/three-technologies-to-reduce-climate-change)
Case Studies
Heidelberg Materials
Heidelberg Materials Heidelberg Materials used Carbon Re’s AI software alongside their existing system to make their cement production more efficient and environmentally friendly. At their Mokra plant, the AI helped reduce fuel costs by 4%, lower variability in the quality of their product by 33%, and cut carbon emissions from fuel by 2%. The software also improved how their kilns (the big ovens used to make cement) operated, making better decisions automatically. The whole system was set up and running in just eight weeks, showing how quickly it can be implemented.
"We had been searching for a system to enhance our Expert Optimizer with AI for a long time and Carbon Re’s AI platform looked promising. ABB’s confidence in the company, along with Carbon Re’s understanding of the challenges of cement production and their expertise in AI, were key to us working together."
— Jiří Strapina, Mokra Plant Director
Source:
Heidelberg Materials improves performance by integrating Carbon Re’s AI on top of ABB Ability Expert Optimizer (https://carbonre.com/heidelberg-materials-improves-performance-by-integrating-carbon-re-ai)
Brazilian Cement Plant
A large cement company in Brazil worked with Carbon Re to use AI technology as part of their efforts to modernize their factories. They installed new sensors and data tools, which allowed Carbon Re’s software to help them improve the quality of their cement. The results were impressive: a 25% reduction in variations in one of the key ingredients, faster analysis of the materials used in production, and more consistent cement quality.
Source:
Significant process stability improvements with Carbon Re’s AI at Brazilian cement plant (https://carbonre.com/significant-process-stability-improvements-with-carbon-re-ai-at-brazilian-cement-plant)
Plans & Pricing
Pricing information for Carbon Re’s solutions is not publicly available. Interested businesses should contact their sales team for details by booking a discovery call through this link.
Closing Insights
Carbon Re’s AI software is a smart solution for cutting emissions and saving energy in industries like cement, steel, and glass. It does a great job of finding where energy is wasted and helping plants switch to cleaner fuels without disrupting production. Its ability to adapt in real time and work with existing equipment makes it practical and cost-effective.
One area for improvement is pricing transparency. It would be helpful if businesses could easily see how much the software costs upfront, especially if they position themselves as a lower-cost alternative to traditional methods.
