Gypsum industry news

Canada: Saint-Gobain subsidiary CertainTeed Canada has announced the upcoming launch of BasCarbone, a new range of 60% reduced-CO₂ gypsum wallboard. The company will produce BasCarbone wallboard at its carbon-neutral Montreal plant in Quebec.

Romania: Saint-Gobain Romania has signed a 5-year renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) with OMV PetRom. Under the PPA, OMV PetRom will provide power from wind and solar power plants to Saint-Gobain Romania, beginning in January 2026. Total energy supplied under the contract will be 800GWh. This will cover 100% of the producer’s electricity consumption.

UK: Adaptavate has inaugurated its first pilot line to produce Breathaboard bio-based alternative wallboard. Breathaboard performs in the same way as ordinary gypsum wallboard, but sequesters and avoids additional CO₂ emissions, reducing the board’s total carbon footprint by 4kg/m². Adaptavate's production process uses fibrous and cellulosic by-products from agricultural crops, combined with minerals. It has a minimal water footprint and does not require natural gas.

Chief technical officer Jeff Ive said "The commissioning of our pilot line is the culmination of a year's hard work. We knew the solution had to be scalable for significant impact. With full-size boards produced on a continuously extruded process, we’re turning our vision into reality. This pilot line is a game changer for us, our industry, and the planet, laying the foundation for global replication of our core innovation."

Canada: CertainTeed Canada has begun upgrading its Montréal gypsum wallboard plant to convert the plant to net zero Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions. The producer says that the plant will become the first net-zero facility of its kind in North America.

Spain: Knauf Ibérica is planning to build a 7.5MW biomass unit at its Guixers gypsum wallboard plant in Lleida. The unit will be operational by December 2024 and create around 200 jobs, according to La Vanguardia newspaper. The company intends to source wood biomass locally. Once operational it is expected to reduce the plant’s CO₂ emissions by 35%. The Guixers plant also installed photovoltaic solar panels earlier in 2023.

Alberto De Luca, chief executive officer of Knauf Ibérica, said “The launch of this project is a significant step towards reducing our carbon footprint and achieving zero emissions by 2045."

Europe/US: Tristan Suffys, secretary general of Eurogypsum, the European gypsum association, presented the association’s net zero roadmap at the Global Gypsum Conference 2023 in Chicago, US, on 9 November 2023. Live and online audiences heard Eurogypsum’s full life cycle-based carbon footprint analysis, according to which European gypsum wallboard currently generates CO₂ emissions of 2kg/m², 14% lower than 2008 levels. On its pathway to net zero by a deadline of 2050, Eurogypsum plans to reduce wallboard’s CO₂ emissions from raw materials by 13%, from transport by 12%, from production by 69% and from end-of-life processes by 6%.

Suffys said “Presenting our roadmap today in Chicago is a clear signal that global warming requires global action. We want to engage with other regional actors along the way to climate neutrality.”

Eurogypsum president Jörg Ertle added “We are committed to making this transition a reality. First examples show that we can move towards net-zero emission production if we have access to low-carbon energy at affordable costs and optimal raw material supply, but this will require significant investment from our sector.”

China: Beijing New Building Materials (BNBM)’s operating income grew by 9% year-on-year to US$1.57bn in the first half of 2023, from US$1.44bn in the same period in 2022. Its net profit increased by 19% to US$251m from US$211m. The company said that it had a total gypsum wallboard production capacity of 3.4Bnm²/yr and that it was the world’s largest gypsum board group.

Parent company China National Building Material (CNBM) reported separately that its total sales of gypsum wallboard remained stable in the first half of 2023, at 1.09Bnm². It said “The supply of gypsum board is stable, but affected by the weak operation of the real estate market. The demand is insufficient and the operation of the industry is under pressure.” It added that BNBM built four “nearly zero emission” gypsum board production lines in the reporting period.

Norway: Saint-Gobain has started producing net zero CO₂ gypsum wallboard at its Fredrikstad plant. This was made possible by switching the power supply for the unit to hydroelectric power from natural gas previously. It worked with state-owned sustainable energy agency Enova on the Euro25m upgrade project. Following the completion of work at the site it will now avoid emitting 23,000t/yr of CO₂. Improved heat recovery and process efficiency will reduce energy consumption by 30%. Plus, the company says that the plant’s production capacity has been increased by 40%.

The group says that this is the world's first carbon-neutral wallboard plant and it will enable it to launch a range of products with the lowest carbon footprint on the market in 2023. It added that the this initiative was a clear indication of the company’s commitment to reduce its scope one and two CO₂ emissions by 33% by 2030 compared to 2017, with a commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2050

France: SaintGobain says that the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has approved its CO₂ reduction targets. The group plans to achieve net zero CO₂ emissions, both direct and indirect, along its entire value chain by 2050. This will entail a reduction in CO₂ emissions of at least 90% in the three scopes by 2050, with additional sequestration projects planned for residual emissions.

Saint-Gobain's commitments to reduce, in absolute terms, by 2030 from 2017 its direct and indirect CO₂ emissions (scopes 1 and 2) by 33% and its scope 3 emissions, mainly linked to purchasing and transport, by 16% by 2030 was already validated in 2020 by the SBTi. The group says it will continue to accelerate its roadmap, notably through improvements in energy efficiency, product weight reduction, increased recycled content and the use of green energies, in order to align its targets with the most demanding trajectory, which limits the rise in temperatures to 1.5°C.

Canada: Saint-Gobain plans to carry out a US$70.9m upgrade and 40% capacity expansion of its 30Mm²/yr Montreal gypsum wallboard plant in Quebec. The project includes the replacement of natural gas with renewable electricity and a 30% reduction in energy consumption through efficiency improvements. As a result, it will turn the facility into North America’s first zero-carbon gypsum wallboard plant. Work will commence in mid-2023, with the commissioning of the upgraded plant following in late 2024.

Saint-Gobain’s vice president environmental, social, governance (ESG) North America and managing director, circular economy solutions Dennis Wilson said "Today we begin a historic new chapter at our Montreal gypsum plant, leading our industry towards a more sustainable future while increasing our production capacity at a time of unprecedented customer demand," said. "We thank our partners in the Quebec Government, the City of Saint-Catherine and Hydro-Québec for their support, and we thank our team for pushing the limits of technology and imagination to bring this bold project to life. The electrification of our Montreal plant is a massive step forward in our broader goal to decarbonise construction materials and a significant step towards our global goal of carbon neutrality by 2050."