Electric heat opens a new route to low-carbon cement
At a pilot facility near Lille, France, Fives and NOC Energy have tested a different way of supplying the intense heat needed to make a lower-carbon cement ingredient. On 9 October 2026, the partners reported stable electrically generated hot gas above 1,000°C and successful production of calcined clay at Fives FCB’s installation.
With cement production accounting for roughly 7–8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, the partnership programme focuses on producing an ingredient that can reduce demand for clinker, cement’s most carbon-intensive conventional component, while changing how that ingredient is heated.
The two reported achievements represent different stages of that effort. Hot-gas generation used electricity alone; during clay production, electricity supplied approximately 70–80% of the required thermal energy, with natural gas providing the remainder.
Why cement production has a large environmental footprint
Cement is the binder that holds concrete together when mixed with water, sand and aggregate. Its manufacturing footprint is largely determined by clinker. Producing it involves heating limestone and other raw materials to around 1,450°C. Fossil fuels commonly supply the heat, while the limestone itself releases carbon dioxide as calcium carbonate breaks down into calcium oxide.
For conventional clinker production, a useful rule of thumb is that roughly 60% of direct carbon dioxide emissions come from this chemical reaction and around 40% from fuel combustion, although the balance varies between plants. Electrifying the heat therefore addresses only part of the problem: the limestone still releases carbon dioxide.
The environmental pressures extend beyond carbon. Quarrying limestone and clay can disturb habitats and generate dust and noise, while sand and gravel extraction for concrete can damage river and coastal ecosystems. Cement plants can emit particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and hazardous pollutants, making emissions controls important for local air quality and public health.
Water demand across cement and concrete production creates additional pressure in water-stressed regions. Demolition generates large material flows, although concrete can be crushed and reused. Extensive paving can also contribute to urban heat when it replaces vegetation, with the effect influenced by surface colour and design. Cleaner cement production consequently belongs within a wider effort involving responsible extraction, pollution control and efficient construction.
How manufacturers can reduce cement emissions
Addressing that footprint requires several complementary approaches. Manufacturers can reduce clinker content using supplementary cementitious materials, or SCMs, including fly ash from coal power stations and ground granulated blast furnace slag from ironmaking. Their availability may decline as those industries change, increasing interest in alternatives such as calcined clay.
Biomass and waste-derived fuels can replace some fossil fuel, although the benefit depends on sourcing and composition; plastics in waste fuels still release fossil carbon dioxide. Changing the fuel does not remove the carbon dioxide released by limestone chemistry.
Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, addresses remaining emissions by capturing carbon dioxide for geological storage. A distinct route, mineralisation, binds carbon dioxide into stable carbonates, potentially within concrete products or recycled aggregates.
Meanwhile, crushed demolition concrete can replace some virgin aggregate, reducing demand for sand and gravel where specifications permit. Within this wider portfolio, the Fives–NOC Energy programme focuses on the production of a clinker substitute.
How calcined clay reduces clinker demand
Calcined clay is clay activated by controlled heating, a process called calcination, which changes suitable clay’s mineral structure and makes it reactive enough to contribute to cement’s binding properties. This offers a route to replacing some clinker while retaining the performance required of the finished binder.
One established example is limestone calcined clay cement, known as LC3, developed through international research led by Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. It combines clinker, calcined clay, ground limestone and gypsum. LC3 illustrates the application of this ingredient; the partners have not reported that their pilot produced or tested a finished LC3 cement.
Kaolinite-bearing materials are particularly useful, although they need not have the purity demanded by industries such as ceramics. A manufacturer needs to understand its feedstock rather than assume that any nearby clay deposit will work.
Clay activation commonly takes place around 800°C, below clinker-production temperatures. The exact conditions depend on the clay and process. The pilot’s reported gas temperature above 1,000°C refers to the heat-carrying gas, rather than a measured clay temperature; the announcement does not specify the temperature reached by the material.
How NOC Cell supplies electric heat for clay calcination
Supplying that heat is the engineering task behind the partnership, announced in May 2026. Fives contributes industrial process expertise and its clay calcination pilot installation, while NOC Energy supplies its NOC Cell technology.
The NOC Cell is an industrial electric heating and thermal storage system that combines heat generation, storage and delivery. According to NOC Energy, electromagnetic induction converts electricity into heat within conductive thermal materials. Those materials form a packed bed through which process gas passes, picking up heat before entering the industrial process.
Beyond direct heating, NOC Energy offers configurations with additional thermal storage. That could help reconcile variable wind and solar output, and fluctuating electricity prices, with a factory’s need for dependable heat: energy stored when power is plentiful or cheaper can be delivered later.
The available flexibility depends on storage capacity, heat losses and process demand. The October announcement gives no storage duration or charging-and-discharging results for this pilot. It reports hybrid clay production, consistent with NOC Energy’s provision for integration with existing combustion equipment.
What the Fives and NOC Energy pilot demonstrated
Successful integration must also preserve the properties of the product. Fives reported that the pilot clay met its targets for pozzolanic reactivity and colour, with quality comparable to material produced on the same equipment using natural gas. Pozzolanic reactivity describes how the activated material reacts with compounds generated during cement hydration, contributing to the hardened binder.
The comparison offers a basis for further development, although the announcement includes no detailed quality-test results, operating dataset or independently verified emissions assessment. Longer operating campaigns and trials with different feedstocks should help establish how consistently the process can deliver an acceptable product.
Scaling electric clay calcination for cement production
That consistency feeds directly into the investment decision. For a plant considering the technology, the practical comparison is the cost per tonne of acceptable calcined clay. That includes electricity, equipment, financing and maintenance, alongside throughput and the proportion of output meeting specifications.
Access to competitively priced, low-carbon power will influence that calculation. Storage may shift electricity consumption between hours, but adequate grid capacity is still required. Integration must also preserve the temperature control and reliable heat delivery the process needs.
Feedstock availability, transport distances and cement standards add further considerations. Environmental performance requires its own accounting, reflecting electricity’s carbon intensity, remaining gas use and the resulting cement formulation. A successful heating trial cannot establish those outcomes for every future installation.
The next step towards fully electric clay calcination
Fives and NOC Energy are targeting fully electrified clay calcination in the first quarter of 2027. That next step would establish whether the remaining gas contribution can be eliminated while retaining the required clay quality.
The programme connects two complementary changes: less clinker means less limestone-related carbon dioxide, while cleaner heat can reduce emissions from producing its replacement. Turning those connected benefits into dependable, economically viable production is the opportunity the partners are now testing.
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