Jan 29, 2025

Mitsubishi UBE Cement Corporation (“MUCC”, Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Makoto Koyama), announced today that it has signed an agreement with MCi Carbon Pty Ltd. (“MCi”, Head Office: Canberra, Australia; Founder & CEO: Marcus Dawe)[1] for investment and collaboration. In addition, MUCC, MCi, and ITOCHU Corporation (“ITOCHU”, Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & COO: Keita Ishii) have signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding to utilize MCi’s mineral carbonation technology for transforming MUCC into a low-carbon business and considering the development and commercialization of mineral carbonation products.

MUCC has identified the early commercialization of CCU* as a key initiative in promoting global warming countermeasures, which is one of the most important initiatives in its medium-term management strategy, Infinity with Will 2025 - MUCC Sustainable Plan 1st Step. Under the initiative, MUCC considers mineral carbonation technology development to be a very important technological development in the utilization of CO₂ and is advancing discussions on introducing CO₂ capture technology and establishing a CO₂ utilization scheme.

MCi possesses the technology to produce carbonates (calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, etc.) by binding CO₂ in serpentinite, steel slag, etc. Through demonstration testing at its pilot plant, it is currently building one of the world’s first mineral carbonation demonstration plant. In March 2021, ITOCHU entered into an agreement with MCi to collaborate on projects to apply the mineral carbonation technology, and is promoting the technology for the Japanese market.[2]

MUCC invests USD 5 million into MCi. Through this investment and the signing of the collaboration agreement, it is expected that a demonstration-scale mineral carbonation technology that produces high-quality carbonates from CO₂ emitted from waste concrete, slag, and cement plants at high efficiency and low cost will be established. In addition to the treatment of waste concrete and other waste materials and the utilization of CO₂, MUCC will also develop products that utilize the carbonates as cement additives, new construction materials, and new high-performance products in other fields and consider commercializing the technology in Japan. Furthermore, the three companies, including ITOCHU, will sign a memorandum of understanding to promote the development and marketing of a business model with the aim of becoming carbon neutral.

In addition to this initiative, MUCC will take on the challenge of doing new initiatives through partnerships with startup companies in Japan and overseas and continue its efforts to become the industry leader in carbon neutrality.

Reference:

［１］MCi Carbon Pty Ltd（https://mcicarbon.com/）

［２］Press release issued by ITOCHU on August 25, 2021

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