Akçansa 2026 puts alternative fuels at centre of cement

The operational signal

Akçansa has made alternative fuels an explicit lever in its climate pathway in the 2025 Integrated Annual Report. The company says its alternative fuel rate increased from 20.3% in 2024 to 21.9% in 2025, while keeping a 35.0% reference target for 2030. The report also states that 65 thousand tonnes of biomass waste were converted into energy during 2025.

The most material point is fuel supply infrastructure. Akçansa reports a 10-year strategic cooperation with Akademi Çevre to establish a 60.000 t/yr refuse-derived fuel preparation facility, which began operations in October 2025. The company expects the initiative to avoid approximately 130 thousand tonnes of CO₂ over the contract period.

What changes for the kiln

In cement, an RDF preparation plant does not cut emissions by itself; it creates the operating boundary for a kiln to replace part of its fossil energy with prepared waste-based fuel. The move matters because it addresses three limits that commonly constrain co-processing: continuity of supply, physical fuel quality and the ability to dose the material without undermining thermal stability.

Akçansa frames the step within circular economy and lower-carbon production. That makes the issue more than waste management. The industrial test is whether the flame, calcination profile and clinker quality can remain stable as fuel heterogeneity increases.

The Knergy Angle

For KNERGY, the relevant signal is that Akçansa is creating room for higher AFR co-combustion, precisely where local H₂/O₂ injection can become technically relevant. As the share of alternative fuels rises, operators often face more moisture, variable particle size, slower combustion kinetics and less uniform chemistry. A reactive hydrogen stream carrying its own oxygen, dosed into the calciner or main burner circuit, could help accelerate ignition and burnout of the primary and alternative fuel fractions, without presenting that as proven performance at an Akçansa plant.

The industrial question is not whether RDF is positive, but how far substitution can rise without increasing CO, unburned material, temperature variability or pressure on clinker quality. A KNERGY assessment would look at flame curves, available oxygen, sulphur behaviour, RDF moisture and feeder response. What injection point and control set would turn more prepared RDF supply into real thermal substitution?

Indicators to watch

The next key indicators are the annual alternative fuel rate, the RDF plant’s performance, the composition of fuel fed to the kiln and the trajectory of process and combustion emissions. It will also matter whether the supply-side progress becomes higher substitution at specific integrated plants, not only more prepared fuel availability.