Cold-Activated Clay vs. Calcined or Flash-Calcined Clay :
The New Equation for Low-Carbon Cement
Two decarbonisation pathways. Radically different industrial processes.
For those transforming their industrial assets, and those seeking low-carbon cement without the premium price tag,
only one option delivers on scalability, cost, workability, and carbon performance.
Decarbonising Cement :
From Urgency to Strategic Imperative
As the cost of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as GGBS and fly ash rises sharply across many regions — in some cases approaching or exceeding that of Portland cement — a critical question is emerging across the industry :
how do we produce low-carbon binders without triggering a cost explosion?
In this context, locally sourced clay-based resources are emerging as a strategic alternative for large-scale cement decarbonisation.
However, not all clay activation technologies are equal.
Two industrial approaches are now gaining traction: calcined or flash-calcined clay, an established thermal-process technology, and cold-activated clay, a new technological pathway that fundamentally reshapes the economic and industrial equation.
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay⚡vs. ⚡CCC® Cold-Activated Clay
Quantitative comparison of CCC® cold activation vs. flash calcination, per tonne of activated clay.
Cost structureIndustrial realityCement technical performanceProcess environmental performanceConcrete performance
Technologies based on thermally calcined or flash-calcined clay activation —including conventional calcination processes, flash calcination systems, and LC3-type solutions — have demonstrated genuine potential for clinker substitution in cement. These solutions have opened a new decarbonisation pathway for the industry.
However, large-scale deployment continues to face several structural constraints, and these processes remain dependent on fossil fuels.
CCC® technology delivers the best ratio of avoided carbon and energy per unit of capital invested available on the market today. SMCP® plants are located in close proximity to raw material deposits, significantly reducing transport distances and the associated logistics footprint. A cold, non-thermal process, drawing on local raw materials and rapidly deployable: CCC® technology converts the carbon constraint into a competitive advantage. Producing low-carbon cement becomes, simultaneously, producing lower-cost cement.
Cost Structure
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
Thermal Infrastructure.
High CAPEX.
A kiln or flash calciner is a non-negotiable requirement.
These processes demand a complete thermal infrastructure running on fossil fuels: dryers, calcination reactors, heat exchangers, fuel preparation systems, cooling equipment, and flue gas treatment — representing significant capital investment and extended installation lead times.
At 400,000 t/year over 20 years and a WACC of 7%, the CAPEX for this type of process ranges between €20 and €30 per tonne of activated clay — up to 10 times higher than that of a CCC® cold-activated clay production unit..
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
Compact process. Simplified industrial architecture.
No heavy thermal infrastructure.
CAPEX up to 10× lower.
No kiln. No calcination. No thermal system.
No fossil fuels. CCC® requires only electrical auxiliaries.
Low capital investment of between €2.5 and €5 per tonne of activated clay, with shorter installation timelines.
The SMCP® modular architecture is compact, easily replicable, and rapidly scalable at any output level — greenfield or brownfield. Raw materials are locally sourced from quarry by-products, making the economic equation radically favourable.
CCC® delivers the best ratio of avoided carbon per unit of capital invested available on the market today — a structural advantage that compounds over time.
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
Fossil fuel dependency.
High and costly energy consumption.
High OPEX.
High fossil fuel consumption : between 500 and 700 kWheq/t of activated clay.
Energy cost per tonne produced : €22 to €36/t. (At $100/barrel, Brent crude price)
Structural risk: dependency on gas creates a structural operational risk linked both to the progressive scarcity of fossil fuels and to the volatility of their markets.
Volatility is difficult to absorb over the long term. As a reference point, every $10/bbl increase in Brent crude mechanically translates into +€1.5 to +€3/t in production costs.
Across the full market range ($70–$150/bbl), the cumulative cost gap versus CCC® can reach €11 to €27/t — a structural disadvantage in any carbon pricing environment.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
100% electric
Lower energy consumption.
Independence.
Low OPEX.
100% electric, energy-efficient process : 60 kWhelec/t of activated clay.
Energy cost per tonne produced : €5/t (based on French electricity tariffs)
No structural risk : no fossil fuel dependency. CCC® activates clay waste mechanically and through a proprietary organic agent, at ambient temperature. No burner. No kiln. No combustion.
This 100% electric architecture is directly compatible with renewable energy supply — including on-site solar generation — opening the pathway to a potentially end-to-end net zero process.
CCC® units are structurally decoupled from oil markets. Their energy cost remains more stable regardless of fossil fuel market conditions — a decisive competitive advantage in an era of volatile energy prices.
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
A low-carbon cement often sold at a premium price —and whose cost can only increase.
Calcined clay carries a structure of rising costs from which it cannot escape: fossil fuel dependency, regulatory pressure, and CCUS investment requirements form a triptych that durably undermines its competitiveness.
This process carries a heavy cost structure: capital-intensive thermal infrastructure, high natural gas consumption, and complex engineering. These burdens are mechanically passed through into the price of the finished product, which is often sold at a premium relative to conventional cement
The exclusive dependency on natural gas exposes production costs to Brent crude volatility.
An additional constraint compounds this: in order to reduce the residual emissions from its thermal process, flash calcination will ultimately need to integrate carbon capture and storage systems (CCUS). These installations represent a significant additional capital investment, which will be added to existing CAPEX and reflected in the price of the finished product.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
A low-carbon cement at the price of conventional cement.
Cost under control for the future.
The cost structure is not dependent on fossil fuels. CCC® technology enables decarbonisation by making low-carbon cement as competitive as conventional cement — today, and even more so tomorrow.
The CCC® cost structure is fundamentally lean: a raw material sourced from local waste streams, a 100% electric process with no fossil fuel, limited CAPEX, and a short-circuit logistics model. This economic equation aligns the production cost of MCC1 cement with that of conventional cement — no premium, no additional cost burden passed on to the end buyer
This represents a fundamental break with the prevailing assumption that decarbonisation costs more. With CCC®, producing low-carbon cement does not penalise competitiveness, it strengthens it.
The trajectory is favourable: not indexed to fossil fuel markets, CCC® production costs are more stable and trend downward. Productivity gains from the replication of SMCP® units, the long-term decline in renewable electricity costs, and the increasing valorisation of local clay waste all act as levers that consolidate this competitiveness over time..
Industrial reality
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
Complex thermal integration.
Reserved for select operators and large volumes.
Constrained and complex deployment.
A concentrated model suited only to large-scale volumes.
Deploying a standalone unit or integrating these processes into existing cement plants requires complex thermal management and advanced engineering. Construction and operating permits are more time-consuming and harder to obtain.
The complete thermal chain — dryer, calcination reactor, heat exchangers, fuel preparation systems, cooling equipment, and flue gas treatment — must be designed, commissioned, and calibrated as an integrated system. This creates a strong dependency on engineering firms and results in long project lead times between the investment decision and first production.
Retrofitting existing facilities adds further complexity, as thermal systems must be interfaced with existing infrastructure which can cause highly significant production stoppages.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
Modular. Plug-and-play.
Deployable anywhere.
Accessible to all operators, with no minimum volume threshold.
Easy and fast to deploy.
Accessible. From 60,000 t to 1 million tonnes/year: a model that adapts to your operational reality.
The SMCP® architecture is compact and modular. SMCP® units cover a range from 60,000 t to 1 million tonnes of cement per year, enabling sizing that matches the available deposit and the local market, and accessible to all operator typologies: quarry operators, clay waste producers, ready-mix concrete and precast producers, cement manufacturers, civil engineering contractors, and more. Construction and operating permits are simpler and faster to obtain.
SMCP® units require neither combustion infrastructure nor gas networks. They are installed faster and more easily than thermal installations.
Three pathways to access CCC® technology, depending on your situation:
Licencing — Keep your asset, change the product. MATERRUP transfers its patented technology to produce MCC1® autonomously, without restructuring, with improved margins from day one
Brownfield — Your existing site becomes a low-carbon production unit. MATERRUP assesses, adapts, and certifies your process — fully bespoke, through to full industrial throughput.
Greenfield — You build new capacity, from 60 kt to 1 Mt. MATERRUP designs the unit, transfers the technology, and supports you from engineering through to commissioning.
This modularity transforms capital deployment: invest incrementally, scale rapidly, relocate if necessary. The industrial constraint becomes a strategic asset.
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
Structural negative externalities.
This model concentrates the negative externalities of the conventional cement industry: structural dependency on fossil fuels, progressive depletion of specific clay deposits, persistent industrial nuisances — and a centralised model.é.
Fossil fuel dependency : powered by natural gas.
Resource depletion : a dominant model of consumption of specific clay deposits, contributing to the exhaustion of natural resources
ersistent industrial nuisances : burners, nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, thermal discharge, noise — flash calcination units can generate nuisances that complicate territorial integration and undermine local social acceptance.
Centralised model, disconnected from local territories : the large-volume logic imposes production sites located far from local markets, with long transport distances and a logistics footprint that must be accounted for.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
A regenerative industry with no negative externalities.
A combustion-free, emission-free process that valorises local waste as a raw material, and a decentralised model that establishes green factories at the heart of local territories — circular economy as an industrial model.
Combustion-free, emission-free process: compatible with 100% renewable energy supply
Resource preservation : circular economy by design: cold-activated clay sourced 100% from clay waste.
A clean process : no burner, no fumes, no thermal nuisances — SMCP® units integrate naturally into their environment and support local social acceptance.
Strong territorial anchoring : SMCP® units are located close to deposits and local markets. They create non-relocatable employment, structure regional supply chains, and strengthen the industrial resilience of local territories.
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
Centralised and dependent production.
Heavy logistics.
Value concentrated in select territories only.
The profitability of this model depends on sufficiently high volumes, which requires concentrated production sites located far from local markets. Upstream, virgin clay is transported from dedicated, specific deposits. Downstream, the cement produced is distributed across wide geographic areas to amortise the infrastructure.
Structural dependency on fossil fuels is maintained.
A more centralised model resulting in greater distances travelled, higher transport costs, and associated emissions.
The model replicates the vulnerabilities of the conventional cement industry: dependency on imported natural gas, exposure to Brent crude fluctuations, and concentration of production in the hands of a small number of major industrial operators. In the event of an energy crisis, a logistics disruption, or geopolitical tension, this model offers less resilience — and no local fallback capacity.
Dependent by design. Centralised by default.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
Decentralised and sovereign model.
Local production. Minimal logistics.
Value deployed within territories..
SMCP® units are established in close proximity to clay co-product and/or clay waste sources and to the markets they supply. Raw materials are not transported over long distances. The cement produced supplies construction projects within the local territory. .
No dependency on fossil fuel markets or international supply chains.
The short-circuit supply model reduces logistics flows to a minimum : fewer trucks, fewer handling transfers, fewer intermediaries. It eliminates a significant share of transport-related costs and emissions often invisible in process comparisons, but real at project scale.
Industrial sovereignty is a natural consequence of this model. An SMCP® unit depends neither on fossil fuel markets, nor on international supply chains, nor on major cement operators. It produces what the territory needs, using what the territory generates and employment, value, and expertise remain locally anchored. In a context of geopolitical tension and fragility in global logistics chains, this is a strategic advantage.
Lean by design. Circular by nature. Rooted by choice.
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
Clay selectivity, deposit restrictions, and limited exploitable reserves.
Clay quality requirements.
Calcination demands clays with high kaolinite content. Many local deposits are incompatible, limiting deployment to geographically specific areas.
It does not work with just any clay: it requires clays with high kaolinite content, a clay mineral that is less readily available and unevenly distributed geographically. Common clays, excavation soils, wash fines, and calcareous clay slurries are generally incompatible with this process — either because their active mineral content is insufficient, or because their particle size distribution or moisture content makes them unsuitable for thermal suspension.
This selectivity severely restricts the number of exploitable deposits and requires long-distance sourcing.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
Raw material availability and flexibility.
Valorisation of diverse clay waste streams.
Very broad clay waste compatibility spectrum: no limit on carbonate content in the clay, and no minimum kaolinite threshold required.
CCC® works with a wide variety of clay mineralogies, with no minimum or maximum threshold: local deposits, earthworks waste, quarry rejects.
What others call waste, we call cement.
Already a reference geological database of several thousand samples collected worldwide —shales, natural pozzolans, sediments, tunnel boring machine spoil, washing by-products, calcareous clay slurries, and much more. By combining local raw materials, a lean process, and rapid deployment, CCC® transforms the constraint of your waste and co-products into a competitive advantage.
This flexibility enables truly universal deployment: wherever the geology exists, the plant can be established.
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
A technology industrialised since 2023 in Europe.
Flash clay calcination technology has moved beyond the pilot stage, with several industrial units in operation, led notably by Calix, SCMS, and FCT, primarily deployed in Africa and Latin America.
In Europe, the first calcined clay production line was commissioned in 2023.
On the normative side, LC3 cements are still subject to standardisation work currently being finalised.
Scale-up is currently taking place outside Europe: a very large-scale line is being launched in Ghana in 2025. European industrialisation remains limited, despite growing regulatory pressure (RE2020, EU ETS).
Operational feedback remains limited and concentrated
In precast applications, slower concrete setting and lower early-age mechanical strength represent significant operational constraints.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
A proven and industrialised technology since 2022.
A commercial product range.
A large number of completed projects across France.
A technology already proven on more than 1,000 construction projects across France, with the broadest low-carbon product range on the market, field-tested and commercially established..
CCC® technology is a deployed, referenced, and specified industrial solution. Materrup offers the broadest low-carbon product range currently on the market: concrete blocks, slabs, kerbs, half-wall units, precast floor panels — structural products, manufactured at scale, delivered to site
More than 1,000 construction projects have already been completed across France using this technology: walls, foundations, floor slabs, and more. Tens of thousands of cubic metres of structural concrete produced and placed — in both public and private sector markets. MCC1® cement is already referenced and specified. It requires no preliminary experimentation — it has already proven itself in the field.
Cement technical performance
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
Pozzolanicity achieved through thermal activation
Calcined clay is produced through high-temperature treatment (typically between 700°C and 900°C).
This process transforms the crystalline structure of the clay to render it reactive.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
Pozzolanicity achieved through cold mechano-activation, without firing.
Cold-activated clay achieves an activity index exceeding 90% in accordance with EN 450-1
The clay is rendered reactive through a mechano-chemical process operated at ambient temperature, with no firing stage. The CCC® process achieves pozzolanic performance equivalent to or exceeding that of calcined clay, while drastically reducing the energy and carbon footprint of the process.
Process Environmental Performance
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
Process carbon footprint between 120 and 200 kgCO₂/t of activated clay.
Flash calcination generates an estimated footprint of between 120 and 200 kgCO₂eq/t of activated clay, based on the average European electricity mix (Eurostat 2023, NeoCem, Dorfner, MDPI 2023).
Despite the absence of process CO₂ (no limestone decarbonation), the thermal energy demand — over 95% of which is sourced from natural gas — generates substantial indirect emissions. The technology remains, at best, partially decarbonised on a standard grid, and remains structurally dependent on fossil fuels for its thermal process
This limits its compatibility with net zero trajectories without additional investment in carbon capture.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
Process carbon footprint of 25 kgCO₂/t of activated clay.
CCC® cold-activation delivers a process carbon footprint of only 25 kgCO₂eq/t of activated clay, for an activity index exceeding 90% in accordance with EN 450-1. This is the best performance-to-carbon footprint ratio on the market.
Concrete Technical Performance
Calcined / Flash-Calcined Clay Activation
Workability constraints on site.
With slower concrete setting and lower early-age mechanical strength, this technology imposes significant constraints in precast applications and on high-throughput construction sites. Furthermore, the surface area of calcined clay particles increases water demand and mix viscosity, which complicates placement and finishing.
Cycle rate constraints arise on site : extended stripping cycles, and sensitivity to shrinkage cracking.
To reach target performance levels, calcined clay-based cements often require higher chemical admixture dosages, adding complexity and cost to mix design
The variability in calcined clay reactivity — depending on source, calcination temperature, and cooling rate — requires concrete formulators to adapt and frequently increase superplasticiser dosages in order to maintain workability and strength development targets.
This generates additional cost and technical complexity at the point of use, reducing the net economic benefit of transitioning to a low-carbon cement.
CCC® Cold Activation Technology
Suitable for a very wide range of applications, with the same placement as conventional cement.
MCC1® is validated for structural concrete classes with the same workability, shrinkage, and creep behaviour as conventional cement — at equivalent dosage.
MCC1® requires no change to your existing practices, whether in ready-mix concrete or precast production.
MCC1® ne change rien dans vos habitudes, en Béton Prêt à l'Emploi ou en préfabrication.
Full technical equivalence with conventional 42.5 cement has beenvalidated by CSTB. Ready-mix concrete partners confirm complete operational compatibility with EN 206-type mix designs — no compromise on placement or mechanical performance.
Deployed on more than 1,000 construction sites since 2022, and across a broad range of precast products: concrete blocks, slabs, kerbs, half-wall units, precast floor panels — structural products manufactured at scale and delivered to site just like conventional cement. Same tools. Same timelines. Same results.
2018
Invented in France in 2018 by MATERRUP and protected by more than 100 international patents, CCC technology enables cold activation of clay with no kiln, no combustion, and no calcination.
2022
The first production plant was commissioned in March at Saint-Geours-de-Maremne, Landes, France — with the first construction projects and structural concrete applications.
2025
Tens of thousands of cubic metres poured on construction sites across France. Deployment with partners throughout France.
2026
Deployment across France, Europe, and internationally.