Ozinga is betting that the cheapest way to cut concrete’s carbon is to grind it differently. The family-owned materials firm is finishing North America’s largest low-carbon cement mill in East Chicago, Indiana, a plant built around a single massive vertical roller mill that turns steel-industry slag into cement with a fraction of the emissions of ordinary Portland cement.
Project Scope
The facility centers on a Gebr. Pfeiffer MVR5300-C6 vertical roller mill, the largest of its kind on the continent, sized to produce about one million tons of cementitious material a year. The plant will make ASTM C989 slag cement and Ozinga’s own CarbonSense blends, which the company says can cut embodied carbon in a mix by up to 80 percent. Its site on the Indiana lakefront was chosen for logistics: rail, truck, and Great Lakes barge access all feed the same yard, which matters when you’re moving a million tons of a low-value, high-weight product.
Why It Matters
Cement accounts for roughly 8 percent of global carbon emissions, and most of that comes from clinker. Slag cement sidesteps the worst of it by reusing a byproduct that would otherwise be landfilled. Once running, Ozinga says the plant will offset more than 700,000 metric tons of CO2 a year. For contractors chasing embodied-carbon limits on public work, a domestic million-ton supply changes what’s actually specifiable.
Project Team & Details
| Owner / Client | Ozinga |
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| Major Subcontractors | Gebr. Pfeiffer (MVR Vertical Roller Mill) |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | Design-Build |
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| Funding Source | Private |
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