We live in an increasingly urbanized world. Housing, hospitals, schools, and roads –the foundations of everyday life– require strong, durable materials. The AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry therefore relies heavily on cement, the main component in concrete, to build these elements. Yet for architects, the versatility and resistance of concrete don’t always go hand in hand with sustainability credentials.
Cement production is considered a hard-to-abate industry, but what if we had the potential to fully decarbonize it? Holcim –a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions– is leveraging carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology to produce net-zero cement.
The Next Generation of Sustainable Building
Concrete is the foundation of a huge part of the world’s infrastructure, and the most consumed manmade resource on the planet. Concrete’s versatility and durability makes it one of the most widely used building materials for projects spanning housing, transport infrastructure and high-rise buildings. It is also infinitely recyclable.
However, there are concerns related to concrete’s sustainability due to the CO₂ emissions from the cement produced to manufacture it. Luckily, today the sector has many tools at its disposal to decarbonize cement production.
The construction industry is in the midst of a transformation. Having long been accountable for a significant share of the world’s CO₂ emissions, decarbonization is a top priority. Groundbreaking and game-changing advances in production processes –like recycled clinker and calcined clay– as well as alternative materials and energy sources help reduce cement’s carbon footprint and, thereby, meet the world’s long-term climate goals.
Yet, hard-to-abate emissions inevitably remain. CCUS technology is a powerful solution to deal with these unavoidable emissions from the manufacturing process. Net-zero cement is set to revolutionize sustainable building and help concrete become the material of choice to meet green architecture specifications.
Proven Clean Technologies
CCUS technology dates back to the 1970s; what’s new is its use in the construction industry. In cement production, CCUS involves capturing CO₂ emitted during the manufacturing process to prevent it from entering the atmosphere.
There are two main types of carbon capture technologies. Post-combustion technologies involve the absorption of CO₂ in the exhaust gas of a traditional kiln at the “end of the pipe.” Integrated processes are an alternative to these technologies and include a range of concepts implemented during manufacturing.
Captured CO₂ can then either be stored or utilized. In the case of storage, CO₂ is transported to dedicated saline aquifers or abandoned oil and gas reservoirs. Leveraging mineralization, CO₂ is reacted with minerals to form carbonates, safely storing the CO₂ for use in new cement, concrete and aggregates – creating a circular loop and the opportunity to build new from old. CO₂ can equally be used to produce chemicals, plastics or sustainable fuels, or repurposed for industrial uses.
Scaling up CCUS in the Building Industry
As part of its Accelerating Green Growth strategy, Holcim is working to decarbonize construction. To address the hard-to-abate emissions from cement production, it is scaling up CCUS technologies with a view to producing net-zero cement. Its robust and highly diversified CCUS roadmap includes over 50 projects worldwide, with the aim to capture more than 5 million tons of CO₂ annually by 2030 and to be the first company to produce 8 million tons of net-zero cement.
Conscious of different local conditions and regulatory environments, Holcim tailors CCUS pathways to each of its sites. At the Lägerdorf cement plant in Germany, the ‘Carbon2Business’ utilization project will process captured CO₂ into e-methanol, or reprocess it as a raw material to produce plastics. Developing the storage pathway, the ‘Go4ECOPlanet’ initiative in Kujawy, Poland will capture CO₂ emissions from clinker production and facilitate its transportation to depleted oil fields.
Holcim is also supporting governments in achieving their decarbonization goals through CCUS, like in France with the ‘GO4CO2’ and ‘Take Kair' projects in Saint-Pierre-la-Cour. Through these projects, it promotes the development of efficient CCUS infrastructure for transportation, pre-storage and utilization of CO₂.
Across all its projects, Holcim recognizes the importance of collaboration between all industry actors to strengthen value chains and unlock the business case for CCUS. Through the long-term deployment of CCUS technologies there is a potential to scale up net-zero cement production and, in the long term, decarbonize building.