Holcim has secured substantial commitments from the European Union (EU) Innovation Fund for two of its breakthrough Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage projects in Germany and Poland. Both projects feature highly promising and scalable technologies to put Holcim at the forefront of Europe’s decarbonization. These programs are part of Holcim’s net-zero roadmap, advancing its 2030 and 2050 targets, validated by the Science-Based-Targets initiative.
The EU will support the Westküste 100 project in Germany, where carbon captured from Holcim’s Lägerdorf plant will be turned into synthetic fuel for transportation. The EU is also supporting Holcim's Go4ECOPlanet project in Poland, which aims to create an end-to-end CCS chain starting from CO2 capture from its site in Kujawy to offshore storage in the North Sea, with the vision to be a net-zero plant by 2027. With both projects Holcim aims to develop highly replicable carbon capture solutions to drive the decarbonization of the building materials sector. These are just two of Holcim’s portfolio of over 30 Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage projects around the world, developing a range of proprietary technologies from recycling CO2 as a greenhouse gas for vertical farming in Spain, all the way to recycling it into bioplastics in Austria.
Miljan Gutovic, Region Head Europe Middle East Africa: “Holcim is committed to leading our sector’s decarbonization. We are deploying a range of solutions to become a net-zero company, from green building materials all the way to next-generation technologies like Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage. As the recipient of two grants to decarbonize cement, I am encouraged by this clear vote of confidence by the EU. I congratulate my teams for engineering such smart and scalable solutions and thank the EU for its shared interest in making them economically viable.”
Holcim is leading its sector’s decarbonization with over 80 on-going projects across the EU, from greening its energy use to its product formulation. Holcim offers its sector’s broadest range of low carbon materials, from ECOPact green concrete to ECOPlanet green cement, offering 30% to 100% less CO2 emissions with no compromise in performance. These solutions are enabled by Holcim’s green product formulation expertise and use of innovative low emission raw materials, from calcined clay to construction & demolition waste. Holcim’s plants across the region currently operate with over 60% of eco-fuels, coming from the recycling of materials at the end of their lifecycle, from biomass to municipal waste. Its most advanced plants in this area are in Austria and the Czech Republic, operating with close to 100% eco-fuels.
The European Union Innovation Fund is one of the world's largest funding programs for innovative low-carbon technologies. It aims to bring industrial solutions to market in a commercially viable way to decarbonize Europe and support its transition to climate neutrality. This year, the Fund is granting more than EUR 1.8 billion to 17 large-scale projects contributing to a low-carbon society, out of a pool of 138 submissions.
The first zero-emission cement plant in Europe is to be built in 2027 in Poland, in the Kujawy region. Holcim is in the process of implementing the GO4ECOPLANET project, under which 100 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by Cementownia Kujawy will be captured.
The Kujawy Go4ECOPlanet project, which aims to capture 100 percent of CO2 emissions in Kujawy Cement Plant, enters the next stage.
The cement sector is characterized by a high degree of innovation in introducing solutions conducive to reducing the negative impact on the environment.
Holcim and the Innovation Fund (CINEA European Agency) signed the project grant agreement in Brussels on 19 January 2023.
