Cement giant hardens its stance on CCS development

HeidelbergCement has signed a memorandum of understanding with Equinor to accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage technologies

Building supplies manufacturer HeidelbergCement has signed a memorandum of understanding with Equinor to accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage technologies.

The firm’s Norwegian subsidiary Norcem has been running a project exploring how carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology could be used in the cement industry at its Brevik cement plant since 2011 – this is included in a wider CCS project called ‘Northern Lights’, which would see captured emissions transported to empty oil and gas fields beneath the North Sea beginning in 2023 and stored there permanently.

The new memorandum of understanding marks a further step towards this project and will examine the possibility of capturing the greenhouse gas at other HeidelbergCement’s other plants, before sending it to storage under the sea.

The firms will also work together to develop better ways to transport carbon dioxide and implement CCS as a way to store emissions across Europe.

CEO Dr Bernd Scheifele said: “Our CCS project is currently the most technically mature in the cement industry. We plan to capture around 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year at Brevik, which corresponds to around 50% of the plant’s total carbon emissions.

“For us, CCS – alongside our measures for reducing carbon dioxide emissions – is another important element in our vision of carbon dioxide-neutral concrete production by 2050.”

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