From Climate Gas to Resource

Concrete serves as the foundation of the world. From houses, roads, and bridges to factories, it is utilized almost everywhere. Additionally, the transition to sustainable energy needs to be built – railway lines, tunnels or bridges for trains, foundations and towers for wind turbines. But there is a problem: The production of concrete generates large quantities of CO₂, primarily due to cement, the binding agent that holds sand and gravel together, and that makes concrete hard. Accounting for approximately eight percent of global CO₂ emissions, the cement industry stands as one of the largest global emitters.

This is attributed to two factors. Firstly, the combustion of cement clinker is highly energy-intensive. Secondly, the raw materials themselves emit CO₂ during the burning process. Materials like chalk, limestone, or clay are burned at temperatures exceeding 1400 degrees Celsius to produce clinker, releasing CO₂ directly from the raw material. These emissions are inevitable and would persist even if cement kilns were operated entirely with renewable energy. And these unavoidable CO₂ emissions make up the majority of total emissions from cement production – around two thirds.

Hence, it's evident: The world requires innovative solutions to continue utilizing this indispensable building material without jeopardizing our future. A technological leap is imperative for environmentally friendly cement production.

This is precisely the focus of Holcim Germany's efforts under the banner of Carbon2Business (C2B). We capture the CO₂ emissions generated during production, separate them from other components of the exhaust air, purify the CO₂ and render it usable for industrial purposes. We are undertaking ambitious decarbonization projects across all three German cement plant locations. Our aim is to transform our cement plant in Lägerdorf (Schleswig-Holstein) into one of the world's first carbon-neutral cement plants by 2028. By 2030, we intend to transition the cement plants in Höver (Lower Saxony) and Beckum (North Rhine-Westphalia) to carbon-neutral production as well.