Hanover cement plant to scale-up LEILAC 2 pilot project

HeidelbergCement is starting the further development and scaling-up of the LEILAC technology (Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement) together with the Australian technology company Calix and a European consortium. After examining different locations, it has been decided to build the LEILAC 2 demonstration installation for carbon capture at the HeidelbergCement cement plant in Hanover, Germany.

As part of LEILAC 1, a CO₂ capture pilot installation with a capture capacity of 25,000t of CO₂ per year was constructed at HeidelbergCement's Lixhe plant in Belgium in 2017. With LEILAC 2, an installation around four times as large will be operated in Hanover, which will capture 20 per cent of the cement plant’s capacity, corresponding to around 100,000t of CO₂ per year. The first project design phase is to be completed by the end of June 2021, and the demonstration installation is expected to be ready by the end of 2023. Including design, construction, commissioning and extensive testing, the overall project is expected to be completed by 2025.

"The LEILAC technology has the potential to enable the cement and lime industries to efficiently capture their process emissions on an industrial scale," says HeidelbergCement's Chairman of the Managing Board, Dr Dominik von Achten. "The pilot project in Hanover is one of several promising CO₂ capture technologies that we are currently testing at full speed within the HeidelbergCement Group."

The project in Hannover will also include preliminary investigations into the use of the captured CO₂.