German minister backs Norcem's carbon capture project

Germany's economy minister Robert Habeck fully backed Heidelberg Material’s Norwegian’s project to capture carbon emissions and re-use them. Globally, Heidelberg Materials is investing EUR1.5bn in CCUS technology up to 2030.

Habeck's visit to the Norcem cement plant in Brevik, Norway, represents a shift in German policy back towards efforts to deal with planet-warming emissions by capturing them and making use (CCSU) of them in industrial processes. Projects have repeatedly stalled on issues of cost and environmental opposition as campaigners have been concerned CCUS can serve to prolong the use of fossil fuels.

The Brevik plant is set to serve as a global blueprint, eventually capturing 400,000t of CO₂ - half its emissions - per year. Norway is providing 85 per cent of the EUR400m (US$424.08m) cost for Norcem to set up a CCUS facility and to store captured CO₂ under the seabed near the Brevik site in about two years' time. 

"CCUS is the key technology to decarbonise our product and eventually our sector," HeidelbergMaterials chief executive Dominik von Achten said.

Germany aims to cut 65 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 and to become carbon-neutral by 2045.