Heidelberg Materials and Linde have established a joint venture under the name "Capture-to-Use" (CAP2U) to build and operate a state-of-the-art CO2 capture and liquefaction plant. The world's first industrial-scale carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) facility in the cement industry is scheduled to start operations in 2025 at Heidelberg Materials' Lengfurt plant in Germany. The facility will enable the captured CO2 from cement production to be reused as a valuable raw material in manufacturing applications. The planned volume of purified and liquefied CO2 is around 70,000tpa.
The majority of the CO2 generated will be marketed by Linde as part of the joint venture. Thanks to its purity, the processed gas can be used in both the food and chemical industries, for example in carbonated mineral water. A smaller proportion will be used by Heidelberg Materials to drive forward new CO2 recycling and recarbonation technologies.
For the implementation of this project, the substantial contributions of both partners will be supplemented by funding of around EUR15m from the Decarbonisation of Industry funding programme on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
”We are pleased to implement the world's first large-scale CCU project in the cement industry together with our partner Linde,” says Dr Dominik von Achten, chairman of the Managing Board of Heidelberg Materials. “As part of our ambitious global CCUS strategy, we are currently driving forward a number of different industrial-scale carbon capture and utilisation projects. This way, we aim to identify viable and efficient ways to reduce our carbon footprint and reuse CO2. The project in Lengfurt is scheduled to go into operations as early as 2025. The BMWK funding shows the importance that the German government also attaches to our joint project.”
The plant is being designed and built by Linde Engineering. It is based on an amine scrubbing system specially developed for flue gases, the carbon dioxide will be separated directly from part of the exhaust gas stream from the cement clinker kiln. Equipment for purification and liquefaction, tanks for intermediate storage of the product, and loading facilities are also part of the project scope.
