Should we be talking more about hydrogen for cement production?

There are many routes to decarbonising the cement sector. While fossil fuels are destined to play a greatly reduced role in the future of cement manufacture, the alternatives options are not yet setlled, and are dependent on local factors, including fuel availability, transportation, quality and pricing. Substitution of fossil fuels with alternative fuels has already become best practice and is being increasingly deployed at plants worldwide, but in the longer term, more advanced approaches include the adoption of 'green hydrogen' as a primary fuel source in the cement sector.

Hydrogen challenge
Low level hydrogen injection to boost alternative fuel utilisation is already in practice, notably by CEMEX across all its plants worldwide, but the use of hydrogen as a primarly fuel is a much more challenging concept. Cement plants located near renewable solar and wind sources will have a big advantage in generating clean electrical energy that can be used to supply electrolysers to produce green hydrogen. Special reservoirs are required to store the hydrogen at cement plants. Transporting hydrogen or building pipelines would add large costs, so proximity to renewable energy will be key. However, an advantage of green hydrogen combustion is that pure CO₂ can be sequestered without complex gas separation units. Therefore, green hydrogen is being touted, in combination carbon capture, as a promising decarbonisation solution for the cement sector.

Projects in the cement sector
This week, Fives and Holcim reported that higher usage of alternative fuels and hydrogen substitution of more than 50 per cent was successfully achieved at the La Malle kiln in France. In Belgium Holcim’s Obourg cement plant has an MoU with TotalEnergies to trial an electrolyser at the plant to produce e-fuels from the captured CO₂. Furthermore, Heidelberg Materials is carrying out a feasibility test using ammonia as a source for hydrogen at the Ribblesdale cement works in the UK. In addition, last October, Summit Materials signed an agreement with PPC Hydrogen Inc to develop a fuel replacement strategy to lower-carbon emissions from Continental Cement Co's plants.

China could dictate the green hydrogen market
As China produces around 53.7 per cent of all cement, argues Rethink Research, it might be assumed that the country will lead in the development of green hydrogen. Indeed, China produced 33Mt of hydrogen in 2020, but the majority was derived from fossil fuels (grey hydrogen). Only one per cent of its hydrogen production was generated through (green) renewable energy-based electrolysis, according to the Institut Montaigne. But as China has a 40 per cent share of the global installed capacity of renewable energy, the country is expected to become a major player in the green hydrogen sector. The cement sector is likely to be a primary consumer of China's green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen is a growing market
According to Rethink Research, "By 2035, clean cement produced using hydrogen will account for 32.1 per cent of global supply, rising to 78.2 per cent in 2050 when the sector’s total hydrogen demand will be close to 91Mta."  The investment in the green hydrogen sector is increasing. Morocco, for example, announced in March that it is designating 1mha of land to develop green hydrogen projects. The UK announced in December 2023 GBP2bn (US$2.55bn) of investment funding for hydrogen over the next 15 years. While green hydrogen is in its infancy of industrial development, production costs fell by 40 per cent between 2015 and 2020, according to BloombergNEF. The challenge is to scale up renewable energy near existing cement plants to make sustainable cement production with green hydrogen common practice.