Polish cement sector to accelerate carbon capture strategy from 2025, argues Polish minister at Cemtech Europe 2024

Cemtech Europe 2024 is now underway in Warsaw, Poland, with over 300 delegates from 40 countries coming together to discuss decarbonisation of the cement industry.
 
CEMBUREAU, the European cement association, estimates 62Mta of CO₂ will need to be captured from EU cement plants by 2050. Yet virtually none of the carbon capture systems and associated carbon transportation infrastructure is in place today.
 
It is an enormous challenge that will require close collaboration between the cement industry, policy makers, financiers and of course, technology suppliers.

Cemtech Europe 2024 opened today at the Hilton Warsaw City Hotel. The conference runs until 2 October

At Cemtech Europe, an expert panel debated regulatory and policy hurdles for carbon capture in Poland with Krzysztof Bolesta, Secretary of State, Ministry of Climate and Environment, Government of Poland, Wojciech Nowak, director of the Centre of Energy, AGH University of Krakow, Poland, Andrzej Losor, director and member of the Management Board, Heidelberg Materials (Poland), and Wojciech Lewandowski, EU policies analyst, European Bank for Reconstruction (Poland).
 
The panel concluded that while local producers are developing carbon capture projects – including Holcim Polska’s Kujawy Go4ECOPlanet project that aims to be one of the first net zero plants in the world – the most important hurdle to full cement decarbonisation is the availability of economic CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure.
 
Success of CCS will depend on the government’s ability to approve and legislate for carbon transport and storage, something that is expected to happen by 2025, according to Mr Bolesta.
 
The Polish ministry along with stakeholders, including the cement sector, are finalising a “Letter of Intent” to establish a cooperation agreement between all parties ahead of adopting a full carbon capture strategy. Mr Bolesta is optimistic that the letter will be finalised by December 2024.
 
Once this vital piece of the jigsaw is in place, it is hoped that Poland, the third-largest cement market in Europe, will become a beacon for industry decarbonisation in Europe and beyond.

Panel discussion (Left to right): Peter Hoddinott, Krzysztof Bolesta, Andrzej Losor,

Wojciech Lewandowski, Wojciech Nowak.

Also addressing the conference, Koen Coppenholle, CEO, CEMBUREAU, set out the policy conditions for successful decarbonisation in the cement sector. These include the implementation of a ‘watertight’ carbon border adjustment system (CBAM) to level the playing field on CO₂, access to affordable decarbonised energy, and the ‘frontloading of ETS revenues to supply financial support for investments into decarbonisation projects and above all, carbon capture.

Over the next two days, delegates will hear from a range of cement industry experts on topics such as silo monitoring, pyroprocess optimisation, alternative fuels, AI and many more. In addition, the exhibition will offer delegates the chance to explore the latest innovations in cement production technologies with equipment manufacturing experts from across the world.