A consortium of Cemex and Linde, a leading global industrial gases and engineering company, has been awarded €157 million in funding from the EU Innovation Fund for an innovative CO2 capture initiative at Cemex’s Rüdersdorf Cement Plant in Germany. This project marks Cemex’s largest planned Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) effort to date, aiming to capture 1.3 million metric tons of CO2 annually from the cement production process, with the goal of decarbonizing the site by 2030.
“Our Future in Action climate strategy is dedicated to advancing several groundbreaking CCUS projects across our global operations,” stated Sergio Menéndez, President of Cemex Europe, Middle East, Africa & Asia. “While we are focused on decarbonizing with existing technologies—striving to reduce emissions before capture—an essential aspect of our strategy is to innovate transformative decarbonization solutions to achieve Net Zero. This project is a key component of that effort. The Rüdersdorf initiative stands out as Cemex’s most significant CCUS project, poised to make a substantial impact on the cement industry’s decarbonization.”
At the Rüdersdorf facility, Linde will implement its cutting-edge HISORP® CO2 capture technology for the first time, utilizing a unique cryogenic-adsorptive process that captures CO2 directly from exhaust gases at the emission source. The captured CO2 will then be compressed and liquefied to meet the purity standards required for subsequent sequestration. The liquid CO2 will be transported by rail to an intermediate CO2 hub before being shipped to an offshore storage site in the North Sea for permanent sequestration.
The environmental impact of this comprehensive CCUS project at Rüdersdorf will be further bolstered by the local generation of green electricity and the recycling of water from the condensation of exhaust gases.
CCUS plays a crucial role in Cemex’s Future in Action roadmap, which aims for the company to become a net-zero CO2 entity by 2050. Since its launch in 2020, the Future in Action initiative has led to record progress in reducing Cemex’s carbon footprint.
