Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection approves funding for innovative CO2 capture technology
Holcim Germany has received funding approval from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) for the project “Industrial research into membrane-based CO2 capture for the decarbonization of cement plants” at the Höver plant. The funding is aimed at the construction of a larger test plant and a one-year active test phase in which the innovative technology will be investigated in long-term operation. The grant notice is being issued as part of the “Decarbonization in Industry” funding program.
The commitment of the BMWK is accompanied by the early start of the project, which was made possible by the extraordinarily positive results of the pre-test phase. The start of the test phase is currently scheduled for the beginning of 2024.
At the Höver cement plant, a promising technology is being tested that can make an important contribution to the decarbonization of the cement industry in Germany: Last year, Holcim (Deutschland) GmbH agreed to cooperate with partners Cool Planet Technologies Limited, a sustainable technologies company focusing on CO2 capture, and the Helmholtz Center Hereon to decarbonize the Höver plant.
At the heart of the cooperation is the construction of a CO2 separation plant based on an innovative membrane technology and designed as an end-of-pipe solution. This is downstream of the actual cement production process and therefore has no direct impact on it, which significantly simplifies the decarbonization of the existing cement plants from a technical point of view.
If the good results are confirmed in the long-term test phase now starting, the plant is to be expanded step by step so that after the final expansion stage it will be able to separate around 90% of CO2 emissions and supply high-purity CO2 in liquid form for further use in downstream value-adding stages or sequestration. This will also be investigated in more detail in the approved funding project. The aim of the plant operation is to demonstrate performance, economic efficiency and application behavior on a larger scale in order to test whether the technology can be used technically and economically not only in Höver but also in other cement plants and industries.
