Wednesday 28 September 2022

Cement and concrete industry commit to scaling up CCUS technologies

An agreement to help scale up the deployment of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies throughout the cement and concrete industry has been announced.

The Clean Energy Ministerial CCUS (CEM CCUS) and the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) will collaborate and explore incentives, policy frameworks and finance solutions at a global level that can enable industrial-scale CCUS projects over the next 10 years.

The agreement sets out the role CCUS can have in safely and effectively delivering a net zero future and facilitates the identification and mapping of potential cement sector CCUS projects.

It will explore the transport and storage infrastructure needs involved in integrating cement CCUS projects into CCUS transport and storage hubs and help foster project partnerships and support projects in developing economies.

In addition, the two organisations will produce joint reports and organise public events outlining progress in opportunities to implement CCUS projects at strategic hubs.

GCCA CEO Thomas Guillot said: “Cement is the vital ingredient in concrete, the world’s most-used human-made material. It is the backbone of the modern world. The industry is striving to innovate at every stage of the concrete life cycle. We see carbon capture as a vital lever for the global cement industry to achieve its ambitious goal of net zero concrete by 2050.

“We are starting to see the first CCUS projects already emerge. We have mapped 35 projects announced and underway across the world and up to 100 additional projects are also in the pipeline among our member companies who operate all around the globe.”