Green light given for carbon capture project in Germany

A carbon capture project at our parent company HeidelbergCement’s cement plant in Hanover, Germany, has been given the go ahead.

The LEILAC 2 (Low Emissions Intensity Lime and Cement) project has successfully passed its financial investment decision milestone, confirming that it can now enter the implementation phase. 

Together with Australian technology company Calix and a European consortium, HeidelbergCement will build a demonstration facility integrated into its Hanover plant, which will aim to capture 20 per cent of the plant’s CO2 emissions, around 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, by 2025. To minimise the use of fossil energy for carbon capture, the project will also test the use of alternative fuels and electrical energy.

“LEILAC 2 is one of several carbon capture projects we are currently pursuing, through which we aim to achieve carbon reduction of up to 10 million tonnes by 2030,” said Dr. Dominik von Achten, chairman of the managing board.

“We are very pleased to advance this key technology on an industrial scale at our plant in Hanover. The location is ideally suited for further utilisation and/or transport to safe geological offshore storage of the captured CO2.” 

LEILAC 2 follows the success of the LEILAC 1 project, a pilot installation with a capture capacity of 25,000 tonnes of CO2 a year developed at HeidelbergCement's Lixhe plant in Belgium. 

The Hanover-based project now enters the detailed design phase, with construction expected in 2023. 

With the patented LEILAC technology, the CO2 released during cement production can be captured in a highly pure form via a separate waste gas stream and used in other processes. This requires minimal additional energy and no chemicals, making it extremely cost-effective. The technology can also be retrofitted in a modular form at any scale and use any fuel or energy source, including biomass, hydrogen, or electricity – providing a futureproof solution.