Decarbonisation Options for the Cement Industry

The cement industry is a building block of modern society, and currently responsible for around 7% of global and 4% of EU CO2 emissions. While facing global competition and a challenging business environment, the EU cement sector needs to decarbonise its production processes to comply with the EU’s ambitious 2030 and 2050 climate targets. This report provides a snapshot of the current cement production landscape and discusses future technologies that are being explored by the sector to decarbonise its processes, describing the transformational change the industry faces. This report compiles the current projects and announcements to deploy breakthrough technologies, which do require high capital investments. However, with 2050 just one investment cycle away, the sector needs to commercialise new low-CO2 technologies this decade to avoid the risk of stranded assets. As Portland cement production is highly CO2-intensive and EU plants are already operating close to optimum efficiency, the industry appears to be focussing on carbon capture storage and utilisation technologies - while breakthroughs in alternative chemistries are still being explored - to reduce emissions. While the EU has played an important role in supporting early stage R&D for these technologies, it is now striving to fill the funding gap for the commercialisation of breakthrough technologies. The recent momentum towards CO2-free cement provides the EU with the opportunity to be a frontrunner in creating markets for green cement.