Building a Greener Future: How Carbon Capture Can Cut Cement Emissions

A major Southeast European cement plant will showcase how CCS tech, supported by Akkodis experts, can cut emissions—a key step in tackling the industry’s global environmental impact.

Cement Production and CO2 Emissions

Cement production is an energy-intensive process, which involves heating limestone to produce lime, releasing CO2. It accounts for around 8% of worldwide CO2 emissions, according to World Economic Forum figures. But at the same time, cement is a vital material, used in the construction of everything from roads to ports, hospitals to homes–reducing emissions from the sector while maintaining the necessary levels of production to meet demand will be a real challenge.

EU CCS Project Targets Cement Emissions for 2050 Carbon Neutrality

“Cement is one of mankind’s must-have materials,” says Rommel Quiñones, a senior consultant at Akkodis, based in Madrid.  He has been working as part of a multidisciplinary team of experts from the cement manufacturer, Akkodis, and other specialized companies on this CCS project. “This is an industry that must be tackled, from an emissions point of view.”

The project is supported by the European Union, where carbon reduction goals are ambitious, including a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions related to cement production (and a 50% reduction through the value chain) by 2030. This milestone supports the EU’s roadmap to achieving carbon neutral cement production by 2050.

The project is supported by the European Union, where carbon reduction goals are ambitious, including a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions related to cement production by 2030.

The project is supported by the European Union, where carbon reduction goals are ambitious, incuding a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions related to cement production by 2030.

Experts on the project—including mechanical, chemical, and civil engineers—aim to prove the viability of CCS technology at this site, showing the potential CO2 reductions that could transform the global cement and construction sectors.

The project’s major milestone will be demonstrating that a high-cost, high-impact technology like CCS can operate in a real-world environment, paving the way for broader adoption across the cement industry.

The initiative is expected to capture 597,280 tonnes of CO2 annually and store 6 million tonnes over its first 10 years of operation.

“One of the main problems with this technology is that it requires a lot of initial investment,” says Quiñones. “Even big companies don’t want to take the risk of making that initial investment if they won’t get a profit from it.” 

Powering Carbon Capture with Waste Heat: Energy-Efficient Solutions for Cement Plants

Another key challenge in implementing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is the high energy demand it requires. To overcome this, the project team is deploying a sustainable solution—waste heat recovery units—which utilize excess heat generated during the cement production process to power the CCS system.

“The unique point about this project, is not only the carbon capture, it is that the energy required for the carbon capture is very high. We're going to produce our energy ourselves,” Quiñones says. “One stream of the heat from the cement production process is going to be used for a turbine. This turbine will generate the electricity to feed the carbon capture unit.”

The CCS process itself includes several carefully designed steps:

First, cement kiln flue gases are cooled and filtered in a cooling tower to remove particulates and other contaminants. Once cooled, the gases enter the absorption column, where they are mixed with an amine-based solvent that chemically traps the CO₂. This solvent absorbs the CO₂, while the remaining gas is released into the atmosphere more cleanly.

The CO₂-rich solvent is then heated in a second chamber called the regenerator, where the CO₂ is released from the solvent, leaving it purified and ready for processing. 

The regenerated solvent is reused in a closed-loop system.

Next, the separated CO₂ goes through a purification process to eliminate remaining impurities. It is then compressed and liquefied for secure transport to a long-term carbon storage site.

Reaching this advanced stage of development has taken years of collaborative research and innovation by Akkodis and its partners—starting from when the client first approached Akkodis with an early concept.

From Concept to Carbon Capture: How Akkodis Turned a 'Napkin Proposal' into a Real-World CCS Solution

“The client came to us with the proposal of the best technology to tackle the problem, but it was, at that stage, really a napkin proposal, we needed to work with them to define the scope and the reality of that initial idea,” Quiñones says. 

The Akkodis team began transforming that early-stage CCS concept into a fully developed, real-world plan. They provided comprehensive guidance across all aspects of the carbon capture project and brought in specialists in areas such as the cement kiln process to ensure deep technical expertise.

“You cannot find one person that can do everything, but Akkodis’s proposal was to put together a team that could satisfy all the client’s needs. Then we were able to respond to the napkin idea with a more realistic proposal,” Quiñones says. 

The current focus is on equipment layout and system integration, ensuring that every component fits and functions optimally. This is just one element of a large-scale, collaborative CCS project that aims to have the plant operational before 2030—supporting the EU’s carbon reduction targets and paving the way for broader implementation.

“Our client wants to prove this can be done,” Quiñones says. “The idea is to implement this in other European plants so we need to show that this can work, it can be green, not just on paper but also in reality.”

Partner with Akkodis to Engineer a Low-Carbon Future

At Akkodis, our engineers are turning climate ambition into industrial reality. Whether you’re exploring carbon capture, energy efficiency, or other innovative decarbonization strategies, we can help you design and deploy sustainable solutions at scale.