Cemex was awarded the Net-Zero Industries Award by Mission Innovation at a ceremony during COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, for its revolutionary clinker decarbonisation process using concentrated solar power.
The Net-Zero Industries Award recognises and celebrates outstanding innovations in industrial decarbonisation. It spotlights the people and projects revolutionising energy-intensive industries and driving substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Cemex’s solar clinker project is a collaboration with the cleantech company Synhelion, which developed the high-temperature solar heat technology it uses.
“Together with Synhelion, we are pioneering solar-powered clinker production, a breakthrough process that can contribute to decarbonising cement manufacturing,” said Davide Zampini, Vice President of Global R&D at Cemex. “This award recognises our vision of achieving net-zero CO₂ emissions, as well as our passion for innovation.”
“We congratulate Cemex on winning the Net-Zero Industries Award, which is a testament to our shared vision to decarbonise cement manufacturing and pave the way for a more sustainable industry,” said Gianluca Ambrosetti, Co-CEO and co-founder of Synhelion. “The solar clinker project is an example of the transformative power of clean energy innovation in industrial processes.”
Cemex partnered with Synhelion in 2019 to reduce CO₂ emissions in cement production. This collaboration led to a significant milestone in 2022 with the first successful production of solar clinker in a small-scale pilot.
Building on this success, the technology was scaled further in 2023 by enabling continuous clinker production over an extended period—a key milestone for implementing the technology at an industrial scale. Cemex and Synhelion are advancing toward developing a solar-driven, industrial-scale pilot cement plant.
Mission Innovation is a global initiative to catalyse action and investment in research, development, and demonstration to make clean energy affordable, attractive, and accessible to all in this decade.
The full Net-Zero Industries Awards winners list is available at:
https://mission-innovation.net/missions/net-zero-industries-mission/net-zero-industries-award-2024/
For a video on the Solar Clinker Project:https://we.tl/t-yJCk5EfRmf
