The EU Innovation Fund, one of the world’s largest funding programmes for innovative low-carbon technologies, has selected four of Heidelberg Materials’ pioneering projects in the field of carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) for grant agreement preparation under its Net-Zero Technologies Call. These grants are awarded to industries deploying innovative near-zero technologies. The selected projects are Anthemis in Belgium, AirvaultGOCO2 in France, DREAM in Italy, and HuCCSar in Poland.
Dr Dominik von Achten, Chairman of the Managing Board of Heidelberg Materials, said: “This is a great day for the company and for the decarbonisation of the cement industry in Europe. The support from the Innovation Fund is a strong vote of confidence for our approach and our projects. Today’s milestone confirms that we are on the right track with the next chapters of our journey – building on the successful launch of our Brevik CCS project and the recent Final Investment Decision (FID) for Padeswood CCS.”
Jon Morrish, Member of the Managing Board of Heidelberg Materials and responsible for Europe: “The selected projects in four of our European core markets are important drivers of innovation. We call on the four member states – France, Belgium, Italy and Poland – to work closely with us to enable the right framework conditions in order for us to reach Final Investment Decision for these projects. This will allow our customers to access carbon-captured near-zero products under our evoZero brand at a much larger scale.”
Dr Katharina Beumelburg, Chief Sustainability and New Technologies Officer and Member of the Managing Board of Heidelberg Materials: “This is a proud moment for us – even more so as the Innovation Fund is supporting plants where we have already made significant progress in the modernisation and improvement of our environmental performance. Adding CCUS solutions to enable further CO2 reductions is the next logical step. It is precisely this progress we stand for and actively promote at Heidelberg Materials.”
While EU Innovation Fund support is a crucial cornerstone for these projects, further backing from national governments remains essential – particularly through mechanisms like Carbon Contracts for Difference and the development of robust regulatory frameworks for CO₂ transport and storage. Heidelberg Materials is committed to sharing its expertise and supporting governments in this process, building on the experience gained in countries such as Norway and the UK.
The Innovation Fund’s Net-Zero Technologies Call supports decarbonisation projects of varying scale. Selected projects were assessed in terms of their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, their degree of innovation, project maturity, replicability, and cost efficiency.
As part of the Anthemis project in Belgium, Heidelberg Materials plans to equip its Antoing clinker plant with an innovative oxyfuel carbon capture unit. Once operational, the unit will capture over 95% of the site’s emissions — equivalent to more than 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually. In addition, Heidelberg Materials is establishing collaborations with several partners to ensure the transport and permanent storage of CO₂, with the ambition of building a full value chain and positioning the Antoing site as a key catalyst in this process.
The AirvaultGOCO2 project, France, will be implemented at Heidelberg Materials’ Airvault cement plant in the French New Aquitaine Region. With a planned capture capacity of nearly 1 million tonnes of CO2 annually, AirvaultGOCO₂ is part of the broader GOCO₂ initiative to decarbonise the West of France. This investment programme aims to capture CO₂ at industrial sites and transport it to geological storage locations for permanent storage. The emissions, including the CO₂ captured in Airvault, are to be transported by pipeline to the coastal town of Saint-Nazaire and then by ship to storage wells under the North Sea.
The Innovation Fund will also support the DREAM CCS project at Heidelberg Materials’ Italian Rezzato Mazzano cement plant in Brescia. DREAM represents the first full-chain, full-scale CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) project in the Italian cement sector and involves the installation of a highly innovative hybrid carbon capture system. As part of this initiative, CO₂ will be captured from cement production and transported to the Ravenna CCS storage hub beneath the Adriatic Sea. DREAM aims to capture around 1 million tonnes of CO₂ per year, enabling the large-scale production of carbon-captured cements for the Italian market.
In the HuCCSar project, Poland, Heidelberg Materials will validate the CO2 storage potential in Central Poland to develop and implement the country’s first onshore CCS value chain. The project also includes activities to promote social acceptance of onshore CO2 storage in the region, paving the way for full-scale CCS deployment in Poland. This unique approach – where the emitter collaborates directly with a subsurface service company – could serve as a model for future cooperation in similar initiatives.
Before selecting these projects, Heidelberg Materials had already received Innovation Fund support for its Bulgarian ANRAV and German GeZero projects.
