Quick profile
Holcim Deutschland is one of the leading companies in Germany for innovative, ecological, and digital building products and solutions. As a pioneer in sustainable building, Holcim and its employees develop customised solutions for clients, builders, architects, and engineers – linked to a clear focus on climate protection and a closed-loop economy. Our mission: To build more with less material. We are, with our services, together with our customers and partners, building a carbon neutral future, and thus a world that all generations can enjoy living in. Holcim practises diversity: the corporate group deploys around 1,800 employees of 36 different nationalities at approximately 130 sites in both Germany and the Netherlands. Holcim Deutschland is a subsidiary of Holcim Ltd., which is a leading building material group worldwide.
Activities in the real-world laboratory
At the cement works at Lägerdorf, extensive studies have been conducted for conversion to a second generation oxyfuel process. In addition, the feasibility of the downstream CO2-extraction, processing and re-routing to the downstream methanol synthesis has been investigated. At the cement works, the excess oxygen that is generated during green hydrogen production will, in future, be fed into the combustion process. As a result, almost 100 per cent of the CO2 emitted when manufacturing cement may be removed. The exhaust gas will be subsequently treated for use in the chemical industry and deployed as a raw material in other business sectors.
“For carbon neutral cement manufacture, new technologies and cross-sector solutions are needed – such as alliances with the fields of green energy, hydrogen production, heat, the commodity industry, or mobility. The WESTKÜSTE100 project partnership is a shining example of that.”
Long-term vision
The decarbonisation of industry, mobility and the heating sector will initially be tested in the real-world laboratory by 2025, and subsequently, by the end of the decade, be scaled up into a major industrial solution. The scaling up is being promoted under the name HySCALE100. Large-scale hydrogen production and green methanol synthesis for decarbonisation of the value creation chains of the two major industries of petrochemistry and cement manufacture are the main focus here. A prerequisite for that is the upgrading of the Lägerdorf cement works to an oxyfuel technology. Once the project has been concluded, Holcim will be operating one of the first net zero cement works worldwide at Lägerdorf.