• The directors of the four production plants present their strategies to achieve the sector’s climate neutrality goal
  • Material and energy recovery, the use of hydrogen as fuel, energy efficiency, and CO2 capture and storage are the main levers
  • Over one hundred experts from industry, academia, and public administrations take part in the technical summit on decarbonization held this morning in Barcelona
  • Sonsoles Letang Jiménez d’Anta, Director General for Climate Change and Environmental Quality of the Government of Catalonia, offers her support to the Catalan cement industry in the face of the greatest technological challenge in its history

The complete elimination of the carbon footprint in the cement manufacturing cycle by 2050 brought together more than one hundred specialists and professionals this morning at the technical conference on sector decarbonization in Catalonia. The four cement groups operating in the region have significantly increased their investments in facilities and technology to reduce CO2 emissions. The sector has invested 25 million euros in CO2 emission reduction over the past four years. However, in the coming years, and with the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, investments close to or even exceeding 800 million euros are estimated to be necessary.

The plant directors presented the strategies they will follow to achieve this ambitious goal. The projects were presented by Juan Carlos Sánchez – Alcanar (Cemex Spain), Joan Carles Izquierdo – Santa Margarida i els Monjos (Ciments Portland Valderrivas Group), Xavier Valero – Sant Vicenç dels Horts (Molins), and Vicente Pedro – Montcada i Reixac (Holcim Spain).

There are multiple ways to reduce CO2 emissions, and each company has designed various action plans. Material and energy recovery during clinker production (the base product for cement manufacturing, where most emissions are concentrated); the use of green hydrogen as fuel; optimization of energy efficiency through the implementation of energy management systems; development of low-carbon cements; electrification of transport within the plants and for cement deliveries to the market; and, in the future, the development of CO2 capture and storage technologies have become the main levers for decarbonization.

“We can debate which is the best strategy, as it will depend on each company’s context,” stated Dimas Vallina, Managing Director of the CEMA Foundation, the organization behind the conference together with the Department of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition of the Government of Catalonia. “But what is clear is the unwavering commitment of the Catalan cement industry to achieving climate neutrality by 2050, a commitment shared by both the companies and the two main trade unions in the sector, UGT FICA and CCOO de l’Hàbitat,” he concluded, summarizing the presentations delivered.

Climate neutrality is not only an initiative supported by both trade unions and employers, but it is also a requirement set forth in regulations issued by the European Union and in the Cement Industry Roadmap presented by Ciment Català, the sector’s employers’ association.

Solutions to Address the Ecological Transition

Cement plants are major emitters of CO2 into the atmosphere. Approximately 65% of these emissions occur during the decarbonation process of limestone. These are known as “process emissions” or “hard-to-abate emissions”, generated by a chemical reaction that current technologies are unable to mitigate. In fact, the cement industry accounts for 41% of total process emissions in Spain.

When addressing the challenges of the ecological transition, the plant directors emphasized that the projects to be implemented at their production facilities include phasing out fossil fuels and using alternative decarbonized raw materials. They also reaffirm their commitment to consuming renewable electricity and optimizing energy efficiency.

The promotion of CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage) technologies for hard-to-abate emissions has emerged as the sector’s next major focus. The use of hydrogen and biogas for thermal energy generation, along with the design and production of new cements (with lower clinker content) and new types of concrete, will also help mitigate carbon emissions. Finally, replacing combustion vehicles with CO2-neutral transport — both for quarry supply and for delivering finished products to customers — improving the efficient use of concrete in construction, and innovating with new cement additives complete the range of actions aimed at achieving climate neutrality.

A Shared Commitment

The event included the participation of Sonsoles Letang Jiménez d’Anta, Director General for Climate Change and Environmental Quality of the Government of Catalonia. Letang emphasized the need to adopt technologies with the best possible environmental performance that are both technically and economically viable for the sector, to improve energy efficiency, and to move towards a production model aligned with the European Union’s climate neutrality and circularity goals. She also offered the Catalan administration’s support in facing this enormous challenge for the industry.

The shared nature of the commitment was highlighted by the interventions of union representatives José Javier Yáñez, environmental delegate of CCOO de l’Hàbitat, and Felipe Borlado, national coordinator for the cement sector at UGT FICA. The employers’ association Ciment Català, represented by its director Albert Avellaneda, also stressed that “only through collaboration from all parties” can the proposed strategies be successfully implemented, and took the opportunity to ask the government representative for support “both in processing the permits needed to carry out decarbonization projects and in securing funding for them.”

All participants agreed that Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies are the only alternative to mitigate process emissions, and that without their implementation, it will be impossible for the cement sector and other industries with similar emissions to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

Key Figures of the Catalan Cement Industry

The four companies operating in Catalonia produced 3.4 million tonnes of clinker in 2024, half of which was destined for export. With direct and indirect employment exceeding 2,000 professionals, the sector materially recovered nearly half a million tonnes, accounting for 10% of total raw materials.

In terms of energy recovery, 2024 closed with a 48% rate of alternative fuel use and a 74% increase in the use of plant biomass as a substitute for fossil fuels. The use of waste as energy enabled the plants to avoid emitting 364,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, 7% more than the previous year.