Cemex has revealed it is part of the HYIELD consortium awarded a €10 million grant from the European Union for the R&D to develop a Waste to Hydrogen demonstration plant.
The HYIELD project was approved for funding in response to the Horizon Europe call 'Waste to Hydrogen demonstration plant (HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2023-01-05)'. The Clean Hydrogen Partnership (Clean Hydrogen JU) leads the call. This body oversees EU funding and R&I hydrogen-related activities to support the EU Green Deal and Hydrogen Strategy.
Europe currently produces 300 million tonnes of waste, potentially producing over 30 million tonnes of green hydrogen. It is this potential that HYIELD aims to unlock. During the four-year project, novel technologies and processes will be integrated to efficiently and robustly convert biogenic waste streams into high-purity green hydrogen at a competitive cost to demonstrate its application to help decarbonise different sectors, including shipping, aviation and energy-intensive industries.
The demonstration-scale waste-to-hydrogen plant will be trialled at Cemex’s Alcanar cement factory in Spain. During the project, the plant is expected to process over 2,000 tonnes of waste and produce nearly 400 tonnes of green hydrogen, which will be proved and used for industrial uses such as clean fuels and fertiliser production.
Sergio Menendez, President of Cemex EMEA, commented: “As part of its drive to reach net zero by 2050, Cemex is committed to partnering with like-minded organisations to explore the latest innovations in more sustainable technology to support the cement production process. We are proud to provide one of our cement plants in Spain as the location for the HYIELD trial and excited to see the outcomes from this R&D project.”
Alongside Cemex, the HYIELD project consortium is under the coordination of MAGTEL and is made up of two other key portfolio companies: WtEnergy Advanced Solutions and Synhelion; Spanish partners H2SITE, VEOLIA, ENAGAS, EURECAT, CETAQUA, Inveniam Group, CISC and La Farga; along with other partners from across Europe; MINCATEC, SINTEF, ARISTENG and ArcelorMittal.
Senior officials of HYIELD said: “We are delighted to be a participant in this impactful R&D project that brings together a wide range of skills and experience from across research, tech, energy and heavy industry. We hope the project can open a new low-cost pathway for clean green hydrogen production in Europe, as well as create new opportunities for waste valorisation and job creation”.
The consortium brings experience in waste management, hydrogen production, and thermo-chemical processes to the project to address this challenge. The project will pave the way for commercial scale-up and replicating waste-to-hydrogen plants across Europe.
