CEMEX says the investment is part of its strategy to achieve new ambitious climate action goals, including being net carbon neutral in concrete by 2050, under its Future in Action programme. The building materials giant says the development of carbon capture technology to make it more accessible and efficient would be an unprecedented achievement for the cement sector.
In 2020, CEMEX Ventures signed an agreement with Carbon Clean, which allowed CEMEX Ventures and Carbon Clean to outline a roadmap for jointly developing and implementing carbon capture technologies across cement operations.
Over the last five years, Carbon Clean has developed a novel technology (CycloneCC), which CEMEX says can efficiently and cost-efficiently capture CO2 from industrial processes. The goal of this scalable modular technology is to provide carbon capture at a ten times smaller installation footprint and six times shorter build time, adding up to 50% savings in capital expenditures associated with carbon capture. Additionally, the technology would target operating expenditures as low as US$30 per metric ton of CO2 at an industrial scale.
The latest investment by CEMEX Ventures, along with previously announced investors Equinor Ventures, ICOS Capital, and WAVE Equity Partners, brings the total capital raised by Carbon Clean in the Series B investment round to US$30m.
Under its Future in Action programme, CEMEX recently announced a new, more aggressive climate action target, to be below 475kg CO2 per metric tonne, an approximate >40% reduction in CO2 emissions, by 2030. This new goal is aligned to the Well Below Two Degree scenario of the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi). CEMEX is bringing forward its previous 2030 carbon goal of 520kg of CO2 per metric tonne, equivalent to a 35% reduction in emissions, by five years to 2025.
In addition, CEMEX committed to reduce its CO2 emissions in its ready-mix concrete business by 35%, reaching 165Kg of CO2 per cubic metre, by 2030. The company has also reaffirmed its 2050 goal of being net-zero carbon in concrete.
