Holcim Polska has awarded Hill the strategic engineering partnership contract for the Kujawy Go4ECOPlanet project at the Kujawy Cement Plant. Hill, as strategic engineering partner for the project, is providing engineering and consultancy services for this first-of-its-kind project.

The project is a cornerstone of Holcim Polska’s decarbonisation strategy and one of the most ambitious efforts to reduce CO2 emissions in the Polish cement industry. Once complete, the Kujawy facility will be the first zero-emission cement plant in Poland and among the first in Europe.

The Go4ECOPlanet project will install a unique facility to capture 100% of CO₂ emissions generated during the production of clinker, the key ingredient in cement production. The installation will also capture biogenic CO₂ emitted during the combustion of fuels containing biomass. This will enable the plant to effectively capture 105% of reported greenhouse gas emissions. 

From 2027, the plant in Kujawy, Poland aims to capture around 1.2 MtCO₂/y and become one of the first net-zero cement plants in Europe. The Go4ECOPlanet project contributes to meeting the European Green Deal objectives and aligns with EU regulations targeting climate neutrality by 2050. The project was awarded a €228 million grant from the EU Innovation Fund in 2022.

The technology behind the project– The air needed for fuel combustion in the clinker burning process will be partially replaced with oxygen, resulting in a higher concentration of CO₂ in the exhaust gases. The project will take flue gas and process it in a CO₂ capture facility with Air Liquide’s Cryocap™ FG technology. This uses increased pressure to separate out the CO₂ contained in the clinker kiln flue gases. The CO₂ will then be liquified at an extremely low cryogenic temperature. Lastly, the liquified CO₂ will be purified to remove residual air components. 

The 99.9% pure liquified CO₂ will be transported to the North Sea for storage under the seabed.