CO2 recovery:
Rohrdorfer receives funding of over € 30 million
Rohrdorfer is planning to build Austria’s first industrial-scale CO2 recovery plant in the cement industry at its Gmunden site. The plant will be able to recover 30000 t/a of carbon dioxide. Thanks to CO2 recovery, the annual production of 50000 tons of CO2-neutral cement will be possible in Gmunden as early as 2026. The project will receive a total of 30 million euros in funding from the Austrian innovation program “Transformation of Industry”. The groundbreaking in Gmunden on February 27 will mark the official start of the project. The plant is scheduled to go into operation in late fall 2026.
Austria’s first plant for the recovery of carbon dioxide
Rohrdorfer is setting a milestone in Austria with the first plant for the recovery of carbon dioxide (carbon capture) in the cement industry. Cryogenic gas separation is used to separate the carbon dioxide from the flue gas of the cement plant. It can then be stored or converted into basic chemicals (Carbon Capture and Usage). Internally, preparations for “CryoCEM”, as the project is known internally at Rohrdorfer, are already in full swing.
“We have put a lot of work and resources into the development of CryoCEM,” says Dr Helmut Leibinger, head of the Rohrdorf Net Zero Emission team. “Building the plant is just one part of the overall project. Adapting the cryogenic process to the conditions in our cement plant will also be a challenge.” Rohrdorfer is pleased about the high funding amount, which will cover three quarters of the total costs. The remaining costs will be borne by the Rohrdorfer Group.
Cement plant in Gmunden to produce CO2-neutral cement from 2026
The Cement Division has bundled its expertise in new plant construction and decarbonization technology in a separate company, Net Zero Emission Labs GmbH. The Net Zero Emission team is therefore largely responsible for the CryoCEM project. The approximately 30 experts from various disciplines such as chemistry, logistics and process engineering are driving decarbonization at Rohrdorfer with numerous innovations. Many of these start in the run-up to the CO2-intensive clinker burning process, because avoiding carbon dioxide in advance is just as important as effectively recovering the unavoidable process emissions from the flue gas.
Rohrdorfer Managing Director Mike Edelmann: “Our declared goal is to produce only CO2-neutral cement by 2038. Thanks to CryoCEM, this will be possible at the Gmunden site for 10% or 30000 t as early as 2026. This is a milestone for Rohrdorfer, but also for the Austrian cement industry.”
