The UK’s first carbon capture-enabled cement plant at Padeswood, developed by Heidelberg Materials UK, and one of the world’s first full-scale carbon capture-enabled waste-to-energy facilities at Protos in Ellesmere Port, developed by Encyclis, have signed final contracts with Government to begin construction.

Cement and waste-to-energy production are both carbon-intensive and carbon capture could provide a route to these processes becoming lower emitters. The two projects received contracts under the Government’s Low Carbon Contracts Company and form a part of the £9.4bn investment into carbon capture pledged at the Spending Review.

The project also act as ‘anchor projects’, joining Eni’s Liverpool Bay Transportation & Storage network, part of the HyNet carbon capture cluster network in the North West.

Simon Willis, CEO of Heidelberg Materials UK, said: “Our new facility at Padeswood will be a world-leader. It will capture around 800,000 tonnes of CO2 a year from our existing cement works, allowing us to produce evoZero net-zero cement, which will help the UK construction industry reach its decarbonisation aims.”

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