The German concrete and cement giant is pampering its Deux-Sèvres cement plant in Airvault, one of its four main production sites in France. After having launched a program of more than 350 million euros in 2022 to modernize and green it by equipping it with a new production tool, the German group is planning an increase of several hundred million euros. They will be used to capture all of its carbon emissions by 2030. Called Airvault GOCO2, the operation will notably involve the creation of a CO recovery unit.2.
The 100-year-old cement factory, which employs 138 people, had been ranked 12e industrial site emitting the most greenhouse gases in France. “The CO2once captured, will be transported in gaseous form to Montoir-de-Bretagne (Loire-Atlantique). GRTgaz will support the construction of transport infrastructure while Elengy (GDF Suez Engie) will take charge of CO2“, explains Jean-François Bricaud, director of decarbonization and industrial development of the group's cement activities.
Storage in the North Sea or raw material for biofuel
Most of it will be transported by ship to the North Sea for storage, while the CO2 made from biomass will be intended to be used in the composition of e-SAF (electro-sustainable aviation fuel) or e-methanol, particularly for the Green Coast project of the Lyon SME Elyse Energy. The group is thus duplicating a system already launched elsewhere. “Heidelberg Materials is the first cement group in the world to have installed a CO capture installation2 on its Brevik site in Norway and from 2025, the CO2 of this plant will be injected into an offshore storage area in the North Sea,” says Ludovic Péro, director of public affairs and communications.
A colossal modernization project expected at the end of 2025
The Airvault site is already completing its first phase of modernization. A new clinker and cement production line will replace the two existing lines. “The new factory will integrate what is best done in Europe at the technological level, which will allow us to work on the first levers of decarbonization which are energy efficiency and the use of biomass in the energy mix. In 2025, the use of coked coal will completely disappear and 90% of the energy supply will be provided by alternative CSR fuels (Solid Recovered Fuels). We will reduce our carbon emissions by a third and we will then be able to turn to the remaining two thirds,” explains Jean-François Bricaud.
The new production line should be operational by the end of 2025 — Photo: Heidelberg Materials
Operational in the second half of 2025, the new cement plant will have a production capacity similar to the old one, i.e. more than 1.5 million tonnes of cement per year.
600 million euros of investments in France
In France, Heidelberg Materials (55,000 employees, present in more than fifty countries, 3,000 production sites) has committed more than 600 million euros to modernize and reduce the carbon footprint of its four main production sites in Airvault, Bussac-en-Forêt (Charente-Maritime) where it invested 65 million euros, Heillecourt (Meurthe-et-Moselle) and Beaucaire (Gard). For three years, it has also been developing a certain number of new cements, known as low-carbon cements.
GoCO2 in parallel
The industrialist is also integrated into the GoCO2 project (unrelated to Airvault GOCO2) launched in July 2023 and supported by the Pays de la Loire region and the Grand Port Maritime de Nantes Saint-Nazaire which brings together GRTgaz, Total Energies, Elengy, Lafarge and Lhoist. This investment program of 1.7 billion euros over seven years is being carried out to capture and transport CO2 industrialists from Pays de la Loire and the Great West.
