Cool Planet Technologies Limited ("CPT"), a company using advanced membrane capture technology for carbon capture, is delighted to announce that Holcim Germany has received funding approval from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (“BMWK”) towards the construction of a carbon capture demonstration plant using CPT’s membrane technology.

Last year, Holcim (Deutschland) GmbH (“Holcim”) agreed with its partners CPT and the HelmholtzZentrum Hereon to cooperate on the decarbonisation of Holcim’s Höver cement plant. At the heart of the cooperation is the construction of a 10,000 tons per annum CO2 capture plant based on CPT’s innovative membrane capture process.

The funding for the project - "Industrial research on membrane-based CO2 capture for the decarbonisation of cement plants" - is aimed at the construction of the demonstration facility in early 2024 with a one-year active test phase, during which the innovative technology will be investigated in long-term commercial operation. If the long-term test phase is successful, the plant would be gradually expanded so that after the final expansion stage the plant can separate around 90 per cent of the CO2 emissions from the Höver cement plant.

Holcim said “At the Höver cement plant, a promising technology is being tested that can make an important contribution to the decarbonisation of the cement industry in Germany.” BMWK's grant, which is part of the Decarbonisation of Industry funding programme, was made possible by the extraordinarily positive results of the preliminary test phase conducted in 2022.”

Holcim added “The objective of the demonstration plant is to confirm performance, the economics and operational behaviour on a larger scale in order to check whether the membrane technology can be used technically and economically not only in Höver, but also in other cement works and in other industries. The end-of-pipe solution is downstream of the cement production process and therefore has no direct impact on it, which significantly simplifies the decarbonisation of the existing cement plants.” Following a successful funding round in 2022, with investment from ENI next, Audacy Ventures and NEVA SGR, CPT is currently raising a second Series A funding round to support the demonstration and commercialisation of its membrane technology.

The press release from Holcim is reproduced below in its entirety.

Andrew Corner CPT’s Managing Director said:
“We are delighted that Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action has approved the grant funding to Holcim for the Demonstration plant at Höver. Construction of the demonstration plant is about to start, and we look forward to continuing our work with Holcim and the team at Höver and helping them to meet their decarbonisation objectives and further proving up the commerciality of our membrane capture technology.”

Thorsten Hahn, CEO of Holcim Germany said:
"The support of politicians shows that we have successfully ushered in the cement transition. The funding commitment supports our consistent path to climate neutrality and strengthens us as a driver of the transformation of our industry."

 Stephan Hinrichs Holcim Höver plant manager said:
"The federal government's funding commitment is great news for Holcim and our partners. We are doing real pioneering work for the entire cement industry and look forward to the next step on our way to becoming a climate-neutral company."