Welsh Cement Works Set for Groundbreaking £400m Carbon Capture Project

A pioneering £400 million carbon capture project at a Welsh cement works is poised to receive regulatory approval within weeks, marking a significant milestone in British industrial decarbonisation efforts.

German industrial giant Heidelberg Materials is preparing to implement cutting-edge carbon capture technology at its Padeswood facility in north Wales. The company has already demonstrated success with similar technology at its Brevik plant in Norway, where it achieved the world’s first industrial-scale capture of cement emissions.

The development coincides with the National Wealth Fund’s £28.6 million investment in the Peak Cluster project, a carbon capture initiative spanning cement and lime operations across Derbyshire, Staffordshire and the northwest. Private sector backing totalling £31 million from industry leaders Holcim, Tarmac and Breedon supplements this government support, with Treasury projections indicating the preservation of 3,500 jobs.

Christoph Beumelburg, Heidelberg’s communications director, revealed that the final investment decision for Padeswood is imminent. The facility’s strategic location near existing infrastructure will enable direct connection to the Hynet cluster, utilising converted pipelines from the Irish Sea for CO₂ transport.

The Padeswood works, one of ten cement facilities in Britain, maintains an annual production capacity of 900,000 tonnes. The planned carbon capture system promises to sequester approximately 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly, representing nearly all production-related emissions.

This development is particularly significant given that cement production contributes 8 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The UK government has allocated £21.7 billion to develop two carbon capture and storage clusters, with Padeswood selected as one of four initial industrial participants in the Hynet programme.