Heidelberg Materials North America is pleased to announce approximately $8.9 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative, to study the subsurface geology for suitability for the storage of carbon dioxide at its new state-of-the-art cement plant in Mitchell, Indiana. The award, which is managed by the U.S. National Energy Technology Laboratory, will be issued to the Illinois State Geological Survey at the University of Illinois (ISGS) as the prime contractor, with the company acting as a technical and industrial partner.

The application was submitted in 2022 prior to the company’s rebranding from Lehigh Hanson to Heidelberg Materials earlier this year. Heidelberg Materials is contributing about $1.5M in funding while ISGS will be contributing approximately $0.6M for a project total of $11.1M. The funding was part of a DOE initiative that generated nearly $125 million in funding for 10 projects to characterize suitability for carbon storage across the US.

The new Mitchell cement plant will more than triple its current capacity and incorporates features to minimize energy consumption and enable the use of alternative fuels and raw materials to reduce greenhouse gas GHG emissions. The proposed project will geologically characterize several prospective reservoirs under the Mitchell plant for safe storage of more than 50 million metric tons of CO2 over a 30-year timeframe.

“We are excited to participate in this project and pleased it received the additional federal funding to assess the ability to store carbon at the Mitchell site,” said Chris Ward, President and CEO of Heidelberg Materials North America and Member of the Managing Board.

Heidelberg Materials believes that CCUS will play a significant role in achieving its goal of net zero carbon and is very excited to take the next steps in exploring this technology at its new cement plant in Mitchell.

“We are committed to leading our sector in developing viable carbon capture technology, which we believe is essential to achieving our sustainability goals,” said Ward. “We are excited to continue exploring CCUS at our Mitchell facility in anticipation that it could be the first of our cement plants in the U.S. to achieve net zero carbon.”

The new cement plant in Mitchell is anticipated to begin full production in early 2023.