The Go4Zero Project is the modernisation of Holcim’s cement plant in Obourg, Belgium to produce net-zero cement. The project will involve the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to make the facility completely carbon neutral.
The plant is located near Mons in Wallonia.
The project will be developed in two phases with a planned investment of more than €500m.
Go4Zero has been granted €230m from the European Innovation Fund, financed by revenues from the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme.
The construction of the first phase has commenced in January 2024. Holcim held the groundbreaking ceremony in May 2024.
Once operational by 2029, the project will produce 2 million tonnes of net-zero cement per year contributing to the global 2050 net-zero vision.
Go4Zero Project Infrastructure
Go4Zero will consist of a Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) system, an oxy-combustion system, a CPU, a smoke filtration and purification system.
The plant will also house a filtration system, a passive noise reduction and dust prevention system, and a floating solar panel farm.
The oxy-combustion system will be activated when complete carbon chain is present. Once activated, the system will switch to oxygen combustion from traditional air combustion.
The oxygen combustion technology will increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the emissions from the conventional 30% to around 80%.
With a purity of more than 99.7%, the carbon dioxide will be extracted by the cryogenic carbon dioxide extraction and purification unit.
The smoke filtration and purification system of the unit will be fitted with a combination of bag filters, a regenerative thermal oxidiser, a wet scrubber, a thermal oxidiser, and a Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (SNCR) facility.
A cooling condensing unit will extract water from gases and transport it to the condensate treatment plant for disposal.
Water or condensate from the gas treatment process will be filtered in the filtration system.
The plant will receive renewable power from 30MW floating solar panel farm consisting of 55,000 panels. The farm will cover more than 17 hectares (ha) of area.
Go4Zero Project Details
Go4Zero will use an oxy-combustion process with CCS system. The first phase of the Go4Zero Plant will include a new clinker production line at Obourg site.
The new clinker line production will involve grinding, feeding, and processing of limestone from Holcim’s Tournaisis quarries.
The clinker kiln will use Cryocap Oxy technology to capture and purify carbon dioxide generated from Holcim’s Obourg Plant.
The processed limestone will be loaded to train for transportation to the Montoise region.
In the second phase, the carbon dioxide will be captured, purified, and transported to the Antwerp@C Carbon Dioxide Export Hub via a pipeline.
At hub, the carbon dioxide will be liquefied, loaded onto ships, and transported to be sequestered in saline aquifers or disused natural gas wells in the North Sea.
Go4Zero Project Contractors and Agreements
The main contractor for the civil works on Go4Zero is a joint venture between BESIX, a Belgian group operating in construction, real estate, and concessions sectors, and DENYS, an independent Belgian construction group.
The contract was awarded by Holcim in November 2024.
The contract scope includes the delivery of over 70 structures in less than 15 months.
The structures include electrical substations, a 60m high cone-shaped silo with sliding formwork, an integrated inverted concrete cone, a covered storage area of over 200m in length, a train unloading station, and a 25m concrete shell structure to support a 145m high steel pre-heating tower.
Franki Foundations, a subsidiary of BESIX, is providing deep foundations for the project.
The contract scope includes installation of 1,500 Omega screw piles up to 32m deep and anchored in dense chalk. Franki’s inhouse facility redesigned the foundations.
The works commenced in August 2024 and will be completed in February 2025.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Holcim signed in May 2023, Air Liquide, a French supplier of industrial gases, technologies, and services, will deliver its Cryocap Oxy technology.
In September 2022, Holcim joined a sustainable energy infrastructure builder Fluxys where Holcim will use the Fluxys network to sequester purified carbon dioxide under the North Sea.
Holcim signed a MoU with TotalEnergies in September 2022 for the project.
Under MoU, TotalEnergies will transport the captured carbon dioxide in the North Sea and will also use carbon dioxide for an e-fuel producing scheme.