Italgas and Buzzi Unicem to study decarbonisation of cement industry

Italgas and Buzzi Unicem have signed an agreement to develop a feasibility study on implementing Power to Gas plants in combination with Carbon Capture Systems at Buzzi Unicem’s production plants.

The implementation of these technologies aims to promote the decarbonisation of cement and concrete production processes to increase environmental sustainability and facilitate the energy transition.

The study will assess the possibility of producing and using, in the most suitable Buzzi Unicem plants, synthetic methane obtained from the combination of green hydrogen produced by the Power to Gas plants with part of the CO2 released in the production processes.

The agreement leverages the solid experience gained by Italgas with developing a Power to Gas project in Sardinia to produce green hydrogen to test its uses in urban contexts, in public transport and in supplying local energy-intensive industries.

Paolo Gallo, CEO of Italgas, said, “We are pleased to share with Buzzi Unicem the know-how we have developed in the Italgas P2G plant design that will be built in Sardinia, creating the first technological showcase of the green hydrogen production chain in Italy.”

Luigi Buzzi, Group Technical Director at Buzzi Unicem, added, “We are currently experimenting with Calcium Looping technology for capturing the carbon dioxide released by the production process at our plant in Vernasca (PC). Thanks to the EU Horizon 2020 project “Cleanker” (CLEAN- clinKER), it will be possible to assess the technical and economic sustainability of this technology and estimate the changes to the plant and the investments required to adopt this process in existing cement plants.”