Stone Cold Success as World’s First CCS Plant Delivers

Norway’s Brevik facility becomes the world’s first industrial-scale carbon capture plant, turning heavy industry’s greenest dreams into reality

2 Nov 2025

Heidelberg Materials has inaugurated a carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at its Brevik plant in southern Norway. The site is the first in the global cement industry to deploy the technology at an industrial scale. The sector is currently responsible for approximately 7 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

The facility is designed to capture 400,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually. This figure represents half of the total emissions produced by the Brevik plant. Using technology developed by SLB Capturi, the system extracts gas from kiln emissions and compresses it into a liquid state.

The liquid is then transported to Norway’s west coast for permanent storage in geological formations beneath the North Sea. This process forms part of Longship, a state-backed programme intended to develop a full industrial value chain for carbon management in Europe.

The project has moved from technical demonstration to commercial application. By late 2025, the company started supplying a new product line, branded as evoZero, to European construction firms. These materials, which carry verified near-zero lifecycle emissions, were used in the development of the Skøyen Station in Oslo.

Progress at Brevik has influenced further investment. In September 2025, Heidelberg Materials reached a funding agreement with the UK government for a second project at Padeswood in North Wales. That site aims to capture 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year by 2029. Dominik von Achten, chief executive, said the Welsh project would build directly on the engineering knowledge gained in Norway.

For the wider industry, the Brevik plant suggests that CCS technology can be added to existing factories without halting production. In cement manufacturing, certain chemical emissions are unavoidable even if renewable energy is used. This makes carbon capture a primary requirement for companies seeking to meet net-zero targets.

While the technical viability of the process is now established, the long-term economic success of such projects remains linked to government support and the price of carbon credits in international markets.