How can the Cement Industry Enable Industrial Decarbonization at Scale?

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCS) will play a key role in hard-to-abate industries such as cement. While the cement industry faces increasing pressure to achieve carbon neutrality, there is a lack of existing transport and storage infrastructure, high investment costs, and public perception risks. In this study, cost-effective CCS systems are designed to abate different fractions of the U.S. cement industry using integrated spatial and cost modeling. The median total capture cost ranges from $144/tCO2 to abate 15% of the sector to $215/tCO2 for 100%. Building on the cement-centric system design, the potential for a large-scale pipeline network based around the location of "carbon hubs"─collections of nearby industries─is analyzed to understand opportunities to reduce costs. While connecting to a carbon hub is not economical for all facilities, there is an opportunity to capture 5X the emissions while only increasing the investment by 2X. If the cement industry were to be a first mover in CCS deployment, the industry could have an outsized positive impact across industrial sectors and accelerate industrial CCS deployment. However, support is needed beyond the Section 45Q Tax Credit since it is not enough for a majority of cement plants to invest in CCS infrastructure.