CI4C GmbH & Co. KG has officially inaugurated its Catch4Climate Pure Oxyfuel carbon capture research facility at the Mergelstetten cement plant in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

The EUR120m (US$137m) project, backed by Buzzi subsidiary Dyckerhoff,  Heidelberg Materials, Schwenk Zement and Vicat, is the world's first semi-industrial-scale demonstration plant using thyssenkrupp Polysius' Pure Oxyfuel process for cement clinker production, a solution that the project's Technical Managing Director, Jürgen Thormann, described as "completely different" to earlier oxyfuel technologies.

The dedicated 450tpd clinker line is intended solely for research into carbon capture technologies. The project also incorporates a CO2 Purification Unit (CPU) developed by Linde Engineering, which purifies and conditions the captured CO2  stream for transport, storage or utilisation.

The CI4C plant is annexed to Schwenk's Mergelstetten cement plant in Baden-Württemberg (Source: CI4C)

The project partners said the facility was funded entirely by the industrial consortium and project partners, without financial support from either the European Union or the German state. The Pure Oxyfuel process replaces combustion air with pure oxygen, producing a highly concentrated CO2 rich flue gas. The CPU then removes impurities and prepares the CO2  for compression and subsequent transport, storage or utilisation. Together, the technologies are designed to enable the capture of up to 95 per cent of CO2 emissions from clinker production, including unavoidable process emissions released during limestone calcination.

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The project successfully produced its first clinker in May 2026 before completing its first oxygen supply and initial operating campaign in June. The research programme will now generate operational data to support the scale-up and commercial deployment of Pure Oxyfuel carbon capture technology across the cement industry. thyssenkrupp Calvion will lead the further development, scale-up and commercialisation of the Pure Oxyfuel technology.

Around 200 representatives from industry, academia, government and the media attended the inauguration, including Baden-Württemberg Environment Minister Thekla Walker, who said the project sent an "important signal that transformation is possible."

Baden-Württemberg Environment Minister, Thekla Walker, was given a tour of the facility (Source: Cemnet)

A recurring theme during the event was that, while carbon capture technologies are reaching industrial demonstration scale, their widespread deployment will depend on the timely development of CO2 transport and storage infrastructure across both Germany and wider Europe.