Cemex to invest more than €450 million in net-zero cement project in Spain
Cemex will invest more than €450 million in the SOMZERO carbon capture project at its Alcanar cement plant in Tarragona. Backed by €200 million from Spain’s industrial decarbonization program, the first phase is designed to capture more than 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually.
Public funding supports a €450 million-plus project
Cemex will invest more than €450 million to develop SOMZERO, a carbon capture project intended to produce cement with net-zero CO₂ emissions at the company’s Alcanar plant in Tarragona, Spain. According to Merca2, the project has secured €200 million from the Spanish Ministry of Industry and Tourism under the PERTE industrial decarbonization program, using European NextGenerationEU funds.
The investment ranks among Europe’s largest industrial projects focused on decarbonizing cement production, Merca2 reported. It combines private capital with public support for technology designed to address process emissions that are difficult to eliminate through energy efficiency or renewable power alone. Cement is widely used in housing, offices, infrastructure and public facilities, making emissions from its manufacture an important issue for the construction sector and the European Union’s climate objectives.
First phase targets 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year
SOMZERO will introduce infrastructure for the capture, transport and permanent storage of carbon. In its first phase, the Alcanar facility is expected to capture more than 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. Merca2 said this would make the plant one of the first cement factories in southern Europe to reach carbon neutrality. Cemex says the technology could later be replicated at other industrial sites.
The plan also includes the creation of a CO₂ hub in Catalonia. The infrastructure would support the transport and storage of captured carbon and could eventually serve other industries. That element extends the project beyond a single cement plant: shared infrastructure could give nearby industrial operators access to carbon management systems that would be difficult or costly to develop independently.
Lower-carbon material for the construction chain
For cement and construction companies, the project’s commercial importance will depend on whether the technology proves viable at industrial scale. Property developers, contractors and investment funds increasingly seek materials with a smaller environmental footprint, while building certification systems such as LEED and BREEAM make material-related emissions relevant to project design. Net-zero cement could help reduce embodied carbon without replacing one of construction’s most widely used structural materials.
Cemex expects SOMZERO to strengthen the competitiveness of Spanish industry, support specialized employment and reinforce Alcanar’s role as a strategic plant. Fernando Enríquez, Cemex’s vice president of operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the European funding recognizes the role industry can play in moving toward a low-carbon economy. He identified technological innovation, public-private cooperation and an appropriate regulatory framework as essential to accelerating the sector’s transformation. For producers and investors, the project will provide a major test of whether carbon capture can move from subsidized industrial demonstration to a replicable cement-production model.
