Heidelberg Materials puts German carbon capture project on hold (updated)
UPDATE 1-Heidelberg Materials puts German carbon capture project on hold Adds CEO comment in paragraph 2, EU funding in paragraph 3
Oct 22 (Reuters) - Heidelberg Materials HEIG.DE, one of the world's largest cement makers, has paused its carbon capture plant project in Geseke, Germany, because the current framework conditions do not support a viable business case, it said on Thursday.
GeZero was planned as Germany's first inland cement plant that would deploy scalable carbon capture technology
"As a listed company, we will only pursue CO2 capture if we have a stable, sound business case for it. We do not yet have that in Geseke," CEO Dominik von Achten told Reuters, adding putting the project on hold had been a "tough but right decision"
The decision applies only to the GeZero project - which has received €191 million ($214 million) in EU funding - and will have no immediate impact on operations at the company's Geseke plant
It cited insufficiently developed CO2 transport, storage infrastructure and value chains as reasons for the halt
Heidelberg Materials plans to further optimize the design of the project
($1 = 0.8933 euros)
(Reporting by Basile Day in Gdansk and Christoph Steitz and Ilona Wissenbach in Frankfurt; editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak and Matthias Williams)
((Basile.day@thomsonreuters.com;))
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