What happens to CO₂ after it is captured?

Ask people working on carbon capture in our sector where the bottleneck is and the answer is rarely "the technology". When we recorded our podcast episode on CO₂ infrastructure, Diego Novoa of Votorantim Cimentos put it simply: capture has been tested in pilot and demonstration projects for years. The real challenge starts once the CO₂ has been captured. Where does it go next?

The proof that capture works is already there. At Brevik, in southern Norway, a cement plant now captures CO₂ from its kiln and ships it for permanent storage deep under the North Sea. Across the EU, more than 20 cement and lime plants have secured Innovation Fund support for their own carbon capture projects.

Why cement needs capture in the first place

Most people assume industrial emissions come from burning fuel. In cement, around two-thirds do not. They come from the limestone itself: when it is heated to make clinker, it releases CO₂ as part of a chemical reaction.

That changes the picture. Clean, affordable electricity matters a great deal to us and our plants will need far more of it. But clean power can replace the fuel. It cannot change the chemistry. That is why capture accounts for around 42% of the reductions in our Net Zero Roadmap, and why, for cement, it is not one option among many.

Following a tonne of CO₂

To see where the difficulty lies, follow a tonne of captured CO₂ on its journey to permanent storage.

Capture. At the plant, CO₂ is separated from the kiln gases, then compressed or liquefied so it can travel. This is the part our sector controls and it is ready.
Transport. The CO₂ then has to move, by pipeline, ship, rail, barge or truck. Today there are no CO₂ pipelines in operation in the EU, only maps and projections.
Storage. Finally, it is injected into geological formations deep underground. Progress is real: Greece and the Netherlands have permitted new storage sites this year, Italy's Ravenna project is moving towards a final investment decision and Germany now allows onshore storage where a federal state opts in. But most capacity in development is offshore, while cement plants are spread across the whole continent, many of them far from the coast.

Some captured CO₂ can also be used rather than stored, as a feedstock for fuels or chemicals, but that route needs the same transport links.

Each of these steps will be run by a different operator, with its own investment, timeline and risks. The chain only works if every link is in place at the same time. The Commission's own Joint Research Centre makes the same point: "access to enabling infrastructure is often a more critical bottleneck than the maturity of the technology itself".

What happens when a link breaks

Imagine a plant has made the investment and is capturing its CO₂. Then the pipeline is delayed, a vessel is unavailable or the storage site is offline. The CO₂ has nowhere to go and the plant has no choice but to release it.

Then the plant must surrender ETS allowances for emissions it was equipped to avoid. It may also lose the public funding its business case relies on, as support such as the Investment Booster is expected to be linked to verified emissions avoided. We call this the double penalty and it is exactly the kind of risk that makes a board hesitate before a final investment decision.

To be clear, this is not about “escaping” the carbon price. The European cement industry supports the ETS as a market-based instrument. The point is narrower: a plant should not pay for emissions it has invested to prevent, when the failure lies elsewhere in the chain.

And behind the double penalty sits a wider question: who covers the risk when one operator lets the others down? Researchers at the Florence School of Regulation found this year that this risk is "a main barrier to scaling CO₂ transport networks", and that subsidies for capture do not address it. No single company can carry it. In these early years, only public authorities can.

What we are asking for

A guarantee mechanism. In the ETS review, it should be linked to the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, so successful applicants keep their funding when infrastructure outside their control fails. In the CO₂ infrastructure package, it should mean compensation for emitters when the network or storage site cannot take the agreed CO₂ and clear availability targets for network and storage operators.

A network that reaches every plant. Onshore storage and transport by rail, barge and truck should get the same priority as offshore pipelines, and every plant should be able to connect on fair terms. Member States that have not yet adopted credible penalties under Article 23 of the Net Zero Industry Act, which obliges oil and gas producers to deliver storage capacity, should do so now.

Funding that matches the scale. CO₂ networks are largely public infrastructure and should be funded as such, through a combination of public funds, including the next Multiannual Financial Framework. The Innovation Fund and the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank are vital for capture projects, but they were not designed to build a continental CO₂ network on their own.

The bigger picture

Infrastructure is one piece of a larger puzzle. For a cement plant to take a final investment decision on capture, five things need to happen together: a guarantee mechanism, pipelines and storage, electricity grid connections, affordable renewable electricity (a plant with capture will need two to five times more power than today) and deployment funding at scale. These sit alongside the wider conditions in our Cement Action Plan: a watertight CBAM, predictable ETS rules and lead markets that reward low-carbon products.

The ETS review and the CO₂ package can deliver the guarantee mechanism and the pipelines and storage. Grid connections and affordable electricity deserve the same urgency.

What happens next

The European Parliament and Council are both aiming to adopt their positions on the ETS review in December and the Commission's CO₂ infrastructure package is due shortly. We will be following both closely.

Our sector is ready to invest. We can capture the CO₂. Europe now needs to make sure it can be transported reliably and that it has somewhere to go.

What happens to CO₂ after it is captured?

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