The cement-maker’s venture capital arm, Cemex Ventures, has taken a share in WtEnergy, a Barcelona-based company founded in 2017. It has not revealed how much it is planning to invest.
WtEnergy converts biomass, municipal solid waste and non-recyclable waste into synthesis gas (also known as Syngas), a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
Syngas is used in several industrial processes but can be used in the short term as a fossil fuel substitute. It can also be refined into biomethane or pure hydrogen.
Cemex intends to incorporate WtEnergy’s Syngas into its clinker and cement manufacturing process with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint of its operations. Cemex said it wants to increase its fossil fuel substitution rate by 20 percentage points by 2030.
“This investment aligns with our strategy to find innovative clean fuel and energy sources for the cement industry,” said Cemex Ventures boss Gonzalo Galindo. “We have outlined an ambitious rollout strategy across multiple operations, starting with Spain and other European countries before expanding to other international markets”.
WtEnergy was set up five years ago by two Spaniards, Andrés Ponce and Antonio Crous, both with several years’ experience in the gasification and the waste-to-energy market. The company claims to have developed a “unique clean-tech technology” to produce Syngas from non-recyclable waste.
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Cemex Ventures will help WtEnergy expand into international markets and “secure new opportunities on the project financing and funding fronts”.
Cemex will also give WtEnergy access to its global distribution network, R&D resources and marketing operations around the world.
Meanwhile, Cemex plans to start using WtEnergy’s Syngas in its cement production, starting in Spain and other countries in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEAA) region.
The investment in WtEnergy is part of Cemex’s ‘Future in Action’ programme which aims to make its business more sustainable. The company says that, since the launch of Future in Action, it has achieved “record-breaking” CO2 reductions.
Cemex says that alternative fuels have an important role to play in its ambition to become ‘net-zero’ by 2050.
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