Cement industry urges Austria to allow CO2 storage

Austria’s cement industry is calling for CO2 storage in the ground, ORF reported, as companies seek ways to prevent the greenhouse gas from being released into the atmosphere.

A new test facility at a cement plant in Kirchdorf filters CO2 from exhaust air. The gas is currently released again because Austria cannot yet store it on a large scale.

Empty gas fields proposed as storage sites

The industry has proposed injecting filtered CO2 into depleted natural gas fields. Gas storage operator RAG considers this technically feasible. “The potential is very large and certainly covers several years, if not decades, of CO2 emissions,” RAG Austria CEO Markus Mitteregger said.

Environmental organisations are critical of storing CO2 underground. Upper Austria Governor Thomas Stelzer of the Austrian People’s Party supports the proposal, saying it could help keep the building materials industry and its jobs in the region.

Economy Minister Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer, also of the Austrian People’s Party, is calling for legislation to permit underground storage. He said approval of the Climate Protection Act should be accompanied by permission for CO2 storage and a faster environmental impact assessment law.

The industry warns that without nearby storage options, cement production could eventually move to countries with lower environmental standards. Joao Paulo Pereira da Silva, managing director of the Kirchdorf an der Krems cement plant, said this would not improve environmental outcomes if cement were no longer produced in Austria.

Cement plants such as Kirchdorf are currently caught in a difficult position: if they filter CO2, they do not know where to put it. Austria’s lawmakers will decide whether and where carbon dioxide storage will be allowed.