Denmark has awarded 16.5 billion Danish crowns (€2.2 billion / $2.6 billion) in carbon capture and storage (CCS) subsidies to cement producer Aalborg Portland for its ACCSION project, marking one of Europe’s largest industrial carbon capture investments.

The agreement, signed with the Danish Energy Agency, will provide funding from 2030 and forms a key part of Denmark’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from 1990 levels.

Under the agreement, Aalborg Portland will receive 875 Danish crowns for every tonne of CO₂ captured, equivalent to up to 1.1 billion crowns annually over a 15-year period. The funding will support the capture, transport and permanent storage of up to 1.25 million tonnes of CO₂ per year.

“We can now take the decisive step toward realising a project that is not only significant in a Danish context, but is also among the largest industrial CO₂ capture projects in Europe,” Aalborg Portland CEO Søren Holm Christensen said in a statement.

The company expects the ACCSION project to deliver more than half of Denmark’s national CCS target of capturing 2.3 million tonnes of CO₂ annually by 2029.

Technology for the project will be supplied by Air Liquide, while transport and storage infrastructure will be provided by Harbour Energy.

The cement sector is one of the world’s most difficult industries to decarbonise, accounting for around 8% of global industrial CO₂ emissions. Emissions arise not only from the high-temperature fuels used in cement production but also from the chemical process of converting limestone into clinker, making CCS one of the few technologies capable of addressing both sources.

The International Energy Agency identifies CCS as a critical technology for achieving net-zero emissions, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors such as cement. However, critics continue to question the technology’s cost, scalability and long-term role in the energy transition.

Once operational, ACCSION is expected to rank among Europe’s largest industrial carbon capture projects and significantly advance Denmark’s efforts to establish low-carbon cement production.

Photo courtesy of Aalborg Portland