Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
MITCHELL – Fourteen months after it was awarded up to $500 million in federal funds for a carbon capture project at the Mitchell Cement Plant, Heidelberg Materials learned the US Department of Energy pulled the funding.
Last week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced he canceled nearly $4 billion in project grants that were primarily for carbon capture projects. Most of the 24 grants – including Heidelberg’s – were awarded during President Biden’s administration.
Heidelberg issued a statement in response to the decision.
“Heidelberg Materials has long been focused on leading innovation in the cement manufacturing sector. This includes research, development, and deployment of large-scale decarbonization technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration,” read the statement. “The Company received notification of the termination of the $500 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for our Mitchell Cement Plant Decarbonization Project in Indiana. The DOE indicates this decision can be appealed and we are in the process of evaluating this course as we consider our next steps for the Mitchell project.”
The cancellation of the grant doesn’t just affect the Heidelberg project but also the city of Mitchell, which expected to see a positive economic impact from the construction jobs created.
Mitchell Mayor Don Caudell called the news disappointing.
“Needless to say it’s not something I was happy to see. In the long run I felt it would be a very good thing for the city and county both,” Caudell said. “And not just the jobs that will be lost but we were trying new technology to see if this would be an effective way to produce what they call ‘green cement’ and that’s why the federal government was putting $500 million into it.”
After announcing the DOE award in 2024, Heidelberg detailed its plans for construction of a full-scale carbon capture, transport and storage at the company’s new plant in Mitchell. Officials previously said the carbon capture storage would capture, treat and prepare for storage or use, approximately 2 million metric tons of CO2 each year from the plant.
Over the past several months, the Mitchell Cement Plant has been engaged in Phase 1 engineering and design work to determine the project’s feasibility. Heidelberg set a goal for the Mitchell plant to be carbon neutral by 2030, the same year the carbon capture facility was slated to be fully operational.
Since beginning Phase 1, Heidelberg has held meetings with local leaders to provide updates. Caudell said the company told stakeholders the construction of the carbon storage facility was expected to create 600 to 800 construction jobs.
Heidelberg has made decarbonization a top priority. According to its website, it has 13 carbon capture projects across the globe. Its cement plant in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada will become the world’s first full-scale carbon capture project in the cement sector in 2026.
The Mitchell carbon capture project would be its first in the United States.
In a fact sheet about carbon capture on its website, Heidelberg explained why government support from agencies such as the DOE is crucial.
“Because of the nature and cost of first-mover large-scale projects such as Mitchell, support from agencies such as the U.S. DOE is critical to help to assess, implement and operate these projects so that further cost reductions and efficiencies can be developed to facilitate broad deployment across the industry.”
Caudell said he can understand that the DOE would want to re-assess the awards and hopes the decision is a pause to allow for a dialogue about the benefits of carbon capture.
The Mitchell plant has been the focus of extensive investment by Heidelberg. In 2023, the company opened a new, $600 million state of the art plant, which allowed the plant to more than triple its previous capacity. The new plant reduced its previous energy consumption and enabled the use of alternative fuels and raw materials to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.