The cement company Cemex and Enagás, through its subsidiary Scale Green Energy, have signed a collaboration agreement to deploy a comprehensive maritime transport solution for CO2 captured from cement plants. The agreement aligns with the sector's decarbonization strategies and aims to enable a complete carbon value chain.
The plan includes joint investments in carbon capture and logistics, with the liquefied CO2 being shipped to authorized storage facilities in southern Europe . In addition, the parties will explore pipeline expansion as a complementary measure to strengthen the network.
An agreement to accelerate industrial decarbonization
The alliance aims to cover the entire CO2 cycle : from capture at Cemex factories to delivery to geological storage facilities or other authorized solutions, with logistics designed for large volumes and traceability. This move aligns with the cement company's climate strategy, "Future in Action . "
From Enagás, Jesús Saldaña —General Director of Business Development and Participating Companies— highlights that the cooperation allows Spain to position itself in a key capture and storage infrastructure to meet European objectives, including the community goal of capturing 50 million tons of CO2 in 2030.
How CO2 will move: from the plant to the sea
At Cemex's facilities, emissions will be captured and liquefied for transport. The liquefied CO2 will then be loaded at port and shipped by sea to authorized and operational hubs in the Mediterranean .
The solution focuses on safety, efficiency, and scalability —essential requirements for managing the volumes typical of sectors with challenging supply chains, such as the cement industry. According to the company, the design is geared towards minimizing logistics time and costs.
The new generation ship
Scale Green Energy will lead the development of a specialized 20.000 m³ vessel for transporting liquefied CO2. This vessel will connect several industrial plants with various storage points along the Mediterranean coast, providing operational flexibility.
The design aims for agile implementation and the possibility of adapting routes and frequencies based on the availability of emission centers and reception hubs , with the goal of accelerating the deployment of the carbon logistics chain.
Pipelines as a complementary route
The agreement includes analyzing the development of pipeline transport in sections where it is advantageous, for example, to bring captured CO2 closer to maritime terminals. This option will be studied as a complement to shipping by sea , not as a substitute, taking into account technical and regulatory criteria.
Impact for Spain and European objectives
The initiative aims to strengthen Spain's role in the European carbon capture and storage chain , providing a concrete solution for the cement sector. For Benjamín Cabrera , Head of Operations at Cemex Spain, having large-scale logistics is key to managing significant volumes of CO2 safely and cost-competitively.
The project focuses on reducing emissions that are difficult to eliminate and improving industrial competitiveness by enabling an infrastructure that integrates capture, transport and storage with criteria of reliability and regulatory compliance.
Governance and next steps
The companies will work on the technical and economic analysis of the logistics scheme, as well as the vessel design and coordination with authorized storage sites . The roadmap includes engineering milestones and regulatory assessments to scale the solution as its feasibility progresses.
With this collaboration, Cemex and Enagás seek to lay the foundations for a regional CO2 transport network by sea that connects emission sources with hubs in the Mediterranean, driving the transition to a low-carbon industry without losing sight of safety, cost and speed of deployment.
