Groundwork at Heidelberg Materials’ Padeswood cement plant in north Wales has passed 600 concrete piles and 60,000 tonnes of aggregate, with the company’s own carbon-captured cement used throughout construction.
Heidelberg Materials has installed more than 600 concrete piles at its Padeswood cement works in north Wales, where groundwork is advancing on the UK’s first carbon capture facility at a cement plant.
The piles contain around 5,000 cubic metres of concrete and were placed by two rigs to form a retaining wall. More than 60,000 tonnes of aggregate has gone into establishing the working areas. Crews have also removed 25,000 tonnes of topsoil, now stockpiled for reinstatement, diverted overhead power lines and cables, and installed newt and security fencing.
Every pour on the project uses concrete containing evoZero, the company’s carbon-captured near-zero cement. The product gains its credentials from carbon capture and storage at Heidelberg Materials’ Brevik plant in Norway, allocated through chain of custody models.
“We are delighted with the pace of construction of our Padeswood CCS project and it is great to watch as our plans turn into reality,” said Simon Willis, chief executive of Heidelberg Materials UK. “We are using evoZero cement wherever possible to lower the carbon impact of the project and there is a symmetry to using a product produced using CCS to help build the infrastructure for another.”
Worley is carrying out this phase of the groundwork. The engineering firm holds the engineering, procurement and construction management contract for the facility with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. An average of 80 construction workers are on site each day, a figure expected to double by the end of the year.
Capture at twice the Brevik rate
The capture plant is designed to remove around 95% of the carbon emissions from the existing works, roughly 800,000 tonnes of CO2 a year at full capacity. Brevik, which opened in June 2025 as the world’s first industrial-scale capture facility at a cement plant, captures about half of its site’s emissions, around 400,000 tonnes a year.
Heidelberg Materials took its final investment decision on Padeswood in September 2025 after agreeing funding with the UK government. Commissioning is foreseen in 2029. Captured CO2 will be compressed and piped underground for storage beneath the seabed in Liverpool Bay as part of the HyNet North West project. The company says the scheme will secure more than 200 jobs, create around 50 new ones and support up to 500 more during construction.
Once operating, Padeswood will give Heidelberg Materials its second source of evoZero cement and its first in the UK. For British contractors under pressure to cut embodied carbon, that puts near-zero cement production on domestic soil for the first time.
