The Project
Why CILANTRO?
The cement industry is a cornerstone of global infrastructure, but it is also a significant contributor to climate change, accounting for approximately 8% of all industry-related CO₂ emissions. Achieving climate neutrality requires a revolutionary shift in how we produce the materials that build our world. CILANTRO was launched to address this major challenge head-on: to develop a new cement manufacturing technology that results in net negative CO₂ emissions over the cement’s lifetime.
Our Goal
The Goal
To pioneer the world’s first net negative CO₂ cement manufacturing technology, moving beyond emission reduction to become a climate-positive force.
The Technology
We replace high-temperature, fuel-intensive kilns with a groundbreaking non-thermal process that uses mechanical grinding and clean hydrogen as a key feedstock.
The Benefit
This new approach completely avoids process CO₂ generation and emissions and also co-produces valuable gases that can be used as energy vectors or precursors of organic synthesis.
Funding
CILANTRO is a highly prestigious, four-year project funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) under the Horizon Europe programme (Grant Agreement No. 101223262). Our project together with other five forming a strategic project portfolio was selected out of 88 proposals under the competitive EIC Pathfinder challenge, focusing on “Towards cement and concrete as a carbon sink”. This collaborative approach fosters synergy and accelerates the development of solutions for a sustainable cement industry, maximizing our collective impact across Europe. CILANTRO directly supports the goals of the European Green Deal by tackling one of the continent’s most challenging industrial emission sources: cement production. By pioneering a carbon-negative manufacturing technology, CILANTRO is delivering the breakthrough innovation required to make the European construction sector a climate-positive force, contributing directly to the EU goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
Objectives & Impact
Traditional Cement: High CO Emissions
CILANTRO: Net Negative CO Technology
The CILANTRO Commitments
The CILANTRO project runs for 48 months (4 years), from October 2025 to September 2029. Our primary objectives are to successfully develop and validate a disruptive, non-thermal technology that will lay the foundation for a carbon-negative construction industry.
- Our committed, quantifiable goals include: Validation in a laboratory setting of an innovative technology of various calcium silicate phases through tribochemcial processing of raw materials without CO2 generation and emissions.
- Innovation Protection: Secure at least one patent to protect the intellectual property of our groundbreaking manufacturing technology.
- Scientific Dissemination: Achieve at least eight Open Access (OA) publications to widely share our research findings with the scientific community.
- Talent Investment: Fund at least three new positions for excellent PhD students and young postdocs, investing in the next generation of European talent.
- Innovation Demonstration: Design and build a Triboreactor Demonstrator that showcases the feasibility of the new process.