SCHWENK welcomes Transport Minister Winfried Hermann at the Mergelstetten cement plant – studies on SAF and CO₂ transport and accounting in focus

Ulm/Mergelstetten, September 5, 2025 – On September 5, 2025, the SCHWENK Building Materials Group welcomed Transportation Minister Winfried Hermann to the Mergelstetten cement plant. The visit focused on the joint development of innovative technologies to decarbonize the cement industry and utilize captured CO₂, including for the production of kerosene.

SCHWENK had already signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the Prime Minister and the Transport Minister in summer 2022 to promote the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) produced from captured CO₂.

“As an industrial company with deep roots in Baden-Württemberg, we see it as our responsibility to actively contribute to climate goals. Minister Hermann’s visit underscores the importance of our commitment,” said Mr. Thormann, Managing Director of New Technologies at the SCHWENK Building Materials Group.

During the visit, two studies were presented, jointly commissioned and funded by SCHWENK and the Ministry of Transport of Baden-Württemberg to provide a scientific basis for its SAF initiative:

• The first study, presented by Maike Schmidt from the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), examines accounting-based compensation mechanisms—such as Direct Air Capture (DAC) and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)—for achieving greenhouse gas neutrality in Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) applications like SAF. This would allow SAF to be produced from CO₂ emissions generated during cement production with a net greenhouse gas-neutral footprint.
• The second study, conducted by DBI Gas- und Umwelttechnik GmbH in collaboration with DIALOGIK, a non-profit company for communication and cooperation research, evaluates measures for creating a sustainable infrastructure for the transport, storage, and further processing of captured CO₂—with a particular focus on its use for SAF.

Both studies provide groundbreaking building blocks for the development of a Europe-wide carbon management system.

“The decarbonization of mobility is a key component. Air travel, in particular, must play its part here. The approaches presented for CO₂ accounting and the use of captured emissions for synthetic kerosene demonstrate how innovation and responsibility can go hand in hand,” said Transportation Minister Winfried Hermann. “We will incorporate these findings into the further development of the regulatory framework in Brussels and Berlin—with the goal of bringing about a change that makes investments in relevant technologies for aviation fuel production economically viable.”

Through the presentation of the studies and the in-depth discussions held on site, SCHWENK and the Ministry of Transportation are actively driving progress toward a sustainable building materials industry.