Sustainability –The biggest lever is already built.

Over 800 cement lines run on polysius® equipment, and more than 17,600 of our machines and systems are in service around the world. Energy saved in those plants outweighs anything we could achieve at our own sites — so that is where we aim our technology and our engineering effort.

Where we start

Industrial environments are evolving, but the need for reliable process performance remains unchanged. Operators today are working on the same short list: get more out of the assets they already have, raise availability and uptime, extend operational lifetime, reduce operating costs, cut CO₂ and improve energy efficiency. In practice these are not competing goals. The measure that lowers a plant's energy bill is usually the same measure that lowers its emissions.

That is why we do not treat sustainability as a separate programme. We begin by identifying where operating costs are generated across the plant — in energy consumption, in wear, in availability, in process stability. Mechanical audits, process audits and on-site inspections show how machines and processes actually interact in operation, which makes hidden cost drivers visible. From there we define a modernization strategy for that specific plant, and we support it from planning and implementation through to ongoing operation.

Three Levers

Run existing plants better

The fastest route to lower emissions runs through the plant that is already standing. Modernizing mills, coolers, preheaters, kilns and burners changes what an installed line consumes and how reliably it runs, without waiting for a new build. We do this for polysius® equipment and third-party installations alike — improvement potential exists in both.

At Danyang in South Korea, a prepol® SC step combustor on a 5,800 t/day line reached a thermal substitution rate of 85 per cent, with NOx emissions below 190 mg/Nm³ and total hydrocarbons below 20 mg/Nm³. The technology is designed to handle low-grade, lumpy alternative fuels — the fuels that are otherwise hard to use.

Lower the clinker factor

Clinker is where much of cement's carbon sits. Activated clay can replace part of it, and we build the plants that produce it. In Kribi, Cameroon, we delivered the first activated clay plant at industrial scale for Cimpor Global Holdings, with a capacity of 720 tonnes per day.

Mechano-chemical activation goes a step further. The meca-clay process is fully electrified, and the next development stage — electrified drying — is in FEED study. A demonstration plant is under construction with SCHWENK in Allmendingen, Germany, with production starting in 2026.

Make process emissions capturable

A significant share of the CO₂ in cement production comes from the raw material itself, through chemical reaction. No change of fuel removes it. What can be changed is the concentration in which it leaves the process. With polysius® pure oxyfuel, clinker is burnt in a pure oxygen atmosphere; the expected CO₂ concentration in the off-gas of over 90 per cent makes downstream capture far more efficient.

The pilot plant at Mergelstetten operates at semi-industrial scale, 450 tonnes per day, funded by the C4IC consortium with over 100 million euros. In the IFESTOS project with Titan Cement, supported by the EU Innovation Fund, 1.9 million tonnes of CO₂ per year are planned for capture, with operation starting in 2029.

Where we stand · FY 2024/25

We publish our own figures alongside the targets, including where we have not reached them yet.

Scope 1 & 2 — −54.5 % (2030 target: −50 %) Green electricity, Scope 2 — 71.7 % (2030 target: 80 %) Lost time injury rate — 0.4 (2030 target: < 1.0) Women in graded positions — 12.5 % (2030 target: 15 %)

Base year 2017/18. Polysius is part of thyssenkrupp AG, whose climate targets follow the 1.5 °C pathway of the Paris Agreement and are validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. The route to those targets is set out in the Climate Transition Plan, approved by the Executive Board of thyssenkrupp AG and published in the Sustainability Report.

Proven in projects

polysius® pure oxyfuel Semi-industrial pilot at 450 t/day, over 100 million euros invested by the C4IC consortium, construction started 2022. Expected CO₂ concentration in the off-gas above 90 per cent.

Flash calciner, Cimpor Global Holdings 720 t/day of activated clay. The first activated clay plant at industrial scale, reducing CO₂ in the production process by around 30 per cent.

IFESTOS 1.9 million tonnes of CO₂ per year planned for capture, in FEED study phase since Q4 2024, operation from 2029. Funded by the EU Innovation Fund.

Responsibility in our own business

Technology is one part of the account. How we run our own business and choose our partners is the other.

Supply chain

We expect suppliers to acknowledge the thyssenkrupp Supplier Code of Conduct. Suppliers with an elevated risk profile must provide contractual assurances and agree to preventive or remedial measures, including audits; selected suppliers are assessed by third-party auditors. The framework is set by the German Supply Chain Act, the CSDDD, CBAM and the EU Deforestation Regulation.

Compliance

Violations of laws and internal rules are not tolerated. Compliance is part of how we work, together with reliability, honesty, credibility and integrity. A whistleblower channel is open to internal staff, to direct and indirect suppliers, and to their employees.

Health and safety

We work with a global occupational safety and health organisation and assess safety culture continuously at our focus sites. In FY 2024/25 our lost time injury rate was 0.4.

Our strength is not only equipment. It is understanding and improving industrial processes.

A plant that uses less energy, stands still less often and lasts longer is also the plant with the lower carbon footprint. That is why our sustainability work and our service work are the same work — carried out in the plants that are already running, across the full lifecycle of industrial assets.

Where is your plant losing energy?

A process audit reveals how machines and processes interact in real operation, and where operating costs and emissions are generated. It is the starting point for every modernization we deliver.