CURA is a Vancouver-based company building technology to produce low-carbon cement. CURA enables pre-calcination carbon-capture by using electrolysis to split limestone into lime and pure CO2—capturing emissions before they are released. CURA’s technology is retrofit-ready, built on proven technologies, and designed to cut both energy use and cost in half for a scalable, cost-effective path to decarbonized cement production.
Cement manufacturing is responsible for 8% of global CO₂ emissions each year, with two-thirds stemming from process emissions, namely the breakdown of limestone into lime and CO₂, and one-third from fuel combustion in high-temperature kilns. While the Canadian cement sector aims to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050, current solutions either minimize cement use in concrete or explore alternative feedstocks to avoid limestone. The problem? These approaches either have limited impact, long lead times, or fail to address the root cause of emissions at the source.
CURA enables the cement industry’s transition to net zero emissions by tackling both process and combustion emissions.
Their pre-calcination carbon capture system directly captures CO₂ released from limestone while also reducing fuel usage. This process eliminates 85% of cement manufacturing emissions while maintaining cost parity. With NorthX’s support, CURA will complete early engineering validation and refine its modeling to build a 100-tonne-per-year pilot. This pilot is a critical step in scaling the technology and de-risking the path to CURA’s first commercial unit.
