Lime production is a major source of CO2 emissions because it relies on high-temperature calcination of limestone, a process that inherently releases CO2 from the raw material itself. In addition, fossil fuels are typically burned to reach the required temperatures, compounding emissions. These two processes make lime particularly difficult to decarbonize compared to other industries. As demand for lime spans critical sectors — from a $380–$425B global cement market to $45–$55B in industrial and agricultural applications — the need to decarbonize is both urgent and largely unmet, and its carbon footprint has wide-reaching impacts. It is essential to decarbonize lime production to achieve climate targets, reducing industrial emissions at scale, and enabling cleaner supply chains across agriculture, construction, and heavy industry.
Zero-carbon lime production through electrochemical precalcination to reduce emissions in construction, pulp and paper, and mining.
CURA is accelerating an alternative to existing emissions-intensive calcination with an electrochemical process that produces zero-carbon lime while isolating pure CO2 for storage. CURA is deploying a 100-tonne/year pilot to validate integrated systems and enable scale-up to a 30,000-tonne/year commercial plant eliminating ~800 kg CO2 per tonne of lime, equivalent to approximately 24,000 tonnes of CO2 per year at full commercial scale.
NorthX’s investment is accelerating engineering, integration, and deployment, de-risking first-of-a-kind infrastructure and advancing domestic supply chains. This support will enable rapid commercialization, unlocking significant emissions reductions across sectors reliant on lime and positioning Canada as a leader in low carbon industrial materials.
