Ambuja Cements Partners UK's Leilac for Low-Carbon Cement Project in Gujarat

Ambuja Cements has joined hands with the UK clean-technology firm Leilac to develop a commercial-scale low-carbon cement pathway at its Sanghipuram plant in Kutch, Gujarat, in a move that places one of India's largest building-material producers at the front of efforts to clean up a stubbornly polluting sector. The partnership, the company said, fits squarely within its decarbonisation strategy and aims to demonstrate emission-cutting production technology at a scale relevant to India's enormous construction demand.

Why cement is a climate problem

Cement is indispensable to roads, housing, ports and the broader infrastructure on which India's growth rests. It is also one of the most carbon-intensive materials in the economy, because the chemical process of turning limestone into clinker releases carbon dioxide directly, on top of the emissions from the fuel used to heat the kilns.

That dual source of emissions makes cement what experts call a hard-to-abate industry: efficiency gains and cleaner fuels help, but they cannot fully address the carbon released by the chemistry itself. Capturing that process carbon is where technologies like Leilac's come in.

What the Kutch project aims to prove

Leilac's approach is built around separating the process emissions at the point of production, which in principle allows the carbon dioxide to be captured in a purer stream for storage or reuse. The Sanghipuram collaboration is intended to test whether such a system can operate at commercial scale rather than as a laboratory demonstration.

For Ambuja and its parent group, the test is threefold: whether the technology works reliably, whether it can be deployed at the volumes Indian demand requires, and whether the economics stack up against conventional production.

Stakes for India's net-zero push

India has set a target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2070, and heavy industry sits at the centre of that challenge. A workable low-carbon cement model developed on Indian soil could become a template for other plants and producers across the country.

• Ambuja Cements has partnered Leilac, a UK clean-tech firm, on low-carbon cement.
• The project is sited at the Sanghipuram plant in Kutch, Gujarat.
• Cement's emissions come from both fuel and the chemistry of making clinker.
• The aim is commercial-scale, not just pilot-scale, demonstration.
• Success depends on technology reliability, scale and cost competitiveness.

“Cement is essential for infrastructure but carbon intensive; the test is whether the technology can work at scale, cost and reliability suitable for Indian construction demand.”

— Project rationale

The coming phases of the Kutch project will be watched closely by industry and policymakers alike. If Ambuja and Leilac can show that low-carbon cement is technically and commercially viable at scale, the partnership could mark an inflection point in how India builds without further loading the climate ledger.

The NE Times View

Cement is one of India's genuinely hard-to-abate sectors, so a commercial-scale low-carbon pathway in Kutch is more consequential than the usual corporate sustainability gesture. The test is whether captured carbon finds real use or storage rather than a press release. The NE Times View: this partnership is worth watching as a template, but decarbonising Indian heavy industry will need carbon pricing and demand for green cement, not pilots alone, to move from showcase to standard.

This article is original commentary and analysis by The NE Times. Background facts were referenced from Economic Times and NDTV.