Displaying items by tag: carbon capture, utilisation & storage
KHD hosts ACCSESS consortium meeting in Cologne
26 October 2022Germany: KHD hosted a meeting of the research and development consortium of the ACCSESS project in Cologne on 18 and 19 October 2022. The consortium is intended to develop replicable carbon capture utilisation and storage pathways to support a net zero strategy in Europe by 2050. KHD’s involvement with the project concerns running engineering feasibility studies for the retrofit of CCUS projects at two cement plants in Europe. It is also working on the concept development for a new clinker production technology, which is optimised as a new plant for operation with downstream carbon capture technology.
Other project partners working on ACCSESS of note to the cement sector include Heidelberg Materials and the German Cement Works Association (VDZ). Project completion is scheduled for mid-2025 with KHD’s contributions to be delivered by mid-2024.
Seratech's carbon-neutral cement wins Obel Award 2022
10 October 2022UK: Denmark-based architecture fund Henrik Frode Obel Foundation has named Seratech as winner of its Obel Award 2022. The award recognises architectural contributions to global development. Seratech has developed an olivine-based composite cement produced using CO2 from flue emissions, which can sequester double the CO2 of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). When used as 40% of a blend with OPC, it is able to completely offset the emissions of concrete production.
Team member Barnaby Shanks said "The beauty of the idea is that you can just use it as normal concrete. There are other carbon-neutral materials, but they can be limiting because they can only be precast, cured in a lab in special conditions and shipped elsewhere. We want people to retain the freedom to use concrete the way that they are used to. We don’t want to limit people in any way because we’ll just lessen the amount of impact we can have."
Holcim and TotalEnergies to work together on decarbonising upgrade to Obourg cement plant in Belgium
05 October 2022Belgium: Holcim and TotalEnergies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work towards the full decarbonisation of the Obourg cement plant. Various energies and technologies will be assessed for the capture, utilisation and sequestration (CCUS) of around 1.3Mt/yr of CO2 emitted by the unit. The project will include working towards building an oxyfuel switchable kiln as part of an upgrade project at the plant and the transportation and use of the captured CO2 by TotalEnergies for a synthetic fuel producing scheme and/or deposit in geological storage in the North Sea.
TotalEnergies will also assess the development of renewable projects to power a new electrolyser, which would generate the green hydrogen needed to produce synthetic fuels. This new renewable energy production capacity would also power Holcim’s new oxyfuel kiln. Finally, the oxygen emitted by the electrolyser would be used to fuel the new kiln.
Bart Daneels, the chief executive officer of Holcim Belgium said “Cement industry decarbonisation is extremely challenging because of the process's inevitable CO2 emissions, which put us firmly in the hard-to-abate sector. CCUS is vital for Obourg to become the first net carbon neutral clinker plant in northwest Europe. We are very happy to work with TotalEnergies to accelerate the development of these CCUS solutions for GO4ZERO. By joining the first movers, we want to set the standards for future clinker manufacturing plants.”
Holcim Belgium joins Fluxys CO2 transport network
21 September 2022Belgium: Holcim Belgium has joined Fluxys open-access CO2 transport network project. It intends to use the Fluxys network to either transport captured CO2 for sequestration in the North Sea or reuse in other industry after it builds a new 6000t/day production line at its Obourg plant by early 2026. As part of this process Holcim Belgium also plans to build a cryogenic CO2 capture and treatment unit at Obourg by early 2028.
Pascal De Buck, the chief executive officer of Fluxys, said "Holcim's interest in our CO2 network project at the Mons industrial cluster confirms the efforts industries are making to find solutions for decarbonising their activities. We're here to meet that need, which is why we offer them an open-access CO2 network they can use to transport their captured CO2 to storage or reuse sites. This kind of network helps achieve climate objectives and contributes to the long-term viability of the economy."
The proposed Fluxys CO2 transport network will see the construction and creation in Belgium of pipelines, intermodal hubs, port terminals and shipping from 2025 onwards. The proposed infrastructure is intended to transport three gases: CO2, hydrogen and methane.