Canada: Lafarge Canada has launched the first phase of its CO₂MENT project. The objective is to build a full-cycle solution to capture and reuse CO₂ from a cement plant. The project is a partnership between Lafarge Canada, Inventys and Total.

“LafargeHolcim is committed to reducing CO₂ emissions and we are excited to join forces with Inventys and Total through Project CO₂MENT. We hope to discover ways to capture emissions from our production processes and reuse them in our products, advancing a circular economy even further than today. The recent launch of the new lower carbon fuel (LCF) system at our Richmond plant aims to make the facility the most carbon efficient cement plant in Canada,” said René Thibault, Region Head North America for LafargeHolcim.

Over the next four years, Project CO₂MENT will demonstrate and evaluate Inventys’ CO₂ Capture System and a selection of LafargeHolcim’s carbon utilization technologies at its Richmond cement plant in British Columbia. The project has three phases and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2020. Subject to the pilot’s success, the vision is to scale up the project and explore how the facility can be replicated across other LafargeHolcim plants.

During the first phase the partners will work on purifying the cement flue gas in preparation for CO₂ capture. The second phase will focus on the separation of CO₂ from flue gas using a customised for cement version of Inventys’ carbon capture technology at pilot scale. As part of the final phase, the captured CO₂ will be prepared for reuse and support the economical assessment and demonstration of CO₂ conversion technologies onsite, such as CO₂ injected concrete and fly ash.