Displaying items by tag: carbon capture and storage

UK: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Hanson’s plan for the installation of a carbon capture system at its Padeswood cement plant has proceeded to the due diligence stage for funding from the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The project is one of 20 from the East Coast Cluster and HyNet North West Consortium to make the shortlist for this phase of the approval process.

If successful, Hanson will be able to capture 800,000t/yr of CO₂ and produce carbon neutral cement at the Padeswood plant by 2027. It will create 54 new skilled full-time jobs.

Canada: The provincial government of Alberta has signed a contribution agreement for US$3.87m in funding towards Lafarge Canada’s planned carbon capture installation at its Exshaw cement plant. The cost of the system is US$20.9m. Offshore Energy News has reported that it is one of 11 carbon capture projects in the province which Alberta Minister of Energy Sonya Savage said will be operational by 2030. Ultimately, project partners plan to establish a CO₂ sequestration hub and transport network connecting the capture sites of various industry partners.

It’s been a good week for carbon capture projects in Europe with the announcement of who the European Union (EU) has selected for a grant from its Innovation Fund. 17 large-scale projects have been pre-selected for the Euro1.8bn being doled out in the second round of awards. On the cement and lime sector side there are four projects. These include projects at Holcim’s Lägerdorf cement plant in Germany, HeidelbergCement’s Devnya Cement plant in Bulgaria, Holcim’s Kujawy plant in Poland and Lhoist’s Chaux et Dolomites du Boulonnais lime plant in France. Large-scale in this instance means projects with capital costs over Euro7.5m. To give readers some sense of the scale of the projects that the EU has agreed to pay for, if the funding was shared out equally between the current bunch, it would be a little over Euro100m per project. This is serious money.

Devnya Cement’s ANRAV carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project in Bulgaria has received little public attention so far so we’ll look a little more closely at this one first. No obvious information is available on what capture technology might be in consideration at the plant. HeidelbergCement’s leading experience in carbon capture technology at cement plants gives it a variety of methods it could use from a solvent scrubbing route to something less common. What the company has said is that, subject to regulatory approval and permitting, the project could start to capture 0.8Mt/yr of CO₂ from 2028.

What has also been revealed is that the project is linking up via pipelines to a depleted part of the Galata gas field site in the Black Sea. Oil and gas company Petroceltic Bulgaria is a partner and the aim of the project is to start a CCUS cluster in Eastern Europe. with the potential for other capture sites in Romania and Egypt to join in. This is noteworthy because much of the focus for the burgeoning cement sector CCUS in Europe so far has been on usage on local industrial clusters or storage in the North Sea.

The other new one is the Go4ECOPlanet project at Holcim’s Kujawy plant in Poland. Lafarge Cement is working with Air Liquide on the project. The latter will be providing its Cryocap FG adsorption and cryogenics technology for direct capture of flue gas at the plant. The transportation of the CO₂ is also interesting here as it will be by train not pipeline. Liquid CO₂ will be despatched to a terminal in Gdańsk, then transferred to ships before being pumped down into a storage field under the North Sea.

Turning to the other two grant recipients, the Carbon2Business project plans to capture over 1Mt/yr of CO₂ using a second generation oxyfuel process at Holcim Deutschland’s Lägerdorf cement plant. This project is part of a larger regional hydrogen usage cluster so the captured CO₂ will be used to manufacture methanol in combination with the hydrogen. Finally, Lhoist’s project at a lime plant in France is another team-up with Air Liquide, again using the latter’s Cryocap technology. The capture CO₂ will be transported by shared pipeline to a hub near Dunkirk and then stored beneath the North Sea as part of the D'Artagnan initiative. Around 0.61Mt/yr of CO₂ is expected to be sequestered.

The key point to consider from all of the above is that all of these projects are clear about what is happening to the CO₂ after capture. The days of ‘carbon capture and something’ have thankfully been left behind. CO₂ transportation infrastructure is either being used or built and these cement plants will be feeding into it. This will inevitably lead to questions about whether all these new CO₂ networks can support themselves with or without EU funding but that is an argument for another day.

Finally, in other news, four residents from the Indonesian island of Pulau Pari started legal proceedings against Holcim last week for alleged damages caused by climate change. Industrial CO₂ emissions are unquestionably a cause of this along with other sources but what a court might think about this remains to be seen. Yet, it is intriguing that the plantiffs have decided to go after the 47th largest corporate emitter rather than, say, one of the top 10. Regardless of how far the islanders get this is likely not to be last such similar attempt. If the case does make it to court though it seems likely that Holcim will mention its work on CCUS such as the two projects above. Only another 200-odd cement plants in Europe to go.

Bulgaria/Poland: The EU Innovation Fund has awarded funding to Devnya Cement’s ANRAV carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project in Bulgaria and Lafarge Polska’s Go4ECOPlanet CCUS project in Poland.

ANRAV is a full-chain CCUS project connecting Devnya Cement’s Devnya cement plant in Varna Province over 30km to the Black Sea for storage. Go4ECOPlanet applies a similar model to the capture and storage of CO₂ from Lafarge Polska’s Kujawy cement plant offshore in the North Sea. The Kujawy cement plant is situated 200km inland in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. The plan is part of Lafarge Polska’s strategy to realise carbon neutrality at the Kujawy cement plant by 2027.

Regarding the ANRAV project, Mihail Polendakov, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania managing director at Devnya Cement’s parent company HeidelbergCement said “Our vision in the ANRAV consortium is to realise an economically viable CCUS cluster for Bulgaria and the neighbouring regions.” He continued “Subject to regulatory and permissions aspects, it could start operation as early as 2028, with a capture capacity of 800,000t/yr of CO₂.

UK: The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has granted Carbon Clean Euro701,000 under its Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Innovation 2.0 programme. Carbon Clean says that it will partner with energy engineering company Doosan Babcock and Newcastle University to develop carbon capture systems which apply non-aqueous solvent (NAS) and rotating packed bed (RPB) technology together for the first time. The partners seek to overcome the challenges of scale and cost in order to advance the widespread deployment of CCUS systems.

The CCUS Innovation 2.0 programme is part of the UK government’s Euro1.17bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio scheme.

Sweden: HeidelbergCement says that it will establish a 1.8Mt/yr carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant at its Slite cement plant in Gotland. It aims to achieve full-scale capture of the plant’s CO₂ emissions by 2030. In conjunction with the CCS plant project, Cementa will increase the share of biomass in the Slite plant’s fuel mix.

Chair Dominik von Achten said “Just a few days ago, we published new sustainability targets, underlining the importance of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) as one key lever to almost halve our CO₂ footprint by 2030 compared to 1990, and achieve Net Zero by 2050 at the latest.” He continued “Slite CCS is the largest CCUS project yet in our group and the cement industry, and a model for what will be achievable with CCUS also beyond 2030. As this initiative contributes considerably to the climate ambitions of Sweden, and is a unique project for us in terms of scale, we are keen to make it happen.”

Sweden: Cementa has completed its feasibility study for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system at Slite cement plant in Gotland. The producer says that it will now proceed to the next stage of the project, with the aim of producing climate positive cement from 2030. Sister company Norcem is currently building a 400,000t/yr CCS system at its Brevik cement plant in Norway. Cementa says that its new system will have four times the capacity of that at the Brevik plant, and reduce Sweden's total CO₂ emissions by 3%. One or more of 'several storage solutions' currently under development in the North Sea will serve to store the plant's captured CO₂ emissions.

General manager Giv Brantenberg said "With the knowledge we have built up through our pioneering project at Norcem in Brevik, we now have a good picture of how to move forward in Sweden. The Nordic countries have what it takes to lead the climate transition in the construction sector."

Australia: Boral and carbon capture specialist Calix have received US$21m in government funding for the launch of carbon capture and storage (CCS) feasibility study at the producer's Berrima cement plant in New South Wales. Local press has reported that Boral aims to establish a 100,000t/yr-capacity capture facility at the plant. Initially, the project will involve commercial model and pilot design to assess the engineering and commercial viability of the project. This phase is scheduled for completion in June 2023.

Chief operating officer Darren Schulz said "This is game changing technology for our industry and will play a critical role in supporting customers' sustainability targets. Together, Boral and Calix have access to the required infrastructure, technology and operational expertise required to deliver this project and lead the way in reducing emissions across the industry." Schulz concluded "If successful, we believe this project will enable the national rollout of carbon capture technology to Australia's cement and lime industry creating smarter and more sustainable solutions for our customers."

UK: Carbon capture systems developer Carbon Clean has raised US$150m in its largest funding round to date. US-based energy company Chevron Corporation led the round, with participation from Cemex venture capital subsidiary Cemex Ventures, Marubeni Corporation, WAVE Equity Partners, AXA IM Alts, Samsung Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and TC Energy.

As a result of the new funding, Carbon Clean says that it will now scale the production of its CycloneCC fully modular carbon capture technology, increase investment in research and development grow its team to meet ‘exponential’ demand growth for its products.

Germany: Holcim Deutschland says that the preliminary test phase of a new CO₂ separation unit at its Höver cement plant in Lower Saxony has delivered positive results. Plant manager Stephan Hinrichs said that the company was “delighted” with the results so far. In late 2021 Cool Planet Technologies and Hereon signed a memorandum of understanding with Holcim Deutschland to deliver a carbon capture system for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) trial at the plant based on Hereon’s PolyActive membrane technology.

The next stage of the project will start in August 2022 and it will last until late 2024. This will include a one-year active test phase, in which the system is to be examined in long-term operation, planned to start in September 2023. If the results are good enough then the carbon capture unit will be expanded step-by-step so that after the final expansion stage it can separate around 90% of the CO₂ emissions and deliver high-purity CO₂ in liquid form for sequestration or further use. The ultimate aim of the project is to demonstrate performance, economy and operational behaviour on a larger scale in order to check whether the technology can be used at both Höver and other cement plants. Continued funding for the scheme is dependent on an application to the Competence Centre on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries (KEI) as part of the Decarbonisation in Industry program.