Review 2024
1st Global CemCCUS Conference, Exhibition and Awards 2024
14 - 15 May 2024 - Oslo, Norway
The inaugural Global CemCCUS Conference on carbon capture for the cement and lime industries has successfully taken place in Oslo, with 150 attendees from 31 counties, and a visit to the Brevik carbon capture plant, courtesy of Heidelberg Materials. The event will be repeated in Hamburg in May 2025.
Purchase the Global CemCCUS Conference Pack 2024
The conference pack is available for purchase (use the link below) for GBP£895 (includes the video, presentations and proceedings from the event).
Purchase the Global CemCCUS Conference Short Course Pack 2024
The short course pack is available for purchase (use the link below) for GBP£495 (includes the video and presentations and proceedings from the training day).
On the day before the conference itself, industry consultant John Kline hosted a well-attended day-long ‘introduction to carbon capture’ course.
The next day, Devika Wattal of the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) started off the conference by reminding delegates of the work of the association to help the cement industry to navigate the net-zero roadmap. Devika mentioned a useful new website which is tracking existing and prospective cement industry carbon capture projects. Devika is the coordinator of the Innovandi Open Challenge, which is a project to bring forward the most promising technologies for carbon capture.
Emmanuel Brutin, policy advisor for Cembureau the European cement industry association, next spoke about the regulatory framework required for successful CCUS rollout. Four years previously, the association adopted the Cembureau 2050 Raodmap, outlining all the levers for decarbonisation in the cement industry, and Emmanuel pointed out that CCS/CCU accounts for around 35% of future cement industry carbon abatement by 2050. Cembureau also has a listing of projects underway, in Europe. Many projects are now foreseen to be operational in Europe by 2030, allowing the permanent CO2 storage of up to 12Mt/year. However, the EU’s Industrial Carbon Management Strategy has an ambition to hike this (for all industries) to 50Mt/yr by 2030, 280Mt/year by 2040 and 450Mt/year by 2050. Emmanuel warned of a two-speed Europe, with those bordering the prime CO2 sites of the North Sea being strongly advantaged compared to those that are more landlocked: Access to CO2 infrastructure at reasonable costs and conditions will be critical, as will faster permitting for storage sites. The EU Innovation Fund has been critical in moving projects forward, but has been eight times oversubscribed. At least 75% of future payments by the cement sector into the EU ETS (approximately Euro80bn by 2034), should be diverted into a dedicated ‘cement fund,’ according to Emmanuel. The current framework for CCU in Europe is a major obstacle to CCU deployment in the cement industry, since after 2040 the industry will not get carbon credits for CO2 use.
Next Christian Preuss and Marvin Kieckhöfel of Heidelberg Materials gave a keynote presentation on HM’s approach to CCUS. The company wants to reduce its average CO2 emissions to less than 400kg CO2/t of cementitious by 2030, not only through using traditional levers like alternative fuels, the use of SCMs and process optimisation, but also through the pioneering use of carbon capture. ‘The published CCUS portfolio is the tip of the iceberg,’ with other projects coming. “We will capture a cumulative 10Mt of CO2 by 2030.” To choose projects and technology, the CCUS business case must have affordable capture technology, affordable transport and storage, available subsidies and incentives, there must be government and public support, and the plant must be suitable (such as having available land, and electricity connections). “The higher-hanging fruits will become lower in the forthcoming years as technology matures and as support systems evolve.” Heidelberg Materials is investing in all known capture solutions, and expects to finally utilise a mix of approaches, depending on the situation of individual cement plants. “ETS savings are currently not sufficient to cover the cost of the CCS value chain, and the future price of carbon credits is uncertain.” The speakers reiterated the call for EU ETS payments to be allocated back to the decarbonisation of the cement industry. Marvin outlined the new EvoZero cement products - one produced and delivered from Brevik, one delivered from any European cement plant but with the Brevik capture and sequestration allocated to the product and proven using blockchain, and a zero-carbon concrete product.
Well-known cement industry expert Joe Harder of OneStone Consulting next gave an overview of cement and lime carbon capture projects worldwide. He suggested that out of humanity’s total CO2 emissions of around 13Bnt/year, the cement industry emits around 2.6Bnt/year, and pointed out that the world is due to burst through the 1.5°C heating point in the next few years (if it hasn’t done so already). It is clear that the cement industry cannot achieve net zero without carbon capture, and Joe said that if all planned projects are built, that the cement industry is likely to be able to capture 27Mt/year by 2030. The cement industry is estimated to require up to US$900bn in capital expenditure to achieve its net zero goals by 2050. Joe identified 42 full-scale CCS/CCUS projects worldwide in the cement industry, and 10 in the lime industry.
Zhiwei Gu of CMBI/Sinoma next gave an update on carbon capture in the Chinese cement industry. Chinese clinker production peaked in 2013-4, with consolidation and rationalisation in the years since, and with utilisation rates sinking from around 80% in 2010 to around 60% in 2023. Process emissions account for 60% of emissions, indirect emissions around 5% and energy activities around 35%. The theoretical CO2 sequestration capacity in China is estimated at 1.2-4.1trillion tonnes, in both onshore and offshore basins. There are a number of CCUS demonstration projects in the Chinese cement industry, and although capture costs are relatively high, at Euro40-80/t, they are still lower than the international average. Amines and pressure swing adsorption are the key technologies under consideration for carbon capture in China. Gu said that Chinese government support for CC is currently in the form of policy support, with no specific financial policies yet in place. He gave details of ‘the world’s first cement kiln flue gas carbon capture system,’ at the Bai Ma Shan cement plant of Anhui Conch, near Wuhu, Anhui province. Zhiwei Gu forecast that China will progressively test, develop and commercialise carbon capture technology in the coming years. He forecast a capture cost of Euro20-40/t by 2050.
Ben Lee of Energy Aspects then gave a much-anticipated presentation on future EU ETS carbon emissions pricing trends. The days of permits at Euro20/t are long gone: the EU’s default policy is to completely decarbonise industry by around 2040, with the elimination of free allocations by 2034 as the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is phased in. Despite the global financial crisis, falls in demand due to Covid, and the inflation/interest rate crisis of the last couple of years in Europe, the European cement industry still has CO2 emissions of above 100Mt. Industrial weakness and lower demand for permits has hit the price of permits, but activity is likely to start to rise from 2025. Ben mapped out the likely future supply and demand of emissions permits, pointing out that the market is currently balanced, but will tighten again from 2026, and there will be very little surplus in permits by the end of the decade. Speculators have flooded into the market, but starting in May 2023 have flipped from taking long positions in the market to now shorting the market, helping to push prices down.
At the start of the next session, on technical aspects of cement industry carbon capture, Stéphane Poellaer of Alterline outlined the process optimisation steps that are required as a prerequisite. Firstly, the kiln must be stabilised, and the process and all equipment must have very high reliability (while also using a very high proportion of alternative fuels). The exhaust gas volume must be decreased since this impacts on the capex and opex of post-combustion technologies. The CO2 concentration in the exhaust gas must be maximised, and acid gases and specific pollutants (SOx, NOx, VOCs etc) must be minimised. He gave many specific examples of how producers can practically improve production (whether they plan to introduce carbon capture or not). “Do not envisage CCUS if your kiln stops 150 times per year - fix the main problems first!”
Simon Knitter of IKN GmbH then gave a rundown on some carbon capture technology options. The company has historically been known as a manufacturer of coolers, but now does so much more, including pyro projects and now CCUS. IKN has been involved, progressively, with the early Cemcap projects, Cleanker, and Leilac projects, and now is researching Oxyfuel. Simon clearly explained the calcium looping concept, and gave details of the Cleanker project demonstrator in Italy, which showed that it would be suitable for green-field or retrofitting, and which would work with many fuel types. The Leilac concept allows indirect heating of the limestone and hence the collection of high-CO2 exhaust gases. Oxyfuel has a high capture potential for CO2, at relatively low cost. Fuel is burned in pure oxygen, excluding ambient air and its high nitrogen burden, allowing high CO2 concentrations in the flue gas. Many Oxyfuel concepts are being developed at the moment, all of them seeking to eliminate false air, but potentially using separate ambient air circuits, such as cooler-grinding circuits, or preheater-cooler-grinding-circuits. New sealing technologies are required to address the false air problem, for example beyond the use of flexible skirting or graphite blocks for kiln sealing. IKN can increasingly help customers in many areas of the CCUS sector.
David Jayant of FLSmidth next spoke about how to tailor cement production for CCUS. The company’s new OneCal in-house modelling software can analyse multiple scenarios to optimise production, and to prepare the plant for carbon capture. FLS trialled Oxyfuel combustion back in 2010, but then shelved the technology, since it appeared to be before the curve. However, David said, Oxyfuel with post-combustion cryogenics-capture and calcium looping (CaL) is now recognised as the most economical approach, but is at a technological readiness level (TRL) that is too low at the moment. David gave an outline of different approaches to decarbonisation, including 'Newcement,' full and partial Oxyfuel projects, cryogenics-capture approaches, clay calcination, pyro-optimisation and the use of the FuelFlex pyrolyser.
Monaca McNall and co-authors from WL Gore then gave details of how to optimise gas pre-treatment for carbon capture using Gore filtration products. “This is the decade to develop CCUS technology,” stated Monaca, and she mentioned the requirements for a filtration solution: it needs to avoid particulate contamination, avoid solvent degradation, minimise corrosion, have economic regeneration and have a low pressure drop. Among a variety of Gore solutions, including DeNOx filtration, low drag bags, liquid filtration, Gore mercury filtration and Turbine Filters, Monaca focussed on bag house solutions. Gore low drag filter bags may be used as a ‘polishing’ solution after a normal bag house, since the bags use a unique membrane structure which is ideally suited to fine particulate matter, and which does not need a filter cake to work well. Initially the pressure drop might be higher than equivalent clean bags, but because the fibres in the low drag bags are so fine, they do not tend to become contaminated and blinded, so that over time, the low drag bags maintain a steady, lower pressure drop. Gore also offers catalytic filter bags for DeNOx, which, when combined with SCR, will fully clean the gas prior to carbon capture.
Lukas Biyikli of Siemens Energy Global then spoke about the importance of compressor selection and how they can drive project economics and plant concepts. Above a certain temperature and pressure - the so-called critical point (for CO2, 31.3°C and 73.8 bar), a fluid is in the supercritical phase, meaning it has properties of a liquid and a gas. Supercritical CO2 has the density of a liquid (slightly lighter than a liquid, but much heavier than a gas) and the viscosity and compressibility of gas (slightly less than a gas, but much higher than a liquid). The most efficient state of CO2 for pipeline transport is as a dense-phase liquid without risk of phase change, which corresponds to a lower pressure drop along the pipeline per unit mass of CO2 when compared to the transportation of the CO2 as a gas or as a two-phase combination of both liquid and gas. Gaseous transport in pipelines is not economical due to the high volume of the gas, low density and high-pressure losses; Liquid CO2 requires insulated pipelines. Lukas stated that for a heavy gas like CO2, a centrifugal compressor is favoured over a reciprocating compressor. However, for CO2 pipeline compressors, reciprocating compressors are typically chosen, since they can process much lower flow rates if required. Single-shaft compressors are typically not the most cost-effective technology, since the entire casing needs to be designed for the maximum discharge pressure. On the other hand, internally geared compressors allow for intercooling after each stage, since each stage is within its own volute casing, which leads to significant power reduction. All of the compressor solutions can be split into modular container-sized portions. Siemens is working to combine centrifugal and reciprocating compressors in a single design.
Awards dinner
At the end of the first day of the conference, delegates visited the Norwegian armed forces flight museum during which the inaugural Global CemCCUS Awards were presented, based on global voting. Holcim was awarded the ‘Global CemCCUS company of the year,’ while the Brevik carbon capture unit was awarded ‘project of the year.' Aker Carbon Capture won the award for innovation of the year, and thyssenkrupp Polysius won for ‘supplier of the year.’ The award for Global CemCCUS ‘personality of the year’ went to Dr Dominic Von Achten, CEO of Heidelberg Materials.
Second day
On the second day of the conference, Monika Nikolaisen of Aker Carbon Capture spoke about heat integration solutions. Around 4.1GJ/t of CO2 captured is required for carbon capture using monoethyl amine (MEA), the industry benchmark amine. Energy recovery from the heat energy produced by the amine system is critical to reduce energy consumption, and Monika stated that heat pumps are well suited to this application. Waste heat recovery from the rest of the cement pyro system will further reduce overall electrical requirements for the plant.
Madison Savilow of Carbon Upcycling focussed on clinker substitution and carbon capture, pointing out that SCMs are starting to become scarce in some markets. Carbon Upcycling uses industrial byproducts, including fly ashes, steel slags, clays and natural pozzolans, which are then subject to ‘mechanically assisted chemical exfoliation,’ (MACE), increasing their surface area and boosting reactivity. They are then combined with low-concentration CO2 to produce carbon-captured CO2 cements, with up to 60% reduced carbon emissions and with up to 40% strength increase. The system is fully electric, with no fossil fuels used, and has been used commercially for more than three years already. Madison suggested that the cost of ‘sequestration’ using this process is US$50/t of CO2, compared to perhaps US$100/t for carbon capture and sequestration, or US$1200/t for direct air capture (DAC).
Cato Christiansen of Capsol Technologies next looked at high-pressure hot potassium carbonate-based (HPC) carbon capture. The CapsolEoP (end of pipe) solution is for large-scale carbon capture. The inorganic solvent is non-degradable, is non-volatile and is environmentally-benign, and the technology has been proven in over 700 plants worldwide since the 1950s. The system traditionally requires the use of compressors, requiring high electrical use. However, adding in an expander (basically a reverse compressor) and heat exchanger can extract energy from the compressed gas, reducing electricity consumption by 60% and avoiding the need for any additional heat. Cato suggested that the system has an energy requirement of 0.6Gj/t of CO2 captured, versus 2.5-3.5Gj/t with MEA amines, depending on the CO2 concentration in the flue gas.
Nic Renard of Ardent next spoke about the use of membranes for carbon dioxide capture. He suggested that membranes have the advantages of reduced energy consumption, no chemical use and no steel use. Nic gave examples of membranes working long-term in industrial applications, and also debunked the suggestion that membranes need high pressures to operate: the Ardent OptiPerm membrane can successfully operate at 1-4 bar. Nic gave an assessment of capture economics with membranes, using realistic (almost pessimistic) assumptions, for a membrane and cryogenics system producing 99.99% pure CO2 with 90% capture. He suggested a cost of US$101/t of CO2 captured (US$110/t of CO2 avoided), with capex of US$118m. He suggested that the use of membranes has lower exposure to utility cost variability, and a lower cost of CO2 avoided, compared to using MEA amines.
Stratos Stavrakakis from Nuada, a company named after an ancient Irish king whose name means ‘capture,’ explained about his company’s metal-organic frameworks (MOF), which can be used to capture carbon dioxide at low energy intensity of 0.7Gj/t of CO2 captured. “Essentially, this is vacuuming CO2 from industrial emissions,” stated Stratos, with the MOFs being regenerated simply by applying a vacuum once they are saturated. Nuada is at the pilot stage (1t/d) today, but aims to build a 50t/d demo project in the UK by 2025.
Aaron Lyons of Carbon8 spoke about his company’s process to react cement kiln bypass dust (CBD) with CO2 to produce artificial aggregates. Aaron suggested that the value of all carbon markets worldwide is already worth US$850bn/year, already covering 70% of the world’s GDP. “Data is going to be vitally important to carbon capture, to provide full third party verification of valuable credits.”
Tom Hills of Leilac was next up and he gave an update on progress. The technology is a combined calciner and carbon capture system in the form of a hollow tube surrounded by a furnace: heat is radiated into the inner calciner tube releasing CO2 from the limestone feed, and producing a high CO2 exhaust gas. The single-tube LEILAC 1 plant was built in Lixhe in Belgium in 2019 with a CO2 capture capacity of 25kt/y. The four-tube LEILAC 2 plant will be built at the Ennigerloh plant in Germany, will have a capacity of 100kt/year and will capture 20% of the plant’s unavoidable process emissions. The plant is due for completion in 2025 and will also examine the possibility of using alternative fuels. Tom suggested that the LEILAC 2 plant can avoid process emissions at a cost of Euro33/t of CO2. The approach captures around 90% of process CO2 generated in the pyroprocess, but it does not capture combustion-related emissions. An additional carbon capture process might be added to capture the remainder of the CO2 from the system. “There is enough waste heat in a Leilac-enabled plant to drive a post-combustion capture plant which captures the final CO2,” he concluded. The capex is Euro120m for a 1.2Mt/year cement plant.
John Kline of Kline Consulting next gave delegates an idea of the real total cost of cement industry CCUS. In a nutshell, the cost of a carbon capture plant for a cement plant will cost the same as building another cement plant! Cost is a function of the gas quality and flow, as well as heat consumption, fuel type, elevation and false air, as well as the operational costs of the particular carbon capture technology chosen. Thorough cleaning of the gas is required prior to carbon capture, and this is potentially a very costly procedure. John gave an idea of projected costs for a carbon capture project, warning to pay no attention to the absolute numbers but to note the percentages of the project cost for each of the cost categories, which would be transferable to other projects. The bottom line for the project, before inflation was taken into account, was more than half a billion dollars. John also showed a bewildering array of different specifications for gas that would be allowed into different pipelines - with the limits being tough (and expensive) to attain (for example having less than 10ppm oxygen). A recent VDZ study suggests that around 4500km of new CO2 pipelines will be required for the German cement industry by 2035, at a cost of Euro14bn. Additionally, Europe has a finite amount of geological storage space - and the easiest and cheapest sinks will be used first, so that sequestration costs will mount through time.
Robert Jutson of Griffin Capital gave the penultimate presentation at the conference, looking at project finance. Rob suggested that industry and regulators are involved in a massive game of ‘chicken,’ to work out who has the liabilities for CO2 capture and sequestration at the end of the day. He suggested that the objective for participants is to reduce their balance sheet risk to as low as possible, and specialised project finance is one means to achieve this objective. One problem is that the risks involved are not well known, and nor are the pricing levers for sequestration sinks. He pointed out the difference between the cost of CO2 avoidance (perhaps Euro40 - 120/t of CO2) and the cost of EU ETS carbon emissions permits (varying between Euro50-100/t historically, but at unknown levels in the future). Long term, a reliable floor price needs to be established, above the ‘best’ cost of carbon capture. However, growth in emissions from countries that will not abate emissions in the next 50 years will swamp all carbon capture efforts in the developed world.Despite this, he concluded, “time is of the essence.”
Anders Peterson of Heidelberg Materials gave the final presentation, which was an introduction to the carbon capture project at the Brevik plant, to be visited by delegates the next day. Anders pointed out the long gestation of the project, starting in 2014. At Brevik, captured CO2 will be loaded onto ships, which will take it to the Northern Lights hub, after which it will be pumped out to sinks below the North Sea for permanent geological storage. At Brevik, the CO2 is stored in insulated tanks. One of the first things to be built at the plant at the beginning of the project was a pier, to allow very large process equipment to be shipped to the plant. Extensive piling was undertaken, prior to the first of nine WHR units being delivered. Enormous absorber and desorber units were delivered and lifted into position by very large cranes, along with the CO2 storage tanks. As of the date of the conference, the plant is around 80% complete. Anders detailed a number of valuable takeaway lessons learned. Primarily, there was a disjoint between expectations in the cement (low cost/practical) and petrochemicals (low/no risk, high cost) industries. This presentation and ‘lessons learned’ takeaways alone could save potential cement industry developers millions of Euros.
Fileld trip and farewells
The day, after the conference, many delegates took a long journey to the Brevik cement plant for a field trip, using a specially-chartered local ferry boat in order to give delegates the best view of the plant being built. On a beautiful day, everybody enjoyed the tremendous views of the impressive plant and gave hearty thanks to the hosts of the visit, Heidelberg Materials.
At the end of the conference delegates gathered together for a farewell reception and the award of the conference prizes. Following voting by delegates, Lukas Biyikli from Siemens Energy Global was awarded third prize for his presentation on compressor selection for carbon capture. In second place was Madison Savilow of Carbon Upcycling with her paper on carbon capture and sequestration in artificial aggregates. However, the winner of the prize for the best presentation was Anders Petersen, with his ‘warts and all’ account of the building of the new Brevik carbon capture unit.
Delegates very strongly praised the conference for its excellent presentations, for its outstanding networking opportunities, and for the friendly conference organisation. After voting by delegates, the second Global CemCCUS conference will take place in Vienna, Austria, in May 2025.