Austria/Germany/Italy: The European Cement Research Academy (ECRA) has launched its oxyfuel carbon capture pilot projects at HeidelbergCement’s Colleferro plant in Italy and LafargeHolcim’s Retznei plant in Austria. The two locations were chosen form a shortlist of five sites. The pilots will test oxyfuel technology on an industrial scale. The test phase of the research is expected to cost Euro80m and the cement industry has contributed Euro25m towards this. ‘Substantial’ funding from European or national research schemes is being sought.
“The technical feasibility of oxyfuel technology can only be proven in real-scale application, but we have sufficient information from our research to believe that we will obtain a positive result after the trials” said Daniel Gauthier, chairman of ECRA.