Displaying items by tag: CCUS

US/Canada: XPrize has named CarbonBuilt and CarbonCure Technologies as the winners of carbon capture and storage (CCS) design prizes worth US$20.0m. The competition ran at two power plants in Wyoming, US and Alberta, Canada. CarbonBuilt won the contest at the Wyoming plant with a concrete-curing based system. The concrete produced has a lower carbon footprint than conventionally produced concrete, according to XPrize. CarbonCure Technologies won the Alberta contest with a design based on carbonating the water used in washing cement trucks. This reportedly formed a concrete-strengthening slurry.

XPrize has partnered with Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation to launch a second round of CCS design prizes worth a total US$100m.

Germany: Mexico-based Cemex subsidiary Cemex Zement has set up an innovation acceleration partnership called Carbon Neutral Alliance to support its work to achieve net zero CO₂ emissions at its Rüdersdorf cement plant by 2030. The association will work to develop industrial-scale demonstration projects in line with the company’s Future in Action programme. Its scope will include carbon capture and storage (CCS), the transformation of captured CO₂ into building materials, synthetic fuels and green hydrocarbons, hydrogen production and waste heat recovery (WHR). Cemex plans to share the knowledge gained by the alliance across its global cement network.

Managing director and Rüdersdorf plant manager Stefan Schmorleiz said, "It is expected that CO₂ will be further processed to convert to new forms of energy and materials for use locally by industrial, residential, and transport sectors. Together with our partners, we will take feasibility studies through to economic solutions to decarbonising cement production.”

Germany: ThyssenKrupp says that the four cement producer members of Cement Innovation for Climate (CI4C) are preparing to launch an industrial-scale trial of its Polysius Pure Oxyfuel carbon capture and storage (CCS) process. The renewably-powered process produces ‘refuel’ synthetic fuels such as kerosene for aviation.

Senior Proposal Manager Markus Sauer said,“CI4C and ThyssenKrupp are currently investigating the use of our polysius pure oxyfuel technology in a demonstration plant. Working with our long-standing customers, we would be delighted if we could demonstrate the efficiency of our technology for the first time on an industrial scale. By using this technology, the cement industry could significantly reduce its process-related CO₂ emissions and thus make an important contribution to climate protection.”

US: Lehigh Hanson has signed a collaboration agreement with materials technology company Fortera. Under the agreement, the companies will establish a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system at the producer’s 0.8Mt/yr integrated Redding Cement plant in Shasta district, California. The system will produce a cementitious material for use in concrete production. The material will be the first of its kind to be produced at a cement plant.

"This collaboration with Lehigh Hanson will prove the commercial scalability, the quality of the final product, and the competitive economics of the Fortera process," said Ryan Gilliam, chief executive officer and co-founder of Fortera. He added that the Fortera process (ReCarb) has been designed to utilise the existing cement infrastructure, from the quarry to the kiln, but with less CO₂ emissions, lower energy, and lower processing temperatures, leading to 60% lower CO₂ emissions per tonne of product.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement plans to set up a Carbon Neutral Technology Development Project Team in April 2021. The team will develop and apply carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies for installation at the producer’s cement kilns. The company said that the team seeks to develop cost-practical product for industrial application. Following on from this, it plans to develop CCS technologies which make use of other cement plant processes, and which integrates the circular economic use of industrial by-products. Carbon neutrality is the ultimate aim.

The group said, “By establishing a new project team that is a cross-company organisation, we will gather our wisdom and realise carbon neutrality. We will strongly promote the development of innovative technologies for this purpose.”

UK: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Hanson has partnered with the Hynet North West consortium for a study on carbon capture and storage (CCS) solution at its Padeswood, Flintshire, cement plant. The consortium is planning to implement carbon capture and storage installations at industrial facilities across Flintshire, Wrexham, Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Lancashire. It says that when active the network will constitute the world’s first low carbon industrial cluster, with a total reduction of 10Mt/yr of emissions by CCS. The Padeswood plant would account for 800,000t/yr of this total.

Hanson group chief executive officer Simon Willis said, “Our involvement in the HyNet North West project is the latest example of our commitment to cutting CO₂ emissions. CCS at our cement plants will be a key part of our roadmap to achieve net zero carbon by 2050. The first step would be for us to carry out a feasibility study - this would give us a clear design basis and cost estimate for a capture plant and connection to the planned HyNet North West CO₂ network and storage system.”

The HyNet North West project also includes production, storage and distribution of low carbon hydrogen, which will help to decarbonise other industries whose CO₂ emissions primarily come from fossil fuels. The project, led by Progressive Energy, is being developed by a consortium of regionally located partners including Cadent, CF Fertilisers, Eni UK, Essar, INOVYN and the University of Chester as well as Hanson.

Europe/North America: Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim and US-based Schlumberger plan to study the feasibility of carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems at two cement plants in Europe and North America. The companies say that the partnership is intended to as a precursor towards the deployment of large-scale CCS solutions.

LafargeHolcim’s chief sustainability officer Magali Anderson said, “Today’s announcement is further proof of LafargeHolcim’s environmental leadership and commitment to pioneer new solutions to reduce carbon emissions on our journey to become a net zero company. Our partnership with Schlumberger, the world’s leading provider of technology to the global energy industry, will bring new advances in storage that could be replicated at scale across our sites.”

US: The US Department of Energy has awarded a grant to Cemex USA, UK-based carbon capture and storage (CCS) specialist Carbon Clean and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The grant covers the implementation of a CCS system at Cemex USA’s Victorville cement plant in California, in addition to the development of a commercially viable carbon utilisation solution. The producer says that the study is due to last 30 months.

President Jaime Muguiro said, “Cemex is committed to being part of the solution to reduce carbon emissions globally and to deliver net-zero CO₂ concrete to all of our customers by 2050. We cannot achieve these aims without innovative technology and collaborative relationships with both public and private organizations who share a commitment to climate action. This grant gives us an excellent opportunity to further develop a new technology to help us all reach our goals.”

Germany: Mexico-based Cemex has announced its planned participation in Australia-based Calix and others’ LEILAC (Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement) 2 carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at HeidelbergCement’s Hanover cement plant in Lower Saxony. Cemex previously assisted the LEILAC partnership at its first installation at HeidelbergCement’s cement plant in Lixhe in Belgium. The company said that it will contribute to the technology's development utilising its gasification process expertise, leveraging its skills in alternative fuel (AF) consumption and computational fluid dynamic simulation design.

Global head of research and development Davide Zampini said, "Our participation in the LEILAC 2 project is another example of our continued efforts to deliver net-zero CO₂ concrete products globally by 2050. We are determined to have a significant direct involvement in research and development efforts pursuing high impact technologies in carbon capture, use, and storage."

Germany: HeidelbergCement, Australia-based Calix and a European consortium have chosen the Hanover cement plant in Lower Saxony for the second phase of the LEILAC (Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement) carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The installation will capture 20% of the plant’s capacity or 100,000t/yr of CO₂. The project will take place in three phases, with design completed by June 2021, a complete demonstration installation before the end of 2023 and project completion in 2025. The group previously installed a 25,000t/yr LEILAC CCS system at its Lixhe plant near Liege in Belgium, which completed its test phase in 2020.

Chair Dominik von Achten said, "The LEILAC technology has the potential to enable the cement and lime industries to efficiently capture their process emissions on an industrial scale. The pilot project in Hanover is one of several promising CO₂ capture technologies that we are currently testing at full speed within the HeidelbergCement Group."