Displaying items by tag: carbon capture

UK: C-Capture won an IChemE Global Award in the Energy category for its solvent-based carbon capture system. C-Capture's model differs fundamentally from currently commercially available systems, offering a lower energy penalty than technologies including amine-based capture. It is robust in handling impurities in flue gases, including O₂, SO_x and NO_x, while offering competitive cost and safety performance.

CEO Tom White said “Being shortlisted was honour enough, but to win the global Energy award is fantastic recognition for the C-Capture team and our unique carbon capture technology. The IChemE Global Awards represent the pinnacle of excellence in chemical process engineering. This achievement is testament to our exceptional team and their commitment to accelerating the global adoption of carbon capture and storage to achieve net zero by preventing greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.”

US: Cemex USA and RTI International have secured US$3.7m in funding from the US Department of Energy for their Balcones cement plant amine technology carbon capture study. The plant in New Braunfels, Texas, will trial RTI International's non-aqueous solvent (NAS) system, licensed by energy and technology company SLB. Resources News has reported that the system will have a CO₂ capture capacity of 670,000t/yr. RTI International's principal project investigator Vijay Gupta said that NAS capture has a 30 - 40% lower energy penalty than preceding solvent-based technologies.

Cemex USA president Jaime Muguiro said "We remain committed to exploring technologies that can help us meet our targets as we build a more sustainable future. We are striving to cut emissions across all our operations, and this study with RTI International is one of the many steps Cemex is taking to achieve our objectives."

UK: Hanson has announced a 'carbon capture breakthrough' in its use of recycled concrete paste (RCP) in the wet scrubber of its Ribblesdale cement plant in Lancashire. In under 30 minutes, 15t of RCP was able to capture 1.5t of CO₂ from the plant's flue emissions. Carbonated RCP is suitable to replace limestone in cement production.

Hanson's sustainability director Marian Garfield said “The trial was carried out with our parent company Heidelberg Materials’ research and development team, and marks another important milestone in our carbon capture journey."

Mexico: Cemex has announced a raft of new carbon capture projects in Europe and North America. When commissioned, they will bring its total installed CO₂ capture capacity to over 3Mt/yr. The projects consist of three front-end engineering (FEED) studies to scale installations of Australia-based Leilac’s direct separation technology at Cemex cement plants in Germany, Poland and the US; a fourth FEED study for 95% capture installation at the Balcones, Texas, cement plant using RTI International's solvent capture technology and a development partnership for the cement industry's most comprehensive carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) studies at eight further cement plants in Europe, Mexico and the US.

Chief executive officer Fernando González said “CCUS brings together the essence of our strategic priorities: sustainability and innovation. Our Future in Action programme to achieve sustainable excellence and become a net-zero company is all about measurable, verified progress towards the most ambitious decarbonisation pathway in the industry. Although CCUS technologies are not ready to be scaled quite yet, it will take relentless work and innovation to ensure their viability in time to avoid the most damaging effects of climate change.”

Singapore: Parliament passed the Carbon Pricing (Amendment) Bill earlier in November 2022. Under the act, Singapore will raise the price of carbon credits to US$18.17/t from 2024, and to US$32.71/t from 2026. CNA News has reported that the government said that the new legislation will provide the basis for the realisation of carbon credit prices of over US$36.31/t by 2030, in line with the country's 2050 net zero CO2 emissions commitment.

Polluters which emit over 25,000t/yr of CO₂ currently pay US$3.65/t for carbon credits.

Europe: The Carbon Negative Biofuels from Organic Waste (Carbiow) project has received EU funding under the Horizon Europe initiative. Carbiow seeks to develop a dense, dry homogenous marine and aviation biofuel by carbonising gasification ash with oxygen and captured CO₂ from cement plants. 12 consortium members from the Benelux, Germany, Nordic countries, Slovenia and Spain are participating in the project.

Germany: The Catch4Climate project says it is ready to build an oxyfuel pilot unit at Schwenk Zement’s Mergelstetten plant following approval by the Stuttgart Regional Council. The project comprises Dyckerhoff, Heidelberg Materials, Schwenk Zement and Vicat, and It has set up a research company called CI4C to run it. Over Euro120m will be invested towards building a dedicated 450t/day production line to test the oxyfuel process. Jürgen Thormann, the Technical Managing Director of CI4C, said that this is the first time a so-called ‘pure’ oxyfuel process will be used for CO₂ capture. At a later stage in the project the consortium plans to use the captured CO₂ to produce so-called ‘reFuels’, climate-neutral synthetic fuels such as kerosene for aircraft, with the help of renewable electrical energy. Commissioning of the unit is scheduled for mid-2024.

Europe: Ireland-based Ecocem and seven other European sustainable technology companies have launched the Cleantech Scale-Up Coalition, with the backing of green investment funding network Breakthrough Energy. The coalition will work to contribute to European climate neutrality, energy autonomy and industrially competitiveness. Other participants' fields include carbon capture, green hydrogen technologies, transport electrification, batteries and recycling.

Ecocem's managing director Donal O’Riain said “Scalable, low carbon cements, which can decarbonise the European cement industry by 50% by 2030, are ready to deploy today. To do so, they need to be rapidly industrialised. This coalition, which allows Ecocem to combine forces with other world-class companies, will enable our ambition by working to remove the barriers to an accelerated decarbonisation of European, and global, industry.”

Germany/Australia: Calix subsidiary Leilac has concluded a licence agreement with Heidelberg Materials for use of its carbon capture technology. The cement producer holds the licence indefinitely and for all operations across the globe. It said that Leilac’s technology offers effective capture of unavoidable cement plant CO₂ emissions with minimal operational impact.

Heidelberg Materials currently has one Leilac system installed at its Lixhe plant in Belgium. It expects to commence construction of a second unit at its Hanover plant in Germany in 2023. Together, the installations will be able to capture 125,000t/yr of CO₂. The producer says that both projects pave the way for future full-scale deployment of Leilac’s carbon capture model.

Australia: Cement Australia’s Gladstone cement plant in Queensland will host a study of methanol production from green hydrogen and captured CO₂. Japan-based Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company will supply its green methanol production technology, while hydrogen and oxygen feedstocks will be sourced locally. Cement Australia and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company will collaborate on commercialisation of their green methanol. Cement Australia said that carbon capture and its utilisation in value added products is a strategic pillar of the company’s decarbonisation roadmap.

The cement producer said “The Gladstone region is the ideal location for growing a diverse green hydrogen sector, with abundant renewable energy sources, existing infrastructure, including port facilities, and a highly skilled workforce. The green hydrogen economy is a priority for the Queensland government under the Queensland Hydrogen Industry Strategy.”