Carbon capture, utilisation, news once again as Holcim and TotalEnergies have announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together on the complete decarbonisation of a cement plant in Obourg, Belgium.
These high-profile projects reviewing the deployment of industrial-scale CCUS in the cement sector have been popping up around the world in recent years, including: Lehigh Cement’s trial CCUS project at its Edmonton plant in Alberta, Canada (discussed in our October issue); the ongoing LEILAC 2 project in Germany; and the Norcem project in Norway, to name but a few.
The technologies being developed for the Holcim-TotalEnergies project include a new air-oxyfuel switchable kiln, designed to facilitate the capture and purification of CO2 in the flue gases, which will be provided as part of Holcim’s upgrade of the plant. And TotalEnergies will investigate options for the transportation and use of captured CO2 for an e-fuel production scheme and geological storage in the North Sea.
This particular project also touches on another hot-topic in the cement industry (and elsewhere): hydrogen. According to the MoU, TotalEnergies will assess the development of renewable projects to power an electrolyser, which would generate the green hydrogen needed to produce e-fuels. This new renewable energy production capacity would also power the oxyfuel kiln, thus further contributing to the decarbonisation of the cement plant. Finally, the oxygen emitted by the electrolyser would also be used to fuel the new kiln.
It is hoped that on completion, this project will enable the storage or utilisation of the 1.3 million tpy of CO2 emissions expected to be produced by the plant.
The urgent need to decarbonise has seen numerous start-ups with novel solutions make an appearance, with several promising to entirely electrify the calcination process and remove the need for a traditional cement kiln. Two such companies are Sublime Cement and Chement – both claim to have developed their own methods for creating cement with electricity at low temperatures. Sublime Systems refers to its process as ‘ambient temperature electrochemistry’, and Chement even claims to allow for the use of the standard OPC raw materials. Emissions reductions come from the removal of fossil fuels and the energy required to reach the high temperatures traditionally associated with cement production. A further bonus is that by removing the fossil fuels, it is far easier (and cheaper) to capture the pure CO2 that is produced.
Exciting though CCUS and other technologies may be, they are still very much in their infancy, and whilst they might ultimately be responsible for the lion’s share of emissions reduction in the cement sector, the industry needs to act today. Thankfully, the cement industry has shown innovation and a willingness to adapt to the challenge, with the adoption of alternative fuels, renewable energy, the use of SCMs, and the continued roll-out of digitalisation and optimisation programmes.
World Cement will be with you every step of the way as the industry works towards net zero.
