Cemex USA has been awarded US$1.1 million in funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to demonstrate a dry sorbent CO2 capture technology at one of its cement plants in the US. The commercial-scale carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) demonstration project is expected to store up to I million t of CO2.
ArticleSnatch.com reports that Cemex, in partnership with RTI International, will design and construct a dry sorbent CO2 capture and compression system, an injection station, and pipeline, if needed. The company will fund 20% of Phase 1 of the CCS project. After completion of this phase, which will be in about seven months, the projects will undergo a competitive analysis for additional funding for design, construction and operation. In March 2009, Cemex was awarded Energy Star Partner of the year by the DOE and the US EPA for reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 115 000 t.
The DOE is also funding 11 other CCS systems in industrial plants that include paper mills, chemical plants, manufacturing plants, refineries and cement plants, aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gases. A recent audit, conducted by the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, found that CCS projects face a high risk of failure due to their high costs and should be implemented across many sectors to achieve a higher rate of success.