Inventys partners with Total and Lafarge

Project CO₂MENT will demonstrate and evaluate Inventys’ CO₂ capture system and a selection of CO₂ utilisation technologies at Lafarge’s Richmond cement plant, in British Colombia, over the next four years. The project is led by Inventys in partnership with Lafarge Canada Inc. (a member of the global building materials group LafargeHolcim) and Total (a major energy company). It has also received financial support from CO₂ Capture Project (CCP), the Province of British Colombia, and Canada’s federal government through the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program.

Project CO₂MENT received CAN$150 000 through the British Colombia government’s Innovative Clean Energy Fund, which provides funding to projects that align with the province’s climate goals, while also supporting a thriving clean energy sector.

Lafarge’s Richmond cement plant has been building in Canada for more than 60 years. In a drive towards its 2030 Sustainability Goals, Lafarge recently expanded its low carbon fuel programme, with the addition of a CAN$28 million system for the use of non-recyclable waste as fuel. More than 1 million tpy of cement is produced by the plant, making it a large emitter of CO₂ in British Colombia. This new system will make Richmond the most carbon efficient cement plant in Canada.

The project provides an opportunity to evaluate the potential for a new business model for supplying post-combustion CO₂ to the existing CO₂ market, as well as assessing the economic feasibility of newly developed CO₂ utilisation technologies.

The objectives of the project are the following:

• Phase 1 – The Containment Programme: Reduce harmful organic and inorganic substances, such as sulfur dioxide, dust, soot, and NO_X, from cement flue gas.
• Phase 2 – The CO₂ Capture Program: Separate the CO₂ from flue gas using a customised forcement version of Inventys’ carbon capture technology at pilot scale.
• Phase 3 – The CO₂ Reuse Program: Prepare post-combustion CO₂ for reuse and support the economical assessment and demonstration of CO₂ conversion technologies onsite, such as CO2-injected concrete and flyash.

Funding for the first two phases is complete and the development of Phase 1 is underway. It is planned that Phase 1 will begin operation in 2019, followed by Phases 2 and 3 in 2020.

“At Inventys, we see a real opportunity to build a CO₂ marketplace where tonnes of CO₂ are traded between emitters and users,” said Claude Letourneau, President and CEO of Inventys. “This project provides an opportunity for global industry leaders to work together using everyone’s expertise to create new business models while fighting climate change.”

“Project CO₂MENT is a great example of how made-in-B.C. innovations and technology are putting us on the path to a cleaner, better future,” said Michelle Mungall, Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources. “Like other projects supported by the Innovative Clean Energy Fund, it will help achieve our government’s CleanBC plan to reduce climate pollution, boost the economy, and create good jobs.”

“It takes intensive energy to heat limestone to the level necessary for its transformation into cement and the chemical reaction itself produces CO₂, so we are very interested in researching ways to capture these emissions and reuse them in our concrete products,” said Brad Kohl, CEO of Lafarge Western Canada.

“Total is delighted to invest and support the CO₂MENT project, which demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of technologies to capture CO₂ from real industrial flue gas,” said Samuel Lethier, CO₂ Capture R&D Project Manager at Total. “This is an important step forward to make carbon capture, usage, and storage an economic solution. Total is committed to investing 10% of its annual R&D investment into carbon capture, utilisation, and storage, which will play an essential role in achieving carbon neutrality in the second half of the century.”

“This is an exciting project for CCP to be joining,” said Jonathan Forsyth, Board Chair of CCP. “CCP has always put a focus on new technology development that will advance carbon capture and storage. Our participation in Phase 2 of CO₂MENT aligns with that and, if successful, the project could create another potential solution that reduces the cost of capturing CO₂ from industry applications.”

“Using CO₂ as a raw material, especially when coupled with British Colombia’s renewable energy, could potentially generate profits to subsidise the costs of CO₂ capture and enable a use in the region where storage cannot exist,” said Brett Henkel, Co-Founder and Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Inventys. “Our objective is to see if a commercial scale project can provide a business case for up to 3000 tpd of CO₂, preventing those emissions from going into the atmosphere.”

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/the-americas/29052019/inventys-partners-with-total-and-lafarge/