Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ACCSESS (Providing access to cost-efficient, replicable, safe and flexible CCUS)
Reporting period: 2021-05-01 to 2022-10-31
The vision of ACCSESS is to develop replicable CO2 Capture, Utilisation and Storage pathways toward a Climate Neutral Europe in 2050. The aim is to support the EU Green Deal with transforming the EU into a resource-efficient economy with net zero emissions of greenhouse gases. As not all CO2 emissions can be avoided, net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere is important for climate neutrality alongside regular CO2 capture, use and storage. ACCSESS addresses 4 energy-intensive industrial sectors that are relevant in this context: pulp and paper, cement, waste-to-energy, and biorefineries.
ACCSESS has 18 partners from 9 European countries, and 4 linked third parties, giving a wide perspective . CO2 capture is addressed not only in terms of demonstrating CO2 capture in a pilot plant in an operational environment, but also through systematic studies of integration of CO2 capture, transport, utilization, and storage in industry. ACCSESS also addresses industrial business models and investigates the marginal cost of producing climate neutral or climate positive end-products. Importantly, ACCSESS engages with cities and citizens to explore, explaining how CO2 capture can contribute to urban climate neutrality.
ACCSESS has 3 main objectives:
1) Demonstrate and integrate cost-efficient CO2 capture and use in industrial installations. Two concepts will be demonstrated. One is for CO2 capture, using an environmentally benign solvent together with a rotary packed bed absorber. The other is using CO2 for carbonation of alkaline industrial mineral waste (e.g. demolition concrete) to be used in construction materials.
2) Provide access routes for CO2 captured from European industries in inland Europe and the Baltics to the flexible transport and storage infrastructures under development in the North Sea. This is investigated with techno-economic analysis combined with environmental, legal, regulatory and resilience analyses.
3) Leverage on carbon dioxide removal to drive societal integration of CO2 capture, utilisation and storage towards urban and European sustainability. ACCSESS addresses industrial business models and engages with citizens, explaining how these concepts can contribute to the production of climate neutral or climate positive end-products, in a sustainable cities' context.
ACCSESS has 18 partners from 9 European countries, and 4 linked third parties, giving a wide perspective . CO2 capture is addressed not only in terms of demonstrating CO2 capture in a pilot plant in an operational environment, but also through systematic studies of integration of CO2 capture, transport, utilization, and storage in industry. ACCSESS also addresses industrial business models and investigates the marginal cost of producing climate neutral or climate positive end-products. Importantly, ACCSESS engages with cities and citizens to explore, explaining how CO2 capture can contribute to urban climate neutrality.
ACCSESS has 3 main objectives:
1) Demonstrate and integrate cost-efficient CO2 capture and use in industrial installations. Two concepts will be demonstrated. One is for CO2 capture, using an environmentally benign solvent together with a rotary packed bed absorber. The other is using CO2 for carbonation of alkaline industrial mineral waste (e.g. demolition concrete) to be used in construction materials.
2) Provide access routes for CO2 captured from European industries in inland Europe and the Baltics to the flexible transport and storage infrastructures under development in the North Sea. This is investigated with techno-economic analysis combined with environmental, legal, regulatory and resilience analyses.
3) Leverage on carbon dioxide removal to drive societal integration of CO2 capture, utilisation and storage towards urban and European sustainability. ACCSESS addresses industrial business models and engages with citizens, explaining how these concepts can contribute to the production of climate neutral or climate positive end-products, in a sustainable cities' context.
CO2 capture piloting: operation with the environmentally benign solvent by CO2 solutions by Saipem, in combination with the rotary packed bed absorber developed and manufactured by Prospin and Proceler. A CO2 capture pilot rig, operating with the CO2 solutions by Saipem capture technology was adapted at the Celsio waste-to-energy plant in Oslo, capturing 92% of the CO2. The combined technology will be demonstrated with the mobile pilot rig at Technology Centre Mongstad, Norway. Thereafter, the pilot rig will be moved to the Stora Enso pulp mill in Skutskär, Sweden, for a 6-month pilot test campaign, and to the Heidelberg Materials cement kiln in Górażdże, Poland, for another 6-month test campaign.
CO2 utilization demonstration: lab-scale tests are ongoing for recarbonation of alkaline wastes with CO2. During 2023 Neustark designs and builds a pilot-scale rig for technology demonstration. A supporting process model, calibrated with experimental results, is being developed by ETH and Neustark.
CO2 capture integration in four industrial sectors: to achieve cost efficiency and accelerate CO2 capture, utilization and storage implementation, strategies for integration of the CO2 capture process, and improvement potentials in the design of industrial plants are investigated:
• Pulp and paper: Chalmers mapped energy flows in two Stora Enso sites: Skutskär chemical pulp mill in Sweden and Langerbrugge recycled paper mill in Belgium.
• Cement: VDZ modelled two Heidelberg Materials kilns: Górażdże and Hannover. Linde and KHD began investigating an innovative form of integration of CO2 capture using amines in a new kiln system.
• Waste-to-energy: the main challenges for Waste to Energy Air Pollution Control and integration of CO2 capture were identified. Statistical analysis on Waste-to-Energy plants emissions, incorporating insights and know-how by VBSA and Celsio were done. A Waste-to-Energy and CO2 capture integration tool is being developed by SINTEF.
• Biorefineries: A biorefinery CO2 capture study with TotalEnergies OneTech data is ongoing. An optimization framework for capture clustering in biorefineries and industrial clusters (stacks with CO2 in varying quantities and concentrations) is being extended to the CO2 capture technology investigated in ACCSESS.
CO2 capture industrial end-users, industry partners (Saipem, Linde, KHD and Equinor) and research partners (SINTEF, ETH, VDZ and Chalmers) participate in this work.
Chains and Clusters: 4 “pioneering chains”, using existing technology to capture CO2 from different industrial sources and to transport it from different locations are studied. Current regulatory gaps for cross-border CO2 transport were assessed. The work lays the ground to investigate CO2 capture, utilization and storage clusters and chains, also with more advanced technologies and for additional geographic areas. Better knowledge about safe specifications in CO2 is important for cost-efficient CO2 transport. Heriot-Watt University completed water content measurements for pure CO2 at the low temperatures that are relevant for transport for varying pressures. Experimental work on permissible water content in CO2 for multicomponent systems, as well as dry ice formation, melting and prevention is ongoing.
End costs and societal acceptance: Chalmers studied how CO2 capture, utilization and storage impacts the product value chain of different materials and the resulting cost increase of selected end-products, showing that cost increase is marginal for cement (cement to high-speed railway) and a kraft pulp mill (fluff pulp to disposable diaper). Citizen engagement and acceptance is being investigated by Fraunhofer. A first round of a survey to gather citizens' attitude towards CO2 capture, utilization and storage was conducted.
A hybrid open event hosted by the EU delegation to Norway was organised in Oslo in September 2022 with focus on discussing status and outlook of CO2 capture, utilization, and storage implementation, as well as sustainable city development as a potential driver in this field. ACCSESS was represented during the Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies conference in Lyon in October 2022 with 8 papers. The main social media channel for the project is LinkedIn.
CO2 utilization demonstration: lab-scale tests are ongoing for recarbonation of alkaline wastes with CO2. During 2023 Neustark designs and builds a pilot-scale rig for technology demonstration. A supporting process model, calibrated with experimental results, is being developed by ETH and Neustark.
CO2 capture integration in four industrial sectors: to achieve cost efficiency and accelerate CO2 capture, utilization and storage implementation, strategies for integration of the CO2 capture process, and improvement potentials in the design of industrial plants are investigated:
• Pulp and paper: Chalmers mapped energy flows in two Stora Enso sites: Skutskär chemical pulp mill in Sweden and Langerbrugge recycled paper mill in Belgium.
• Cement: VDZ modelled two Heidelberg Materials kilns: Górażdże and Hannover. Linde and KHD began investigating an innovative form of integration of CO2 capture using amines in a new kiln system.
• Waste-to-energy: the main challenges for Waste to Energy Air Pollution Control and integration of CO2 capture were identified. Statistical analysis on Waste-to-Energy plants emissions, incorporating insights and know-how by VBSA and Celsio were done. A Waste-to-Energy and CO2 capture integration tool is being developed by SINTEF.
• Biorefineries: A biorefinery CO2 capture study with TotalEnergies OneTech data is ongoing. An optimization framework for capture clustering in biorefineries and industrial clusters (stacks with CO2 in varying quantities and concentrations) is being extended to the CO2 capture technology investigated in ACCSESS.
CO2 capture industrial end-users, industry partners (Saipem, Linde, KHD and Equinor) and research partners (SINTEF, ETH, VDZ and Chalmers) participate in this work.
Chains and Clusters: 4 “pioneering chains”, using existing technology to capture CO2 from different industrial sources and to transport it from different locations are studied. Current regulatory gaps for cross-border CO2 transport were assessed. The work lays the ground to investigate CO2 capture, utilization and storage clusters and chains, also with more advanced technologies and for additional geographic areas. Better knowledge about safe specifications in CO2 is important for cost-efficient CO2 transport. Heriot-Watt University completed water content measurements for pure CO2 at the low temperatures that are relevant for transport for varying pressures. Experimental work on permissible water content in CO2 for multicomponent systems, as well as dry ice formation, melting and prevention is ongoing.
End costs and societal acceptance: Chalmers studied how CO2 capture, utilization and storage impacts the product value chain of different materials and the resulting cost increase of selected end-products, showing that cost increase is marginal for cement (cement to high-speed railway) and a kraft pulp mill (fluff pulp to disposable diaper). Citizen engagement and acceptance is being investigated by Fraunhofer. A first round of a survey to gather citizens' attitude towards CO2 capture, utilization and storage was conducted.
A hybrid open event hosted by the EU delegation to Norway was organised in Oslo in September 2022 with focus on discussing status and outlook of CO2 capture, utilization, and storage implementation, as well as sustainable city development as a potential driver in this field. ACCSESS was represented during the Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies conference in Lyon in October 2022 with 8 papers. The main social media channel for the project is LinkedIn.
ACCSESS will progress beyond state-of-the-art by demonstrating in industrial installations the novel CO2 capture technology that is investigated. The utilization of CO2 in the carbonation of alkaline waste materials so that they can be used as construction materials will also be demonstrated.
ACCSESS will provide insights into cost-efficient capture integration in 4 industrial sectors, and potential cost cuts and environmental impacts for transport. Procedures for safe large-scale ship-transport, CO2 loading and offloading will be provided. The impact of CO2 capture on end-product costs will be determined as a potential element in future business models. ACCSESS will also deliver a handbook for cities on how these technologies can unlock urban carbon neutrality.
ACCSESS will provide insights into cost-efficient capture integration in 4 industrial sectors, and potential cost cuts and environmental impacts for transport. Procedures for safe large-scale ship-transport, CO2 loading and offloading will be provided. The impact of CO2 capture on end-product costs will be determined as a potential element in future business models. ACCSESS will also deliver a handbook for cities on how these technologies can unlock urban carbon neutrality.