Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CaLby2030 (CALCIUM LOOPING TO CAPTURE CO2 FROM INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES BY 2030)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2023-11-30
The main goal of CaLby2030 is to act as enabling tool to achieve commercial deployment of the Calcium Looping (CaL) technology using Circulating Fluidised Bed (CFB) reactors by 2030. CaL is an emerging CO2 capture technology that uses CaO as sorbent for capturing the CO2 present in a flue gas stream in a carbonator reactor, forming CaCO3. In a subsequent oxy-calcination step, CaO is regenerated whilst obtaining a highly concentrated stream of CO2 that can be used or permanently stored. Several reactor concepts have been proposed to conduct the these reactions at industrial scale, but CFBs are known to benefit from the maturity of commercial CFB Combustors. CaL is most suitable when the high-temperature heat flows available from the capture system are effectively integrated in an industrial process or used to generate power. CaLby2030 investigates decarbonisation of three hard-to-abate high temperature industrial processes: electricity-based steelmaking processes where carbon-usage cannot be avoided, modern cement plants that cannot escape from the use of limestone and Waste-to-Energy (WtE) and Bio-CHP power plants that fill the gap in scalable dispatchable power and allow for negative emissions. These industries together account for >5GtCO2/yr and offer strong material synergies and additional CO2 avoidance by utilising the CaO-rich purge leaving the CFB-CaL system.Three TRL6 pilot plants will be operated in Sweden, Germany and Spain to carry out test campaigns under industrially relevant operating conditions, generating a database >4000 that will be interpreted using advanced modelling tools to enable the scale-up of the key CO2 capture reactors to a fully commercial scale. Process techno-economic simulation, cluster optimisation and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) will be performed to maximise renewable energy inputs and materials circularities and obtain a clear prospect to facilitate integration of this technology in the current industrial scene. All this information will form the basis for undertaking FEED studies for demonstration plants in at least four EU locations. Innovative CFB-CaL solutions will be developed and tested to reach >99% CO2 capture rates, reaching for some process schemes Specific Primary Energy Consumption per CO2 Avoided below 0.8 MJ/kgCO2. Social acceptability and preferences for “zero” or “negative emissions” CaL demonstration projects will be assessed with novel methodologies to help to overcome current societal barriers for the implementation of CCUS. The consortium includes the world-leading CFB provider, key end user industries and leading academics including CaL pioneers.
During the 1st reporting period, start up test campaigns to support the engineering and detailed design of the retrofits required in the MAGNUS (Germany) and La Pereda (Spain) TRL6 pilot plants were performed to achieve CaLby2030 objectives. Small retrofits and repairs were also carried out to allow initial pilot tests to be completed. Experimental campaigns were performed at the MAGNUS facility to identify challenges for the integration of CFB-CaL to capture CO2 in cement plants. First experiments were also carried out in La Pereda pilot using biomass as fuel in the oxy-fired calciner for the first time. Moreover, substantial progress has been achieved on the definition of boundary conditions and first steps towards the design of the newly-built pilot planned in Sweden for metallurgical CaL-CFB testing.
CFB reactor models have been also developed and applied to simulate the CaL process for the investigated industrial processes . The initial, non-validated models were built and applied to the pilot plants mentioned above. Separation of the fine and coarse sorbent materials in the primary cyclone of the MAGNUS calciner, as required for the integrated CFB-CaL cement concept, was simulated using the models developed. A first-of-a-kind dynamic 1D model for CaL in steel production was also built and used for initial simulations, which can be employed to develop appropriate controls for the operation of the Sweden pilot. Injection of Ca(OH)2 at the top of the carbonator in La Pereda pilot to achieve >99% carbon capture efficiency has been investigated with a steady-state 1D model to determine the optimal injection height. Process simulation tasks were also performed to assess the reference plant configurations for the four sectors and to evaluate the application of the “standard” CaL configuration integrated with a CO2 purification unit, to establish a benchmark baseline for comparison against the improved CaLby2030 CaL systems. Moreover, development of a multi-criteria optimization model for conditioning and transport of captured CO2 from a capture plant to a storage or utilization location was initiated. To exploit the project’s piloting and modelling activities towards an accelerated technical deployment of the developed process concepts and technologies, CaLby2030 involves the conceptual design for first-of-a-kind retrofitted CaL CCUS systems in the cement, steel, Bio-CHP and WtE sectors. Four host sites have already been selected and the retrofit concept definition of CFB-CaL was developed in all cases. Furthermore, the constraints for the multi-criteria optimization of the multimodal transport of CO2 as part of the CCUS chain in industrial clusters around the four demonstration plants were defined. A tailored LCA methodology has been also developed to perform the environmental evaluation of the chosen CCUS demonstration projects. The main drivers and barriers for social acceptability of CCUS technologies were analysed and the results are being employed for a survey design that will assess the social acceptability and preferences of CCUS using CFB-CaL as CO2 capture technology on a case study in Spain. Assessment of the societal readiness is also being evaluated on a more generic framework through the organisation of focus groups, which are preceded by individual interviews that are currently ongoing to identify the necessary conditions that need to be in place for those stakeholders to lend their support to the implementation of CaL-based CCUS.
CFB reactor models have been also developed and applied to simulate the CaL process for the investigated industrial processes . The initial, non-validated models were built and applied to the pilot plants mentioned above. Separation of the fine and coarse sorbent materials in the primary cyclone of the MAGNUS calciner, as required for the integrated CFB-CaL cement concept, was simulated using the models developed. A first-of-a-kind dynamic 1D model for CaL in steel production was also built and used for initial simulations, which can be employed to develop appropriate controls for the operation of the Sweden pilot. Injection of Ca(OH)2 at the top of the carbonator in La Pereda pilot to achieve >99% carbon capture efficiency has been investigated with a steady-state 1D model to determine the optimal injection height. Process simulation tasks were also performed to assess the reference plant configurations for the four sectors and to evaluate the application of the “standard” CaL configuration integrated with a CO2 purification unit, to establish a benchmark baseline for comparison against the improved CaLby2030 CaL systems. Moreover, development of a multi-criteria optimization model for conditioning and transport of captured CO2 from a capture plant to a storage or utilization location was initiated. To exploit the project’s piloting and modelling activities towards an accelerated technical deployment of the developed process concepts and technologies, CaLby2030 involves the conceptual design for first-of-a-kind retrofitted CaL CCUS systems in the cement, steel, Bio-CHP and WtE sectors. Four host sites have already been selected and the retrofit concept definition of CFB-CaL was developed in all cases. Furthermore, the constraints for the multi-criteria optimization of the multimodal transport of CO2 as part of the CCUS chain in industrial clusters around the four demonstration plants were defined. A tailored LCA methodology has been also developed to perform the environmental evaluation of the chosen CCUS demonstration projects. The main drivers and barriers for social acceptability of CCUS technologies were analysed and the results are being employed for a survey design that will assess the social acceptability and preferences of CCUS using CFB-CaL as CO2 capture technology on a case study in Spain. Assessment of the societal readiness is also being evaluated on a more generic framework through the organisation of focus groups, which are preceded by individual interviews that are currently ongoing to identify the necessary conditions that need to be in place for those stakeholders to lend their support to the implementation of CaL-based CCUS.
Useful preliminary results have been obtained from the activities performed during the initial phase of CaLby2030, as indicated above. At this stage, the results gathered are being employed for internal uses only to support future developing phases of the project, as planned. Consolidated results will be publicly disseminated in the form of open reports and communications as the project evolves. Similarly, impact has been achieved through dissemination and communication activities carried out so far. More specific impacts of the project will arise as more results are available. These will be reported periodically through the envisaged channels, including the Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram CaLby2030 social media profiles available to the general public.