Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HERCCULES (HERCCULES: HEROES IN SOUTHERN EUROPE TO DECARBONIZE INDUSTRY WITH CCUS)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
HERCCULES is a large Horizon Europe Innovation Action started in 2023 to demonstrate the full Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) chain in Southern Europe. The project focuses on decarbonizing hard to abate sectors, i.e. cement and Energy from Waste (EfW) sectors, in Northern Italy and Greece, where clusters of emitters allow for demonstrating the first steps of the full-scale CCUS chain implementation. Partners are working to design and operate advanced CO2 capture and utilization pilot plants, use key CO2 storage sites (Ravenna and Prinos), and deliver full-scale case studies, business models and financial mechanisms tailored to CCUS, while enhancing societal readiness for CCUS through a participative approach. HERCCULES will demonstrate 4 flexible and retrofittable CO2 capture configurations to be tested at TRL7-8 in 2 cement plants and 1 EfW plant to approach zero or negative emissions and several novel CO2 mineralization solutions (based on zeolite and demolished concrete materials) to produce carbon-sink concrete. The optimal CCUS network will be designed under various scenarios, and ad-hoc case studies will be assessed to replicate the HERCCULES paradigm. Know-how, data and models will converge into a dedicated exploitation plan to seed CCUS across Europe. Technological, infrastructural, safety, societal, regulatory and financial issues are being addressed by a very skilled partnership (29 entities), including top level universities (PoliMI, Utrecht University, Lappeenranta University of Technology), world leading companies with relevant position in the cement sector (Buzzi, Titan, Alpacem), in the waste management, energy and gas sectors (A2A, Air Liquide, Eni, Energean, Siad, Snam), technology providers (Tecno Project Industriale, Sumitomo SHI FW, Celitement), consultancy companies (Boston Consulting Group, Eucore Consulting), regional associations (Clust-ER, CRES) and research entities (CSIC, Shogenergy, Fraunhofer, Artidek and Leap, the coordinator).
The first reporting period has been dedicated to the design and engineering of the CO2 capture and utilization pilot plants, to prepare the field for the upcoming experimental activities of the subsequent reporting periods. The following pilot plants design, modelling and experimental activities have been performed:
- The detailed design of the fully instrumented, movable skid-mounted Post-Combustion Capture pilot plant, which is integrated with the CO2 liquefaction unit, has been completed. The plant includes process improvements and will be operated with two solvents, to test their effectiveness in treating real exhausts from two cement plants. The plant is currently in the construction phase to be operated in stand-alone configuration in Vernasca; later in the project it will be moved to Thessaloniki to be integrated with the oxyfuel calciner for demonstrating the hybrid process.
- The 1.5 MWth oxyfuel calciner, a key component for the demonstration of the partial oxyfuel and hybrid concepts in cement plants, is currently in the design phase. Simulation tools based on different approaches have been used to assess heat and mass balances of the process, to provide a preliminary design of the calciner (dimensions and shape of combustion and gas/solid mixing zones) and to estimate the performance of the pilot plant under various conditions.
- The design of the pilot plant (1 MWth CaL with CO2 Purification Unit), integrated in the Energy from Waste plant, has been completed. The plant is flexible enough to explore the performance of the process (CaL with purification) under different conditions (e.g. fuel type, operating temperature) and presents a unique configuration that recycles the vent-gas with purification to the carbonator, achieving CO2 capture (>95%) and purity (>99.9%) beyond current state of the art. Lab experiments have evaluated the physico-chemical properties of the Ca-based sorbent, including purity, chemical composition, real density and porosity.
- the construction of the zeolite-based CO2 mineralization plant is ongoing, and several natural and synthetic zeolite materials have been evaluated and characterized to test their suitability for the subsequent use in the upcoming CO2 adsorption tests and for the production of concrete. The selection of the other mineralization plant, based on the use of fine demolished concrete, is ongoing. This pilot will mineralize CO2 from the vent-gas of the pilot plant (oxyfuel with purification), showcasing a novel combination of CO2 capture and utilization technologies. The CO2-loaded materials will then be used as recycled meal to produce low-carbon and marketable concrete.
The project started with a multi-scale, model-based analysis of CCUS for industrial clusters. This included piecewise-linear models for CO2 capture and a surrogate linear model for CO2 storage. Models have been validated and integrated in the Mixed-Integer Linear Programming framework, and in the next reporting periods will be used to optimise the CCUS chain at different space and time scenarios. In the field of CCUS social acceptance, a regional community profile has been depicted in both the Northern Italy and Greece clusters, surveys on community acceptance of CO2 storage have been carried out in the regions where CO2-storage will take place, and stakeholders committees have been actively involved in operational meetings. Citizen and engagement strategies have been started to raise awareness of CCUS technologies and gather feedback on their impact and public acceptance.
- The detailed design of the fully instrumented, movable skid-mounted Post-Combustion Capture pilot plant, which is integrated with the CO2 liquefaction unit, has been completed. The plant includes process improvements and will be operated with two solvents, to test their effectiveness in treating real exhausts from two cement plants. The plant is currently in the construction phase to be operated in stand-alone configuration in Vernasca; later in the project it will be moved to Thessaloniki to be integrated with the oxyfuel calciner for demonstrating the hybrid process.
- The 1.5 MWth oxyfuel calciner, a key component for the demonstration of the partial oxyfuel and hybrid concepts in cement plants, is currently in the design phase. Simulation tools based on different approaches have been used to assess heat and mass balances of the process, to provide a preliminary design of the calciner (dimensions and shape of combustion and gas/solid mixing zones) and to estimate the performance of the pilot plant under various conditions.
- The design of the pilot plant (1 MWth CaL with CO2 Purification Unit), integrated in the Energy from Waste plant, has been completed. The plant is flexible enough to explore the performance of the process (CaL with purification) under different conditions (e.g. fuel type, operating temperature) and presents a unique configuration that recycles the vent-gas with purification to the carbonator, achieving CO2 capture (>95%) and purity (>99.9%) beyond current state of the art. Lab experiments have evaluated the physico-chemical properties of the Ca-based sorbent, including purity, chemical composition, real density and porosity.
- the construction of the zeolite-based CO2 mineralization plant is ongoing, and several natural and synthetic zeolite materials have been evaluated and characterized to test their suitability for the subsequent use in the upcoming CO2 adsorption tests and for the production of concrete. The selection of the other mineralization plant, based on the use of fine demolished concrete, is ongoing. This pilot will mineralize CO2 from the vent-gas of the pilot plant (oxyfuel with purification), showcasing a novel combination of CO2 capture and utilization technologies. The CO2-loaded materials will then be used as recycled meal to produce low-carbon and marketable concrete.
The project started with a multi-scale, model-based analysis of CCUS for industrial clusters. This included piecewise-linear models for CO2 capture and a surrogate linear model for CO2 storage. Models have been validated and integrated in the Mixed-Integer Linear Programming framework, and in the next reporting periods will be used to optimise the CCUS chain at different space and time scenarios. In the field of CCUS social acceptance, a regional community profile has been depicted in both the Northern Italy and Greece clusters, surveys on community acceptance of CO2 storage have been carried out in the regions where CO2-storage will take place, and stakeholders committees have been actively involved in operational meetings. Citizen and engagement strategies have been started to raise awareness of CCUS technologies and gather feedback on their impact and public acceptance.
At this early stage of the project there are not experimental results to be claimed, but several innovative features related to the CCUS pilot plants have been implemented. The Post-Combustion Capture skid makes the process more efficient, especially for the cement sector. The CaL unit makes use of waste-derived fuels to capture CO2 with high efficiency, achieving negative emissions and releasing a high-purity CO2 stream and a valuable CaO-rich stream for the production of low-carbon binders. When available, breakthrough results will be reported through the HERCCULES communication channels and will be used to validate simulation tools and to identify the optimal configuration for the full-scale applications; the most promising CCUS technologies will be further analysed by developing pre-FEED studies (i.e. Class 3 AACE with ±30% cost accuracy) and business cases.