Location:
GCPV,
Mataporquera (Spain)
Energy Intensive Industry:
Cement
Involved Technologies:
Continuous Swing Adsorption Reactor (CSAR),
and CO2 electrocatalytic reduction (ERCO2)
Produced RECs:
Formic acid/formate
Key participants:
GCPV, SINTEF, UNICAN, APRIA, CIRCE
The CAPTUS demonstration site 3 is located at the GCPV cement plant facilities in Mataporquera (Cantabria, Spain), representing thus the third energy intensive industry, the cement sector, the project is focused on. By implementing R&D&I actions, the CAPTUS partners GCPV, SINTEF, UNICAN, APRIA and CIRCE will evaluate the feasibility for the application of new technologies, such as: CO2 CCU, generation of RE and use of green H2 and, in general, application of their emerging techniques in the clinker and cement processes.
The CAPTUS demonstration site 3 will demonstrate a CO2 valorization pilot to produce formic acid/formate including carbon capture and utilization technologies, both coupled for an efficient and selective electrochemical conversion of CO2 in continuous operation. An advanced electrode/reactor configuration to convert the almost pure CO2 stream derived from a CSAR unit (ca. 98%) will be developed, optimized and demonstrated at GCPV cement plant.
This combined carbon capture-electrochemical conversion process comprises 2 steps:
Continuous Swing Adsorption Reactor (CSAR)
CSAR is an adsorption-based, post-combustion CO2 capture technology developed by SINTEF. It relies on the synergistic combination of a heat pump and vacuum pump to allow efficient CO2 capture with only electrical energy, making CSAR ideal for plant retrofits. In CAPTUS, CSAR will be demonstrated for capturing CO2 from a cement flue gas using an optimized mobile pilot, which will be integrated with a CO2 conversion technology to produce formic acid from the captured CO2.
Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 (ERCO2)
Based on the technology for producing formic acid/formate through ERCO2 demonstrated in UNICAN lab, CAPTUS will use multiphysics models to support the scale-up of the technology from lab- to pilot-scale. The pilot of this technology, engineered and constructed by APRIA, will cover the study of the effect of the flue-gas on the behaviour of CO2 reduction, and the integration of all the necessary steps to transform CO2 into formic acid/formate.
The produced renewable energy carriers is formic acid, an appealing energy vector with attractive volumetric and gravimetric energy values and storable in liquid phase at ambient conditions of pressure and temperature. Formic acid can be used as fuel directly or converted into chemicals or gasoline.
Until now, the techno-economic analyses indicate that formic acid, can be commercialized in a positive manner from the environmental viewpoint compared to fossil fuels. It is expected that through this D3 demo-site, CAPTUS proved its technological feasibility via electrochemical routes which now is restricted to certain conditions as an electricity-intensive process. The use of low-cost and low-carbon (renewable) electricity will be an incentive to deploy this technology at an industrial scale.