Partnership assesses viability of commercial-scale CCS facility in US

A JOINT study will assess the viability of a commercial-scale carbon capture facility at LafargeHolcim’s cement plant in Colorado, US. The study will be performed by carbon capture company Svante, cement company LafargeHolcim, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV), and Total.

The joint study will evaluate the viability, design, and cost of using Svante’s technology to capture up to 725,000 t/y of CO₂ from the cement plant. The captured CO₂ would be stored underground by OLCV, a subsidiary of Occidental.

Svante’s technology uses solid adsorbents, and its technology can capture CO₂ at less than 50% of the capital cost compared to first-generation liquid solvent approaches. Svante also uses a single low-cost piece of adsorption equipment as opposed to the multiple unit operations required by liquid solvents.

The solid adsorbent has a very high surface area that has rapid cycling times between CO₂ adsorption and desorption. It can capture CO₂ from flue gas, concentrate it, then release it for storage in 60 seconds, compared to hours for conventional technologies. The high storage capacity of the solid adsorbent also means that a smaller inventory is needed compared to liquid solvent.

“Svante’s capital cost advantage, combined with progressive tax credit policies such as the 45Q tax credit in the US, can make carbon capture profitable across a range of large-scale industrial applications like cement,” said Claude Letourneau, president and CEO of Svante.

“Being at the forefront of the low-carbon transition requires continuous innovation and partnerships,” LafargeHolcim CEO Jan Jenisch said. “LafargeHolcim has significantly invested in the development of low-carbon solutions. Collaborating with Svante, OLCV and Total, we expect to realise a successful US carbon-capture project in the near future.”