The accelerated uptake of CCUS, needed to reach the net zero emission target by 2050, will critically depend on the success of least-cost environmentally benign & efficient CO2 capture technologies to be demonstrated at full commercial scale by 2030. Rising to the above challenge, CaLby2030 focuses on TRL6 demonstration of its pioneering Calcium Looping (CaL) CO2 capture systems using the wellestablished Circulating Fluidised Bed (CFB) technology to a state ready for largescale commercial deployment in key high-emitting industries by 2030. To ensure its success & responding to the Call’s highly inclusive nature, the project team comprises the necessary multidisciplinary consortium of leading CCUS academics, societal readiness researchers, environmental economists, world-leading CFB process technology developers & equipment manufacturers and key end-user industries.
Three CFB-CaL pilot plants across Europe will be developed for demonstration under industrially relevant operating conditions. To maximise impact, these pilots will investigate the decarbonisation of some of the largest CO2 emission industries; in Sweden to treat steel-mill off-gases, in Germany to operate in cement production relevant conditions and in Spain to retrofit CFB-CaL to Waste-to-Energy (WtE) and Combined Heat and Power applications using residual biomass (Bio-CHP). These pilots will collectively generate a database of over 4000 hours of operation at TRL6.
This data will be interpreted using advanced modelling tools to enable the optimisation and scale-up of the key CO2 capture reactors to fully commercial scale. Process techno-economic simulation, CCUS cluster optimisation and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) will be performed to maximise renewable energy inputs and material circularities, and quantify environmental impacts with the ultimate aim of facilitating safe and economic integration of the CFB- CaL capture technologies as part of CCUS industrial clusters. All this information will form the basis for undertaking Front End Engineering Design (FEED) studies for the demonstration plants in at least four European locations. Innovative CaL solutions will be developed and tested to reach >99% CO2 capture rates whilst achieving for some process schemes costs as low as 30 €/t CO2 avoided and energy intensities with Specific Primary Energy Consumption per CO2 Avoided (SPECCA) below 0.8 MJ/kg CO2 when O2 from electrolysers is readily available as an industrial commodity. When firing residual biomass in the calciner, CFB-CaL can change sectors from carbon emitting to carbon absorbing/negative.
Recognising that CCUS will not materialise without public support, social scientists and environmental economists will assess the social acceptability and societal preferences towards “zero” or “negative emissions” demonstration projects with novel methodologies that will elucidate and help to overcome current societal barriers for the implementation of CCUS.