C-Capture is leading a pioneering project to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Carbon capture is an essential part of the raft of solutions that are urgently needed to reach net zero. Currently though, barriers such as the cost of carbon capture, technology maturity and compatibility within multiple industries, are preventing the widespread adoption of the technology. Based on a fundamentally different chemistry to other commercially available solutions, C-Capture’s next generation technology is an innovation in the carbon capture sector and a potential game changer for decarbonising industry. The advantages of C-Capture’s solution mean it has the potential to break through the barriers that are preventing the widespread adoption of carbon capture.
With their national, multi-industry, multi-million-pound project – XLR8 CCS – Accelerating the Deployment of a Low-Cost Carbon Capture Solution for Hard-to-Abate Industries – C-Capture will demonstrate that carbon capture technology is a reality in the race to net zero. Even for difficult-to-decarbonise industries.
Claudia Hernandez, Process Engineer at C-Capture and the Project Manager for XLR8 CCS, explained: “Our XLR8 CCS project has huge potential in helping the hard-to-abate sector to reach net zero.
“Hard-to-abate industries are essential to the economy – but they’re also major contributors to global CO2 levels. They’re also very difficult to decarbonise due to the high level of impurities in their flue gases. We need a solution to this urgently.
“Carbon capture is an essential part of the solution needed to tackle climate change. Our process captures CO2 from emissions to prevent it from otherwise being released into the atmosphere. Deployment of carbon capture needs to happen rapidly to help limit any further increases in global temperature – but the high level of impurities in the flue gases of foundation industries presents a major barrier.
“However, C-Capture’s solvent-based technology is robust enough to withstand those challenging flue gases – the XLR8 CCS project will demonstrate that in real world operation.”
XLR8 CCS launched just over a year ago after securing £1.7m in funding from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP). The funding is part of the £20 million Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) Innovation 2.0 programme aimed at accelerating the deployment of next-generation CCUS technology in the UK. Additional private sector contributions support a £2.7 million project for this major carbon capture trial that will demonstrate how C-Capture’s innovative, next-generation technology can mitigate the impacts of climate change.
C-Capture’s approach is environmentally benign and has a wider range of industrial applications than some other traditional carbon capture technologies. It uses less energy than currently available technology so it can significantly reduce the cost of carbon capture to support its attractiveness to deploy at scale. It is also robust enough to withstand the harsh industrial emissions generated by hard-to-abate industries.
The XLR8 CCS project will demonstrate the compatibility of C-Capture’s innovative carbon capture technology within difficult to decarbonise industries including energy from waste, cement and, in a world-first, glass manufacturing.
In conjunction with our engineering partner, Wood, C-Capture is designing and building three carbon capture solvent compatibility units (CCSCUs) which will be installed and operated across sites owned by our operating project partners – Hanson (part of the Heidelberg Materials Group), Evero, Glass Futures, and Pilkington United Kingdom Limited (part of the NSG Group). The project aims to demonstrate the compatibility of the C-Capture solvent to operate effectively in harsh, real-world operating environments across these key sectors.
Claudia explained: “The project is a critical part of the journey to get to net zero, giving hard-to-abate industries the opportunity to decarbonise their processes.
“It will also show that there are alternative carbon capture methods out there. Our approach is based on novel technology that is amine free and environmentally benign – it’s a potential game changer for the carbon capture sector.”
Since the project’s launch, feasibility studies have been completed and bespoke designs have been created for three CCSCUs. These are now in their final build stages and are due to be deployed at project partners’ sites over the next few months.
Claudia added: “There’s been a huge amount of planning and a lot of highly technical discussions to get to this point. We’ve been working to ensure engineering processes are correct and to understand challenges that arise. We’ve worked in an agile way, responding to those challenges and engineering solutions. In the way that our solvent-based technology is innovative, so too are our engineering processes. We innovate engineering solutions to deliver the optimum way of managing and operating our systems.
“Since our project launch, we’ve been collaborating closely with our partners. It’s great to work with such a committed group of people. We all want the best for the project, and I hope our relationship continues beyond our work on XLR8 CCS, so we can deliver more critical work together.”
Project success will see C-Capture and its project partners well placed for deployment of commercial-scale carbon capture facilities across the three industries by 2030 which could capture millions of tonnes of CO2 per year.
Claudia added: “We are part of the change. This is a pioneering project.
“Even in implementing it, we have helped move the carbon capture sector forward in a significant way. Some of the work we are doing hasn’t been done before – trialling a novel technology within these industries. Now we’ve established a precedent, helping to forge the path and processes for future new trials and methodologies.
“We’re moving the technology forwards. This is a critical step on the path to net zero.”
C-Capture’s next generation carbon capture technology is environmentally benign, lower cost and extremely robust. To discuss how our innovative solution can decarbonise your business, contact g.searle@c-capture.co.uk