Dear reader,

This is the fourth newsletter from the Horizon2020 project CEMCAP. In this letter you can read about some of our recent activities, like the accomplished oxyfuel clinker cooler testing, the construction of the CO₂ liquefaction rig, and participation to the GHGT-13 conference. Further, some relevant news and press releases are included, and links to recent CEMCAP publiactions are provided.

The CEMCAP newsletters are distributed every six months, until the end of the project (October 2018). If you know someone who might be interested, they can subscribe on the CEMCAP webpage. Furthermore, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this newsletter.

You can visit the CEMCAP Website to learn more about our project and follow us on twitter - @CEMCAP_CO2 - to keep updated on CEMCAP news.

Enjoy the reading!

Kristin Jordal, CEMCAP coordinator

CEMCAP Technical and Executive Board Meeting in Rezzato

CEMCAP researchers meet biannually for Technical meetings. At these meetings work package plans and progress, as well as technical and scientific topics, are presented and discussed. At the same occasions Executive Board meetings are arranged. The previous Technical and Executive Board meeting was held in November in Rezzato, Italy, and was hosted by Italcementi. After the meeting everyone were invited for a visit at the Italcementi plant in Rezzato – see pictures below!

We look forward to the next meetings in May, which will be hosted by TNO in Delft, in the Netherlands.

CEMCAP scientists outside the Rezzato plant.

View from the preheating tower at the Rezzato plant.

First cement clinker produced under oxyfuel technology conditions

The CEMCAP partners IKN, HeidelbergCement and VDZ have successfully managed to produce cement clinker under oxyfuel technology conditions. The innovative oxyfuel clinker cooler prototype has been tested during the last 6 months.                        

The overall aim of this experimental work was the testing of an oxyfuel cooler in an industrial surrounding in order to ensure sufficient cooling performance (efficiency) and clinker quality. Despite the challenges in the project, CO₂ concentration levels of the cooling medium higher than 70 vol.% have been achieved repeatedly by the team and clinker samples were taken.

With the objective to bring CO₂ capture technologies for the cement industry to a higher Technological Readiness Level (TRL) and hence closer to deployment, VDZ tested the oxyfuel clinker cooler prototype from September 2016 to March 2017 in a HeidelbergCement plant located in Hannover, Germany. The prototype was based on theoretical concepts developed within the European Cement Research Academy’s project phase III. The most demanding task of the prototype design was to manage the extraction of hot clinker from an operating kiln line. It was accomplished through the development of an innovative clinker extraction system by IKN GmbH. The testing process parameters were recorded continuously and exhaust gas streams were sampled and analysed by VDZ to rate the sealing efficiency against false air ingress. Clinker samples (input and output) were taken periodically for further analysis.

The oxyfuel cooling medium (CO₂–rich gas) was synthetically produced on-site through the injection of CO₂ into the pilot plant from a filling station equipped with CO₂ bottles. A continuous injection of CO₂ into the pilot plant was required during the trials to maintain a constant CO₂ concentration of above 70% in the cooling medium. A further challenge during the trials was the maintenance of a stable clinker feed into the clinker cooler prototype due to inherent instabilities in the clinker manufacturing process. First findings regarding the operation of the oxyfuel clinker cooler prototype indicate that boundary zones such as the cold clinker discharge system demand special attention regarding minimisation of false air in-leakage also in industrial scale Projects.

A detailed assessment of the pilot plant performance and of the impact of CO₂–rich gas on clinker quality are currently being carried out by VDZ and IKN GmbH and the final results are expected to be presented in the CEMCAP research project at the end of July 2017.

This article is also available at VDZ webpage: https://www.vdz-online.de/en/latest-news/newsdetails/news/first-cement-clinker-produced-under-oxyfuel-technology-conditions/cobj/20677/

Oxyfuel clinker cooler pilot plant.

Clinker feed inside the oxyfuel clinker cooler.

Taking clinker samples from the oxyfuel clinker cooler pilot plant.

CO₂ liquefaction rig under construction

Membrane-assisted CO₂ liquefaction is one of the post-combustion technologies being tested and developed in CEMCAP. In this technology, membrane separation and low-temperature separation by CO₂ liquefaction are combined, so that each of these subsystems operates in its optimal window.

The rig that will be used for the CEMCAP CO₂ liquefaction testing is currently under construction in the joint laboratories of SINTEF Energy Research and NTNU. The main components making up the rig are intercooled oil-free piston compressors (shown in the picture below), separation vessels, plate heat exchangers, heating and refrigeration units, control valves and an expansion vessel. The rig will be instrumented to measure flow rates and chemical composition at relevant separation pressure and temperatures. The measured data will be used to investigate the CO₂ liquefaction performance, and this will be compared to simulation results.

The house containing the liquefaction rig.

GHGT-13: CEMCAP presents CCS for decarbonizing the cement production process

CEMCAP partner Norcem received support for further studies of full scale carbon capture

On the 19^th of April it became clear that the Norcem cement plant in Brevik, along with the ammonia plant Yara Porsgrunn and the waste incineration plant Klemetsrudanlegget (all in Norway), will receive funding for further studies on full scale carbon capture. Feasibility studies from July 2016 showed that carbon capture is technically possible at these three plants. Going forward, the carbon capture facilities will planned in greater detail and with more accurate cost estimates. The basis for decisions should be complete by the autumn of 2018 so that final investment decisions can be taken by the Storting (Norway's parliament) in the spring of 2019.

Read more at: http://www.gassnova.no/en/klemetsrudanlegget-norcem-and-yara-to-continue-studying-carbon-capture

CEMBUREAU about innovation in the cement industry

CEMBUREAU, the European Cement Association, is the representative organisation of the cement industry in Europe. In an article recently published on their webpage, they write about innovation and R&D in the European cement industry. They highlight some examples of projects that aim to improve environmental performance, reduce CO₂ emissions, and improve energy efficiency, and they provide fact sheets about each of them. CEMCAP is on the list!

About their emission goals they write the following:

"In its Low Carbon Roadmap, CEMBUREAU has set out how it aims to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 32% by 2050 using conventional technologies and by 80% once breakthrough technologies such as carbon capture are successfully commercialized."

The article can be read at: http://www.cembureau.be/innovation-cement-industry

Press release from Politecnico di Milano

Global warming needs to be addressed from an international angle, and EU calls and funding is an efficient way of fostering necessary pan-European research collaboration with global outreach and enable the realization of projects such as CEMCAP. In a press release (in Italian) the GECOS group at Politecnico di Milano provides an overview of their involvement in CEMCAP and other EU-funded research projects in H2020 and FP7.

The press release is available here (pdf).

New CEMCAP deliverables, presentations and posters

All public CEMCAP deliverables are published on the website after they have been accepted by the EU, and presentations and posters are published continuously. Recent publications are:

Deliverables:

D4.2 Design and performance of CEMCAP cement plant with MEA post combustion capture

D8.1 Status report on calciner technology

D12.1 Results from 30 kW_th CaL CFB experiments

The 30 kW_th CaL pilot after retrofitting for new CaL operation conditions – read more in D12.1.

Presentations:

2016-11-09 Second ECRA Chair Scientific Event CO2 capture and reuse in the cement industry "From the lab to the plant" (S. Consonni, M. Spinelli, M. Gatti, M. Romano, S. Campanari, Politecnico di Milano) Integration of Ca-Looping Systems

2017-03-23 Presentation of CEMCAP at the 2nd public SCARLET workshop (K. Jordal) An introduction to the CEMCAP project

2016-11-15 Oral presentation at GHGT-13 (M. Romano, Politecnico di Milano) Integration of Ca-Looping systems for CO₂ capture in cement plants

2016-11-15 Oral presentation at GHGT-13 (J.F. Pérez-Calvo, ETH Zürich) Application of a chilled ammonia-based process for CO₂ capture to cement plants

Posters:

All presented at GHGT-13 (2016-11-14 – 2016-11-18)

CEMCAP – making CO₂ capture retrofittable to cement plants (K. Jordal, M. Voldsund, S. Størset (SINTEF), K. Fleiger, J. Ruppert (VDZ GmbH), R. Spörl, M. Hornberger (IFK), G. Cinti (Italcementi))

Techno-economic analysis of MEA CO₂ capture from a cement kiln – impact of steam supply scenario (S. Roussanaly, C. Fu, M. Voldsund, R. Anantharaman (SINTEF), M. Spinelli, M. Romano (Polimi))

Screening CO₂ capture test for cement plants using a lab scale Calcium Looping pilot facility (M.Alonso, B. Arias, A.Méndez, F. Fuentes, J.C.Abanades (SCIC-INCAR))

Calcium looping for CO₂ capture in cement plants – pilot scale test (M. Hornberger, R. Spörl, G. Scheffknecht (IFK))

Membrane-assisted CO₂ liquefaction: performance modelling of CO2 capture from flue gas in cement production (R.Bouma, F. Vercauteren, P. van Os, E. Goetherer (TNO), D. Berstad, R.  Anantharaman (SINTEF))

Upcoming events

There are several events in the coming months where CEMCAP will be present:

• The H2020 CCS/CCU and alternative fuels project clustering event (May 15, 2017)

• "The future of cement" symposium in Paris (June 6-8, 2017). CEMCAP will be present with a poster: CEMCAP - retrofittable CO2 capture for cement plants

• TCCS-9: The 9^th Trondheim conference on CO₂ capture, transport and storage (June 12-14, 2017). Several CEMCAP abstracts are submitted to the conference.