Emissions mitigatioN tHrough cArboN CapturE froM bioENergy and its application in hard to abaTe industry

ongoing

BECCS technologies are a valuable option to reach Net Zero Emissions by 2050, applicable to different sectors (energy, hard-to-abate, biofuel production). High costs, environmental concerns related to solvent emissions, biomass source, permanent CO2 storage hubs availability, and uncertainties in the policy framework represent challenges for their large-scale deployment. ENHANCEMENT will address all these through i) the characterization and modelling of a green, non-volatile, amino acid-based solvent, with 50% reduced harmful compounds emissions and 3-8% reduced make-up cost; ii) integration of a BECCS technology using the green solvent with a Heat Pipe Condensing Economiser (HPCE) condensing water and acidic pollutants (NOX, SOX) from the flue gas entering the CC unit, to prevent its corrosion while recovering heat (12% energy savings), hence lowering OPEX by 6%; iii) study and model of the BECCS value chain, focusing on biomass availability and development of EU storage hubs at EU level; iv) assessment of the policy scenario, accessible incentives, and carbon credits, delivering policy briefs to guide policymakers towards sustainable development of BECCS technologies. ENHANCEMENT will validate the technology to TRL7 in two pilots: the semi-industrial plant at SINTEF’s CO2Lab and DABO’s mobile testing unit CC+HPCE at SOSVAV’s CHP plant (Italy). The sustainability of the ENHANCEMENT technology will be evaluated through techno-economic analysis, LCA, and s-LCA. Moreover, the replicability of the technology to the hard-to-abate sector (steel industry) will be assessed through the same assessments. ENHANCEMENT technology will target >90% CO2 capture rate and up to 15% total cost reduction down to <70 €/tavoidedCO2 (<80 €/t for the steel plant). Scaled-up ENHANCEMENT technology can prevent >18,000 tCO2/y emissions in the CHP demo and ~80,000 tCO2/y for the steel replicability demo case, with a global economic benefit of > 5 M€/y from carbon credits and ETS savings.