Rapid up-scaling and deployment of more cost-efficient and sustainable carbon capture solutions is needed to reduce the emissions of CO2-intensive industries. Solvent-based carbon capture is an important technology that can be readily adopted to many emission sources. Such technology can achieve high capture rates and deliver CO2 at high purity with a relatively low energy demand. In AURORA the open and non-proprietary CESAR1 solvent technology will be optimised and qualified for commercial deployment. The technology will be demonstrated at TRL7-8 for three CO2 intensive industries: refining, cement, and materials recycling, for which there are few other options to achieve climate neutrality. The partners will demonstrate negligible environmental impact (emissions being a potential issue for solvent technology), capture rates at 98%, and capture costs reduced by at least 47% compared to a benchmark process with the MEA solvent. This will be achieved due to the following innovations: 1) Holistic optimisation of solvent composition, process design, emission monitoring and control, and solvent management, 2) Validated models for use in commercial process simulators 3) enhanced waste heat integration with carbon capture for reduced external heat demand and operational costs 4) Improved and integrated advanced control system for reduced OPEX and optimised performances. These innovations will be integrated in four optimised capture processes and various aspects will be demonstrated in pilots of various size and complexity. The partners will ensure transferability of results to other CO2 intensive industries thanks to the large variations in CO2 source and developed clusters addressed in the project and a strong stakeholder participation. The project will also do full CCUS chain assessments for its end-users. It is noteworthy that the end-users are situated in two different regions of Europe offering different conditions for the implementation of CCUS value chains.

Power supply and carbon-intensive industries account for a large share of CO2 emissions. Shifting towards a low-carbon economy requires cost-effective carbon capture solutions to be developed, tested and deployed. Current solutions do not offer sufficient performances. Adsorption processes are promising alternatives for capturing CO2 from power plants and other energy intensive industries as cement, steel, or petrochemical industries. In this regard, Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are a widely studied class of porous adsorbents that offer tremendous potential, owing to their large CO2 adsorption capacity and high CO2 affinity. However, the performances of MOF-based carbon capture technologies have not been fully evaluated. MOF4AIR gathers 14 partners from 8 countries to develop and demonstrate the performances of MOF-based CO2 capture technologies in power plants and energy intensive industries. After identifying the best MOFs in WP1 and validating them through tests (e.g. stability and selectivity) in WP2, the most promising will be produced at larger scale and shaped in WP3. WP4 will conduct simulations to study MOFs behaviours in two adsorption processes: VPSA and MBTSA and optimise them. Both solutions will be tested at lab scale in WP5. In WP6, 3 demonstration sites across Europe will prove the cost-efficiency and reliability of MOF-based carbon capture in CO2 intensive sectors: power supply, refineries and waste incineration. To ensure a wide development of the solutions developed, WP7 will focus on techno-economic analysis, LCA and WP8 on social acceptance and replicability. MOF4AIR aims to foster the uptake of CCS technologies by providing a TRL6-reliable solution matching end users' needs, notably by cutting CCS energy penalty by more than 10%. The solutions developed will be highly replicable thanks to the consideration of a wide range of carbon intensive sectors and clusters, notably through the project's Industrial Cluster Board.

ACCSESS – providing access to cost-efficient, replicable, safe and flexible CCUS. Main objectives: 1)Demonstrate, at TRL7, and integrate cost-efficient CO2 capture and use in industrial installations, to enable permanent Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) 2)Provide access routes for CO2 captured from European industries to the flexible transport and storage infrastructures under development in the North Sea 3)Leverage on CDR to drive societal integration of CCUS towards urban and European sustainability ACCSESS takes a cross-sectorial approach, addressing Pulp and Paper, Cement, Waste to Energy, and Biorefining, that all have the potential to contribute to CDR. ACCSESS will test at TRL7 the combination of an environmentally benign, enzymatic solvent (regenerated at 80oC) and a Rotary Packed Bed (RPB) absorber. Tests at 2 tpd CO2 captured will be done at a pulp and paper mill in Sweden and a cement kiln in Poland. Recarbonation of demolition concrete fines will be demonstrated at TRL7 (CCU). CCUS chains from inland Europe and the Baltics to the North Sea will be developed and optimized, with an open-source tool. Low pressure ship-based CO2 transport (7 bar) for 50% cost cuts is developed, and also safe CO2 loading and offloading. The ACCSESS concept is centred around the project vision to Develop replicable CCUS pathways towards a Climate Neutral Europe in 2050. ACCSESS will improve CO2 capture integration in industrial installations (20-30% cost cuts) as a key element to accelerate CCUS implementation, address the full CCUS chain and the societal integration of CCUS. ACCSESS has the ambition unleash the ability of CCUS to contribute to the ambitious EU Green Deal transformation strategy. The project is dedicated to developing viable industrial CCUS business models. ACCSESS will engage with citizens and citizens, explaining how CCUS can contribute to the production of climate neutral or climate positive end-products in a sustainable cities' context.