Refining industry is a highly energy-intensive sector with direct CO2 emissions typically ranging from 100 to 200 kg CO2/tonne oil. The challenges related to CCUS lies in taking into account a large number of relatively small sources with various levels of CO2 concentration. Today, CO2 capture from the sources with highest CO2 volume are mainly considered for capturing, leaving out small sources, thus limiting the overall capture rates to 50-60%. REALISE novel concept will capture up to 90% CO2 from operating refineries by integrating a multi-absorber concept for capturing CO2 from different stacks at 30% lower CO2 capture cost compared to the state-of-the-art technology based on 30 wt% monoethanolamine solution. The cost reduction potential will be demonstrated in REALISE onsite operating refinery-centered cluster at Cork, Ireland, by using a novel low energy solvent (30% lower energy demand, 70 times lower corrosion, 3 times lower thermal degradation), innovative concepts for reducing oxidative degradation (80% lower active component loss), cheaper construction materials (10% lower CAPEX), intelligent Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (10% lower OPEX compared to operation without NMPC), and optimal integration with the available heat sources. Assessment of the full CCUS chain from Emitter to Storage will be performed taking advantage of having consortium partner in common with transport and storage projects Northern lights and Cork CCS. Socio-political aspects will be addressed in REALISE and societal readiness index calculated for at least 3 business cases relevant to refineries in EU and China. REALISE project is driven by a strong industrial consortium, including 9 industrial partners along with the complete technology value-chain. An external Advisory Board will further contribute to replicate the concept thanks to Concawe (association of refineries with 40 industry members), SARAS, and Petroineos.

CARMA-H2 will enable highly attractive hydrogen production from biogas through demonstration of a protonic membrane reformer (bioPMR) that integrates steam methane reforming and water-gas shift reactions, hydrogen separation, heat management, CO2 capture and hydrogen compression in a single stage. The realization of 6 process steps in a single reactor allows to achieve unprecedented energy efficiency with a project target to demonstrate >85% (HHV) at the bioPMR level. The bioPMR technology enables direct delivery of purified and pressurized H2 (30 bar). BioPMR will be coupled with CO2 liquefaction to enable direct production of food-grade CO2. Coupling the liquefaction unit allows for higher hydrogen recovery and liquid CO2 production as the off-gas from the liquefaction process will be recycled back to the bioPMR unit. CARMA-H2 will demonstrate the bioPMR technology integrated with CO2 liquefaction at the existing Arazuri wastewater treatment plant in the region of Navarra in Spain. The demonstration plant will be operated for at least 4000 h, and produce 500 kg/day of hydrogen and above 4000 kg/day of food-grade CO2. To facilitate the demonstration CARMA-H2 will install 1) a pre-treatment system for biogas compression and removal of sulphur and other impurities, 2) two bioPMR modules which will operate directly on biogas (CO2 > 40 vol.%), and 3) an integrated CO2 liquefaction unit. The demonstration plant will be located in Ebro Valley Hydrogen Corridor, and the project aims to secure off-take of the produced hydrogen and liquid CO2 during operation. The overall system will be controlled and analysed by an advanced control system and an associated digital twin that will be developed in the project. The wastewater plant is currently operating a biogas production plant of >4 MW from which the biogas is utilized for power generation. The achievements in CARMA-H2 will be an important proof of technological feasibility advancing the technology from TRL5 to TRL7.