CaLby2030 will be the enabling tool to achieve commercial deployment from 2030 of Calcium Looping using Circulating Fluidised Bed technology, CFB-CaL. Three TRL6 pilot plants across Europe (Sweden, Germany and Spain) will be developed for testing under industrially relevant operating conditions. To maximise impact, these pilots will investigate the decarbonisation of hard to abate CO2 emission sources: flue gases from modern and future steel-making processes that rely mainly on electricity, emissions from modern cement plants that cannot escape from the use of limestone, and from Waste-to-Energy and Bio-CHP power plants that fill the gap in scalable dispatchable power and allow for negative emissions. These pilots will collectively generate a database of over 4000 hours of operation. This data will be interpreted using advanced modelling tools to enable the scale-up of the key CO2 capture reactors to fully commercial scale. Process techno-economic simulation, cluster optimisation and Life Cycle Analysis will be performed to maximise renewable energy inputs and materials circularities. All this information will form the basis for undertaking FEED studies for the demonstration plants in at least four EU locations. Innovative CFB-CaL solutions will be developed and tested to reach >99% CO2 capture rates, reaching for some process schemes costs as low as 30 €/tCO2 avoided and energy intensities with Specific Primary Energy Consumption per CO2 Avoided below 0.8 MJ/kgCO2 when O2 from electrolysers is readily available as an industrial commodity. Societal scientists and environmental economists will assess the social acceptability and preferences for “zero” or “negative emissions” CaL demonstration projects with novel methodologies that will elucidate and help to overcome current societal barriers for the implementation of CCUS. The consortium includes the world-leading CFB process technology developer, key end user industries and leading academics including CaL pioneers.

To achieve the 2050 climate goals, industries must transition to zero-emission and circular processes, crucial for the metallurgical industry facing challenges due to carbon dependence and difficult to abate emissions. Key to this transition is the integration of fluctuating renewable electricity sources, circular processes, and the production of versatile products like methanol. However, to overcome the challenges in e-methanol production, there is a need for technological breakthroughs for competitive renewable electricity and efficient CO2 utilisation. Energy-intensive sectors require low-cost, environmentally friendly CO2 capture systems. The integration of Power-to-Value systems presents a unique opportunity for a seamless transition to circular economies. EMPHATICAL targets residual CO/CO2 containing gases from highly electrified metallurgical industry, namely electrical and submerged arc furnace processes (EAF & SAF), through the energy efficient integration of innovative oxy-blown calcium-looping capture technology, purification, and conversion of CO2 to e-methanol with green H2 as a feedstock. Culminating in a first of a kind TRL7 demonstrator to establish economic viability and sustainability for achieving net zero in electrified metallurgical and methanol production. EMPHATICAL will demonstrate integrated concept at relevant scale for making decisions for the FOAK, taking overall conversion process from TRL5 to demonstration TRL7. The objective is to achieve a 25% reduction of the specific energy consumption and 25% decrease of the production costs. In this project, risks are mitigated from the start; each unit can be implemented as a stand-alone function within a modified state-of-the-art technology chain and thus provide immediate performance and energy efficiency improvements. The project evaluates EMPHATICAL concept integration in two industrial sites. The expected overall CO2 reduction for EMPHATICAL plants is projected to be 41 Mt/year by 2050.

The FLEDGED project will deliver a process for Bio-based dimethyl Ether (DME) production from biomass. The FLEDGED project will combine a flexible sorption enhanced gasification (SEG) process and a novel sorption enhanced DME synthesis (SEDMES) process to produce DME from biomass with an efficient and low cost process. The primary aim of FLEDGED project is to develop a highly intensified and flexible process for DME production from biomass and validate it in industrially relevant environments. This objective will be accomplished by: - Experimental validation of the flexible SEG process at TRL5; - Experimental validation of the flexible SEDMES process at TRL5; - Evaluation of the full biofuel production chain from energy, environmental, economic, socio-economic and risk point of view; - Preparation of the ground for future exploitation of the results of the project beyond FLEDGED, by including in the consortium industrial partners along the whole biofuel production chain. By combining the SEG and the SEDMES processes, the FLEDGED project will validate a plant concept that: - is characterized by a tremendous process intensification: sorption of CO2 in the gasifier and of water in the DME reactor allows designing an overall process for DME production with only two fundamental steps and with reduced units for syngas conditioning - allows operating with a wide range of biomass feedstocks - will be more efficient than competitive processes and expected to have a lower cost, thanks to the reduced number of components, the avoidance or significant reduction of recycles and the avoidance of energy consuming and costly air separation and CO2 separation units - is capable of producing syngas with tailored composition by adapting the SEG process parameters, which allows coupling with an electrolysis system for converting excess intermittent renewable electricity into a high value liquid fuel

HERCCULES aims at defining a first-of-a-kind, integrated and replicable approach for the implementation of the whole CCUS chain to two strategic sectors of the circular economy - Cement and Energy-from-Waste (EfW) – in an area – Italy and Greece – where the industrial promise of CCUS is largely unexplored. Leveraging on the potential of two clusters of emitters in Northern Italy (cement + EfW) and Greece (cement), HERCCULES will pave the way towards the implementation of the first full-scale CCUS chain in Southern Europe. Technological, infrastructural, safety, societal, regulatory and financial issues will be addressed by a multidisciplinary approach to build an “HERCCULES paradigm” comprising nine basic chapters. 1) TRL7-8 demonstration of 2 flexible and retrofittable CO2 capture technologies, to be tested in 2 large-scale cement plants + 1 EfW plant with residual waste/biomass feed to approach nearly zero or negative emissions (>9000 h of tests). 2) Design of the optimal CO2 transport network for utilization and storage under different infrastructural evolution scenarios. 3) TRL8 Geological storage of captured CO2 in the two most advanced CO2 sites in Southern Europe (Prinos and Ravenna). 4) Demonstration in industrial environment of novel CO2 mineralization solutions and re-use technologies for the production of a breakthrough hydraulic binder enabling the industrial production of a carbon-sink concrete (>1000 h of tests). 5) Experimentally-supported, Techno-Economic Analyses with risk assessment to ensure the safety of the full CCUS chain. 6) Advancement of societal readiness through a participative approach. 7) Identification of business models and financial mechanisms tailored to CCUS. 8) TRL8-9 pre-FEED studies on the most promising HERCCULES implementation options. 9) Ad-hoc case studies to verify the replicability of the HERCCULES paradigm. Know-how, data and models will converge into a dedicated exploitation plan to seed CCUS across Europe.

Our vision is to develop a flexible and cost-effective gasification-based process for the production of pipeline-quality biomethane, high-value biochar and renewable heat from a wide variety of low-quality biomass residues and biogenic waste feedstocks. The combination of gasification process development and feedstock supply chain optimization will lead to significant cost reductions that allow lowering biomethane production costs by more than 30% compared to state-of-the-art biomass-to-SNG technologies. The target is at medium-scale conversion plants, which allows the use of local biomass residues and biogenic wastes without heavy transport logistics. The key innovative technology of FlexSNG is the flexible gasification process that can switch between two operation modes according to price signals and market demand: 1) co-production of biomethane, biochar and heat, and 2) maximised production of biomethane and heat. The produced biomethane can be readily injected into the existing gas infrastructure for distribution in the transport sector, heat/power production, industries and households. The co-produced biochar can be used to displace fossil fuels in energy production and industry or in material applications. The FlexSNG concept is based on the European partners’ advanced technologies in the field of oxygen production, gasification and gas clean-up and methanation. The innovative key enabling technologies will be developed and validated to TRL5. The Canadian partners bring their expertise in feedstock supply chain management, modelling and optimization of integrated biorefinery concepts, and the Canadian perspective into the project. FlexSNG will demonstrate the targeted 30% cost reduction in concrete case studies representing both European and Canadian conditions. The proposed activities are well in line with the goals set in the work programme for international cooperation with Canada to develop new sustainable solutions for biofuels/bioenergy production.