This paper provides an overview of the aims, objectives and preliminary findings of the C4U holistic interdisciplinary project, which addresses all the essential elements required for the optimal integration of CO2 capture in the iron and steel industry as part of the Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) chain. The project’s scope spans pilot-scale demonstration of two highly efficient CO2 capture technologies at TRL7 designed for optimal integration into an iron and steel plant along with detailed consideration of the safety, environmental, societal, policy and business aspects for successful incorporation of CCUS into the North Sea Port industrial cluster. The new sorbent-based CO2 capture technologies in C4U are known as DISPLACE (high temperature sorption-DISPLACEment process for CO2 recovery) and CASOH (Calcium Assisted Steel-mill Off-gas Hydrogen production). Both approaches involve high-temperature gas-solid separation processes that reduce the exergy penalty associated with CO2 capture. The progress made on the design and construction of pilot-scale CO2 capture test facilities for assessing the technologies’ performance is presented, along with results of uniquely developed mathematical models and laboratory-scale tests performed for gaining understanding of the physical and chemical phenomena underpinning the processes. The use of these results to establish the full-scale design of the technologies for deployment in an integrated steel-mill using process simulation techniques while quantifying the techno-economic and environmental performance in comparison to reference technologies (e.g. amine based CO2 capture) is also discussed. Analysis undertaken to help interface the technologies with CO2 transport and storage infrastructure is described with particular regard to requirements to meet target compositional specifications, operational safety of CO2 pipelines while also carrying impurities and mathematical tools required for the design and operation of a CCUS cluster in view of future expansion. The development of novel business models for facilitating deployment so that the long-term business case can be established through consideration of the concerns of a multitude of various stakeholders and identification of optimal scenarios for overcoming financial risks is discussed. Progress on evaluating societal readiness and public support for CCUS through just transitions in industrial clusters is also presented. The project’s work is expected to demonstrate CO2 capture from an integrated steel-mill in safe and economic CCUS value chains while establishing viable pathways to rollout of CCUS in industrial clusters.
Authors: Richard T. J. Porter, Juan Carlos Abanades, Alvaro Amieiro, Syed Zaheer Abbas, Silvian Baltac, Solomon Brown, Marcos Cano Bertiz, Elena Catalanotti, Shaoyun Chen, Paul Dean Cobden, Eric de Coninck, Heleen de Coninck, Vincent de Gooyert, Jude O. Ejeh, Milan Elkerbout, José-Ramón Fernández, Gemma Grasa, Jérôme Hebrard, Thomas Hennequin, Zahra Janipour, Navid Khallaghi, Robert A.W. Kok, Francisco Javier Lago Fernández, Michael Lechner, Haroun Mahgerefteh, Giampaolo Manzolini, Sergey Martynov, Mitchell Amelia Pieterse, Johannis A.Z. Proust, Christophe Rastogi, Dorothee Rebscher, Sara Rosendahl, Fabio Ruggeri, Vincenzo Spallina, Floris Swennenhuis, Jean-Yves Tilquin and S. van der Veer and H.A.J. van Dijk and Rosalie van Zelm
