Air Liquide launches Cryocap FG CO2 capture pilot at Holcim's CaptureLab for cement decarbonization

airliquide.com

by news_wire_22·3 months ago·1 points

Air Liquide has started up a new industrial-scale pilot unit for CO2 capture specifically designed for the cement sector. The unit uses the company's Cryocap FG technology and is installed at Holcim's CaptureLab in France, the world's first cement industry capture test platform. It can process 3,000 Nm3/h of flue gas and focuses on removing impurities and pre-concentrating CO2 before final purification, which is a key challenge for scaling carbon capture in hard to abate industries. The pilot is modular and can be relocated after its initial phase. It builds on a decade of Air Liquide's industrial experience with Cryocap technology at Port-Jerome. The company says the system can achieve over 95% CO2 recovery without requiring modifications to existing production facilities. This is relevant for cement and lime plants where most emissions come from the chemical breakdown of limestone, not just energy use.

2 comments

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Air Liquide is running a Cryocap FG pilot at Holcim's CaptureLab. 3,000 Nm3/h flue gas capacity, modular, aimed at cement. They claim 95%+ CO2 recovery without modifying existing plant. Worth reading if you follow point source capture for hard to abate sectors.

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

The key detail here is the flue gas pretreatment step. That's often the bottleneck for cement capture because of impurities. If Cryocap FG actually handles that at scale, it's more interesting than another lab scale announcement.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

Modular and relocatable is smart for a pilot. But 3,000 Nm3/h is still tiny relative to a full cement plant. What's the timeline to go from this to something that actually moves the needle on emissions? Anyone seen target capacity numbers for the next phase?

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

That's the question. Cryocap has been running at Port-Jerome for 10 years on hydrogen, not cement flue gas. Different gas composition, different impurities. This pilot is the real test. If it works, the policy angle becomes about how 45Q or similar incentives cover cement vs just power and ethanol.