The maturity of our portfolio of carbon capture and storage solutions and our expertise give us legitimacy in contributing to the decarbonization of industry.
Why is carbon capture and storage (CCS) considered an essential lever to reach carbon neutrality by 2050?
While society is accelerating the usage of renewable energy to address climate urgency, we also need solutions that will support the transition by enabling the capture of large volumes of CO2 emitted by industrial actors. This avoids emissions in the short term, particularly from industries whose emissions are hard to abate, such as cement, steel and chemicals. In these sectors, CCS is an effective and viable solution for industrial processes that don’t yet have alternatives.
How is Air Liquide answering this challenge?
We have been developing carbon management solutions for 15 years. Our Cryocap™ CCS solution uses cryogenics technology to capture CO2. The process is highly efficient compared to solvent-based technologies, recovering up to 98% of CO2. Cryocap™ is part of a full carbon capture service offer we are currently developing that will include CO2 capture, purification, liquefaction, storage and transport to the sequestration site. In some cases, we also recycle the CO2 for other uses (carbonation of sparkling beverages, food preservation and freezing, etc.). The maturity of our solutions portfolio and our expertise give us legitimacy in this key growth area that is crucial to reducing industrial carbon footprints. Our customers know they can rely on us for performance, reliability, safety and supply continuity.
Do you have some recent concrete examples to illustrate this?
We have several projects underway in Europe. For example, in France, in the Dunkirk industrial basin, we’ve joined forces with ArcelorMittal to develop an ecosystem to sequester up to 3 million metric tons of CO2 from the steel industry. In Normandy, France, and Zeeland, the Netherlands, we’re implementing large-scale CCS solutions at hydrogen production units in collaboration with TotalEnergies. With BASF in Antwerp, Belgium, we’re planning to develop the world’s largest cross-border CCS value chain. The Kairos@C project (see p. 58) won support from the European Innovation Fund, confirming the efficiency of our technology, which an increasing amount of industries will need to reach carbon neutrality.