CLEANKER’s calcium looping progress and prospects
For the last few years, Buzzi SpA has been hosting a pilot project to demonstrate the efficiency of calcium-looping CO2 capture technology for a cement plant. Results from the project’s nine experimental campaigns carried out over the course of 2022-23 have delivered positive outcomes, building the foundations for a technology scale-up. By Matteo C Romano, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Energy, Italy, Martina Fantini, EU CORE Consulting Srl, Italy, and Maurizio Spinelli, LEAP Scarl, Italy.
Figure 1: process configuration of a full-scale integrated calcium looping (CaL) system at a cement plant (© CLEANKER)
Almost five years have passed since ICR published an article announcing the start of CLEANKER,1 the Horizon 2020 project aimed at demonstrating at Technology Readiness Level 7 (TRL7)2 the calcium looping (CaL) process integrated with the cement production process. In the time since then, the European Commission (EC) has developed the new “Fit for 55” policy that sets a more ambitious emissions reduction target of 55 per cent by 2030 compared to 1990, as a major milestone towards the final objective of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
