Lafarge Canada partners for CCU project in Western Canada

Lafarge Canada is partnering with Svante Technologies Inc and Dimensional Energy Inc to further the sustainability of western Canada’s cement industry by capturing and utilising CO₂ from its operations in Richmond, British Columbia, and blending it with locally-generated green hydrogen. This process will produce synthetic crude and possibly even food-grade wax.

This initiative could have significant implications for emission reduction and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies across numerous sectors, according to Stephanie Voysey, Lafarge Canada’s head of sustainability and environment – western Canada.

Ms Voysey said, “The potential success of this is what’s exciting for us at Lafarge because success for our project here could open up carbon capture for some of our other plants that aren’t located in areas where sequestration isn’t as easily available as it is, for example, in Alberta,” adding that, “This is just the first of many steps to look at full scale.”

In May 2023 Lafarge, Svante, and Dimensional Energy announced the three-way partnership agreement to pilot Dimensional Energy’s CO₂-utilisation technology at the cement plant. This project includes ISO-verified, third-party lifecycle analysis (LCA) to further the overarching goal of the three companies involved, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

“All three of the parties — Lafarge, Svante, and Dimensional Energy — have the same goal in mind,” said Ms Voysey. “It’s to decarbonise our process emissions from the cement industry.”

Overview of the technology

Dimensional Energy utilises CO₂ as a key resource to replace fossil carbon in a variety of products through its innovative technology, which is centred around a proprietary reactor and catalysts. This process is driven by renewable energy and advanced materials. At Lafarge's Richmond plant, which operates entirely on hydroelectric power, this project is notably sustainable.

The process converts CO₂ and water into a direct replacement for oil-derived products, using minimal energy. The resulting synthetic gas is a versatile building block for creating fuels and other valuable products. 

For every 9.07t of CO₂ processed, Dimensional Energy produces 15 barrels of product. Their method incorporates renewable energy, carbon capture, green hydrogen generation, and hydrocarbon synthesis.

Ms Voysey explained, “The hydrogen-producing electrolyser feeds into a reverse water-gas shift reactor containing Dimensional Energy’s proprietary catalyst, creating syngas. This syngas is then sent to a Fischer–Tropsch unit, where it can be further refined into synthetic crude or synthetic wax.” 

She also noted, “In the cement-manufacturing process, temperatures exceed 1000°C to heat raw materials, making it a safe environment for handling excess gases, which will be minimal. Most of the gas will be converted into synthetic crude via synthetic gas.”

As the Richmond project advances to its third phase, one tonne per day of captured CO₂ will be converted into 1.5b/d of synthetic hydrocarbons, aiming to lower the carbon footprint across various industries as the project scales up.