PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Three industrial sectors (commercial CO2 gas production, biomass power plants, and greenhouse vegetable production), even with their best efforts and technology, are not expected to reach designated levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reductions. These three industrial sectors would benefit from being integrated under a joint approach with common goals for reducing their CO2 emissions, while in parallel increasing their respective competitiveness.
OBJECTIVES
The general objective of the LIFE-CO2-INT-BIO project was to contribute to the mitigation of CO2 emissions in three energy-intensive industrial sectors, namely, biomass power plants, commercial CO2 gas production, and intensive agri-farming greenhouses, by applying new techniques and methods in those sectors through industrial integration and the creation of new value chains for CO2 as a raw material.
This project’s specific objectives were to:
- Demonstrate and certify the benefits, effectiveness and CO2 reduction potential of an innovative integrated business approach aimed at reducing emissions from three different industrial sectors (biomass power plants, commercial CO2 gas production, and vegetable production in greenhouses) as an instrument to reach EU targets in terms of climate mitigation;
- Create a new value chain and product in the commercial CO2 industry (by creating a green and sustainable origin for commercial CO2 gas under a new business approach);
- Increase energy efficiency in industrial processes, increase the use of renewable energy in the EU and meet sustainability development agenda goals, according to EU policies and action plans;
- Demonstrate the technical and economic viability of a continuous and sustainable capture and cleaning of CO2 from biomass flue gas (very limited experience to date) in order to define an optimum size and promote replicability;
- Enhance circular economy by turning two waste flows into new materials for other processes: flue gas from biomass combustion and vegetable waste that is currently landfilled with subsequent methane (CH4) emissions; and
- Disseminate project results in order to replicate or transfer the technology to other locations or industrial sectors.
RESULTS
The project partially met its objectives with the successful construction of the CO2 capture and cleaning plant, as well as its connection to the biomass power plant. However, it failed in reaching an agreement with the greenhouse, ultimately preventing the demonstration of a fully integrated industrial symbiosis among the three facilities: the existing biomass power plant, the existing greenhouse, and the new CO2 plant.
The project’s main achievements were:
- Building a CO2 plant to first capture from the biomass power plant emissions through a chemical absorption process based on amines, and then purify the gases to remove contaminants and impurities.
- Adaptation the forest biomass energy production plant for the capturing of combustion gases aimed at CO2 recovery.
- Creation of value chains from CO2 arising from biomass combustion, transforming it into a commercial product for the food and drink industry: carbonation, cooling, or packaging.
- Development of a new product: Green CO2 from the combustion of 100% renewable biomass.
- Development of an Eco-label for the carbon neutral CO2: environmental product declaration (EPD).
- 33,000 CO2t/year captured from the Biomass Power Plant and valorised at the CO2 cleaning plant.
- 295 CO2t/year carbon footprint of liquified CO2 transport to local customers avoided.
- 25,469 t/year of biomass managed at the Power Plant to supply heat and electricity to the CO2 Plant.
