We can deal with cement
The cement sector is a *really* significant contributor to global CO₂ emissions, about 3 times as polluting as aviation, and growing fast as the trend towards urbanisation and higher standards of living continue.
Around 2/3rds of the CO₂ emissions from making cement come from the processing of limestone (calcination).
@Calixlimited has developed a calcination process that captures >95% of the CO₂ emissions released by limestone in the production process.
The CO₂ would then be used in downstream industrial process, or stored safely in deep geological features.
@ProjectLEILAC has a credible pathway to matching the capital & operating costs of traditional cement processes — ie. it'll be competitive with traditional processes.
The majority of the remaining process emissions come from heating — here they're using gas.
In the next iteration, @Calixlimited will test electrical heating (at 1000°C!) which can feasibly be provided by renewables.
(Yes, the process can be varied to respond to availability.)
The demonstration unit has a capacity ~5% of an average cement plant. The next version will be a module capable of 20% of a typical plant's throughput, ie. a full-scale cement plant would comprise 5 such modules.
It’s been generally assumed that the cement industry will be very difficult to decarbonise.
Until now…
The project's backers plan to be supplying commercial, full-scale systems to decarbonise cement manufacture from the mid 2020s.
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