Towards a business case for CO2 mineralisation in the cement industry

Abstract

The cement industry is responsible for approximately 7% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions with low margins and the highest carbon intensity of any industry per unit of revenue. To encourage complete decarbonisation of the cement industry, strategies must be found in which GHG emission reductions are incentivised. Here we show through integrated techno-economic modelling that CO2 mineralisation using silicate minerals results in emission reductions of 6–31% while generating an additional profit of up to €28 per tonne cement. In order to create positive CO2 mineralisation business cases three conditions are paramount: the resulting products must be used as a supplementary material in cement blends, the storage of CO2 in minerals must be eligible for ETS credits or similar, and the feedstock minerals must be available in close proximity ( < ~ 550km, transported by truck and train).

Adapting Technology Learning Curves for Prospective Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Assessments of Emerging Carbon Capture and Utilization Pathways

“…The CO 2 necessary for the carbonation reaction comes from flue gas or ambient air and must first be captured and compressed. Post-treatment steps such as separation might have to be added to reach commercial specifications for supplementary cementitious materials (Sanna et al, 2014;Kremer et al, 2019;Ostovari et al, 2020;Strunge et al, 2022). Some of the separated material will then have to be landfilled.…”

“…Following previous work in Strunge et al (2022), the case study uses the process described by Eikeland et al (2015) where Mg-silicate rich minerals (i.e., olivine-bearing rocks) are ground to 10 µm in diameter and are reacted with captured CO 2 in an aqueous solution using the additives NaCl and NaHCO 3 under increased temperature and pressure (T = 185 • C, p = 100 bar). overall product yield of 75-100% can be achieved (Eikeland et al, 2015).…”

“…For the techno-economic part of the case study, capacity and CapEx data for the FOAK plant were adapted from Anantharaman et al (2018) and Strunge et al (2022), leading to a TDC FOAK of around $150 per metric ton of mineral product. This derivation assumes a constant plant capacity of 500,000 metric tons of product per year or 160,000 tons of CO 2 stored each year.…”