French Total, Partners Launch CCS Test Project

A consortium of industrial energy users, pipeline operators, French energy firm Total and others have launched a mini-carbon capture and storage project, called 3D, to dispose of emissions from Dunkirk, north France.

The €19.3mn cost is spread over four years and is three-quarters funded by European Union subsidies, Total said May 28.

The pilot, designed by Axens, will be built starting in 2020 at the ArcelorMittal steelworks site in Dunkirk and will be able to capture 0.5 metric tons/hr of CO2 from steelmaking gases by 2021. The DMXTM process, a patented process stemming from Ifpen’s research and to be marketed by Axens, uses a solvent that reduces the energy consumption for capture by nearly 35% compared with the reference process. Additionally, using the heat produced on site will cut capture costs in half, to less than €30/metric ton of CO2, it said. 

If all goes smoothly, the first industrial unit at the ArcelorMittal site in Dunkirk could be up and running in 2025. It should be able to capture more than 125 mt/hr. Ultimately a cluster of industry around Dunkirk could produce mt/yr of CO2 as by-product of combustion for storage, and be operational by the year 2035.

This cluster will be backed up by infrastructure for storing CO2 in the North Sea developed by other projects such as the Northern Lights project that Total is already involved in, with Anglo-Dutch Shell and Norwegian Equinor.

The 3D project’s ambition is to validate replicable technical solutions and to achieve industrial deployment of CCS technology around the world. It should play a major role in enabling industries with high energy consumption and CO2 emissions, such as the steel industry, to reduce their emissions. This project is an essential lever for meeting the targets of the Paris Agreement on global warming.