TotalEnergies, Holcim to decarbonise cement plant in Belgium
TotalEnergies and Holcim have signed a memorandum of understanding on the full decarbonisation of the latter’s cement production facility being upgraded in Obourg, Belgium, the French energy company said on October 4.
Various technologies will be assessed for the capture, utilisation, and sequestration (CCUS) of around 1.3mn metric tons/year of CO2 emitted by the facility.
The duo will develop a new air-oxyfuel switchable kiln and facilitate the capture and purification of CO2 in the flue gases, as part of Holcim’s upgrade of the current cement plant. They will work on transportation and use of the captured CO2 by TotalEnergies for an e-fuel producing scheme and deposit in geological storage in the North Sea.
TotalEnergies will assess the development of renewable projects to power a new electrolyzer, which would generate the green hydrogen needed to produce e-fuels. This new renewable energy production capacity would also power Holcim’s new oxyfuel kiln, thus contributing to the decarbonization of the cement plant. Finally, the oxygen emitted by the electrolyzer would be used to fuel the new kiln.