Three Innovations, Three Steps Closer to Industrial Decarbonisation

The project aimed to reduce emissions from four energy-intensive industries, while creating new opportunities for value creation, by accelerating the deployment of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies.

As part of this work, the project’s partners focused on three key innovations:

1. Piloting an improved CO₂ capture technology that can make carbon capture more efficient and cost-effective when retrofitting existing industrial facilities,
2. Demonstrating a process that mixes captured CO₂ and industrial mineral residues to produce precipitated calcium carbonate, which is a valuable product in itself, and
3. Developing a radically new cement kiln, where CO₂ capture is an integrated part of the cement production process while also making use of waste heat.

By the end of the project, both Innovation 1 and 2 had been advanced from technology readiness level (TRL) 4–5, where technologies have been validated in the lab or in an industrially relevant environment, to TRL 7, where system prototypes have been demonstrated in operational environment, bringing them significantly closer to commercial deployment. Innovation 3 represented a completely new concept, with assessments from project partners indicating considerable potential for future development.

“Europe is the fastest warming continent on Earth. We know that achieving our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, and mitigating the effects of climate change, requires rapid, widespread industrial decarbonisation, and the deployment of CCUS technologies at scale is an inherent part of that,” said ACCSESS Project Coordinator Kristin Jordal (SINTEF Energy Research).

“ACCSESS has demonstrated how international collaboration, technological expertise, and real-world testing can be a winning approach to achieving exactly this.”

About ACCSESS

ACCSESS ran from May 2021 to August 2026. Coordinated by SINTEF Energy Research in Trondheim, the consortium brought together 18 industrial and research partners from eight European countries.

The project concept for ACCSESS redefined “CCS” as “CO₂ capture, chains and society”, in order to reflect the key challenges that need to be addressed for CCUS to be successfully implemented across Europe.

Visit the project website for more information: https://www.projectaccsess.eu/ 

Targeting the most difficult to remove emissions in Europe

ACCSESS focused on four industries that emit considerable amounts of CO₂, and are challenging to decarbonise through electrification, energy efficiency or renewable energy alone: pulp and paper, waste-to-energy, cement and biorefineries. In these sectors, CCUS is widely considered to be one of the most viable pathways to achieving the necessary emission cuts.

In addition to reducing emissions, implementing CCUS in these industries can support carbon dioxide removal (CDR) through the capture of biogenic CO₂ emissions.

“Biogenic CO₂ emissions are CO₂ emissions that are produced from burning biomass, such as wood or agricultural residues,” explained ACCSESS Project Manager Rubén Mocholí Montañés (SINTEF Energy Research).

“Because plants absorb CO₂ while they grow, capturing and permanently storing these emissions will result in net “carbon-negative” emissions, removing more CO₂ from the atmosphere than is released.”

The four industries examined in ACCSESS all have varying levels of biogenic emissions, giving them considerable potential to contribute for CDR.

“Reducing our CO₂ emissions is necessary – but no longer enough. The CDR potential of these industries means we can remove excess CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere as well as compensate for sectors where complete decarbonisation is challenging,” said Rubén.

Innovation 1: CO₂ capture technology that makes retrofitting easier and cheaper

One of the biggest challenges in deploying CO₂ capture at scale is retrofitting existing industrial facilities. Conventional post-combustion CO₂ capture systems can require considerable space and energy, increasing both installation and operation costs.

To address these challenges, ACCSESS combined an environmentally benign enzymatic solvent from Saipem, CO₂ Solutions by Saipem, with a rotating packed bed (RPB) absorber from Prospin and Proceler. The solvent can operate using waste heat at temperatures as low as 85°C, while the compact RPB design significantly reduces equipment size. Together, these technologies could substantially reduce the footprint of carbon capture retrofits at industrial sites while enabling the use of low-temperature waste heat, potentially lowering operational costs.

Initially, the solvent was integrated into Hafslund Celsio’s pilot capture rig and tested at their waste-to-energy plant in Norway with a conventional absorber column. The rig then travelled to Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), where the RPB was added, and tested on emissions from Equinor’s Mongstad refinery. Two further test campaigns were subsequently carried out: one at Stora Enso’s kraft pulp mill in Skutskär, Sweden, and another at Heidelberg Material’s cement plant in Górażdże, Poland.

Despite some delays in Sweden, the overall performance across all four campaigns was highly encouraging, with more than 2,600 hours of stable capture operation recorded under representative industrial conditions across demonstration sites. Collectively, the campaigns generated a substantial body of high-quality operational data. During the final testing campaign in Poland, the system captured nearly two tonnes of CO₂ per day while achieving a capture rate of 90 per cent, with both the RPB and the conventional absorber column.

The results enabled the technology to advance from TRL 4 to TRL 7, achieving the project’s primary objective and bringing the system closer to commercialisation, with the potential to help a range of industrial actors reduce their CO₂ emissions.

“The ACCSESS programme confirms the fundamental importance of pilot-scale testing for the development and deployment of post-combustion carbon capture technologies across different types of industrial applications, not just for performance validation, but also for identifying site specific challenges and risk-mitigation strategies to support commercial-scale implementation,” said Rubén.

Innovation 2: Turning captured CO₂ and industrial waste into valuable products

Many energy-intensive industries produce mineral residues as by-products, such as cement kiln dust from the cement industry, paper sludge incineration ash from the pulp and paper industry, and slag from the steel industry. These materials are often treated as waste, and are typically landfilled or only partially recycled.

Through ACCSESS, ETH Zürich and Neustark have developed and demonstrated a process known as “indirect mineral carbonation”, which combines captured CO₂ with mineral residues to produce high-purity precipitated calcium carbonate. This can then be used in industrial applications or as a form of CO₂ storage.

Precipitated calcium carbonate is a valuable product in itself. Depending on its quality, it can have a market value of between €10 and €400 per tonne. Furthermore, conventional production can emit between 200 and 350 kg of CO₂ per tonne produced, which can be avoided through this alternative production route.

While indirect mineral carbonation cannot store the same volumes of CO₂ as geological storage, it offers an additional and complementary pathway. This may be particularly relevant for industries and regions without immediate access to CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure, such as in parts of Central Europe.

A mobile demonstration plant was built by ETH Zürich and Neustark, with the goal of advancing this technology from TRL 5 to TRL 7. The campaign was successful, achieving a CO₂ storage capacity of more than 100 kg per hour, and bringing the technology significantly closer to industrial deployment.

In short, this innovation enables industries to reduce their CO₂ emissions and valorise waste residues simultaneously, through the creation of new revenue opportunities.

Innovation 3: Designing the cement plant of the future with integrated CO₂ capture

The cement industry is responsible for around 8% of global anthropogenic CO₂ emissions – but it is also one of the most challenging industries to decarbonise. Around two-thirds of emissions from cement production come from the calcination of limestone: a chemical reaction that is inherent to the manufacturing process and cannot be eliminated through fuel switching or energy efficiency measures alone. The last third of emissions come from the combustion of fuel, which can be bio-based. As a result, carbon capture is widely considered a key technology for achieving deep emission reductions in the sector.

One of the most mature technologies for capturing CO₂ is amine-based post-combustion capture. However, regenerating the amine solvent requires significant amounts of heat, which is typically supplied from external sources and contributes considerably to operating costs.

To address this challenge, KHD Humboldt Wedag (KHD) developed and assessed six novel concepts for cement kilns with integrated CO₂ capture, based on Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Hannover and Linde’s amine-based capture technology.

In addition to opportunities to make use of waste heat from the cement kiln for the CO₂ capture process, the concepts explored the combination of structural elements, such as the preheater tower and absorber, as well as additional operation synergies between cement production and carbon capture.

Multiple concepts indicated promising opportunities to reduce operating costs, although the extent of these benefits depends partly on the future cost and availability of alternative fuels. Notably, several concepts could also be adapted for retrofitting existing cement plants.

Integrating CO₂ capture directly into the production process represents a fundamentally new approach to cement kiln design. The results have already shown commercial relevance, with KHD applying for several patents based on these concepts - one has already been granted. This patent is expected to support the further development of this work beyond the ACCSESS project.

ACCSESS: Providing access to cost-efficient replicable, safe and flexible CCUS

The world is different today than it was when ACCSESS launched in 2021. Yet the relevance of the project’s work has only grown. As Europe’s experiences of climate change increase in severity, the need to decarbonise industry and scale up carbon management solutions has never been higher.

By advancing technologies from pilot-scale testing towards deployment, developing new pathways for CO₂ use and storage, and rethinking how CO₂ capture can be integrated into industrial processes, ACCSESS has demonstrated how CCUS can be applied across some of Europe’s most difficult-to-abate industries.

“I’m incredibly proud of what ACCSESS has achieved,” said Kristin. “However, the work cannot stop here. The innovations and knowledge generated through ACCSESS will continue to be developed by our industrial and research partners, with the aim of bringing new solutions to market that can help reduce industrial emissions and, in some cases, remove CO₂ from the atmosphere.”

ACCSESS received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101022487.