First industrial-scale carbon capture for lime production integrated with transport of CO₂ to coastal hub and shipping to geological storage in the North Sea

The CalCC project would showcase a pathway for decarbonization in the European lime industry. The project aims to capture and permanently store the CO₂ emitted during lime production at the Lhoist Group’s Réty site in France. This innovative project would cover the full CO₂ value chain: capture, transport, liquefaction, shipping, and offshore geological storage.

For the carbon capture aspect of the project, Air Liquide would build the first Cryocap™ FG unit in a lime plant at an industrial scale. The Cryocap™ technology uses cryogenic temperatures to separate gases and creates a very high-purity CO₂ stream needed for CO₂ transport and geological storage.

More than 80%

of the CO₂ generated by the operation of the project would not be emitted into the atmosphere

Thanks to this project, Lhoist would be able to reduce the CO₂ emissions of the plant in Réty by more than 600,000 tons per year starting in 2028. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of about 55,000 households in France.

The lime industry is one of the “hard-to-abate” industries, as lime production generates CO₂ from the decomposition of limestone. These so-called “process emissions” cannot be avoided by switching to zero-carbon fuels.

This first-of-its-kind project would support local and other European lime users from various industries, such as water treatment, chemicals, paper, and steel manufacturing, in their path to carbon neutrality, by providing the first low-carbon lime on the market. Leveraging its know-how and unique expertise in CO₂ capture technologies, Air Liquide would build and operate a unit of its innovative and proprietary Cryocap™ FG (Flue Gas) technology. This would capture and purify 95% of the CO₂ from Lhoist’s existing lime production unit in the Hauts-de-France region. The cryogenic carbon capture technology is 100% electrical and would be used for the first time in Europe to decarbonize the lime sector.

The CalCC project would be a further step in creating a low-carbon industrial ecosystem in the broader Dunkirk area. The captured CO₂ is planned to be transported via a CO₂-dense phase pipeline, which would run for roughly 80 km and be shared with other industrial streams to increase savings and achieve synergies. The CO₂ terminal in the Port of Dunkirk, including the subcooling/liquefaction unit, would be implemented as a shared infrastructure with nearby hard-to-abate cement and steel industries. These synergies position the Hauts-de-France region as a driver in the development of integrated CCS logistic solutions. 

The liquified CO₂ would be shipped in specially adapted vessels, to be safely and permanently stored in subsea geological formations, in the North Sea.

2023

• European Innovation Fund grant agreement signed, marking a significant step for the project with the European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency.
• Progress on FEED (Front-End Engineering Design) and permitting steps, including environmental studies and authorization application preparations, achieved by Lhoist and Air Liquide.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.