CCS in industry, including Bio-CCS

Topic description

Specific Challenge:

The application of CCS to industrial sectors other than power (e.g. steel, cement, refining) is expected to deliver half of the global emissions reduction from CCS by 2050. In the near future, these industrial applications will open up new opportunities and avenues for CCS that can accelerate its deployment. Also, Bio-CCS technologies have the potential of leading to CO2 negative emissions. Integrating CCS technology in the best possible way so as to optimise the use of energy in the capture process, minimise process efficiency losses, achieve a suitable CO2 purity for transport and storage, and maintain the quality of the industrial end product, is a particular challenge.

Piloting under realistic conditions is required to significantly lower the energy penalty and capture costs. Projects must include activities to explore (possibly shared) local or regional transport and storage needs and solutions.

Focus should be on progressing technologies that already reached TRL 4-5 to TRL 7 (please see part G of the General Annexes).

Environmentally benign and cost-effective technologies should be pursued.

Collaboration with industrial end users is essential.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation^[1], international cooperation is encouraged, in particular with China.

Knowledge sharing with a wide range of stakeholders, as well as early and sustained engagement and involvement of concerned communities through targeted information and dissemination activities, is essential.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 4 to 9 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The cost- and resource-effective application of CCS in industrial operations will expand the available options for CCS and provide a stepping stone to its wider deployment; the concomitant deployment of CCS both in fossil-fuel power production and in energy-intensive industries could facilitate clusters of CCS projects, thereby improving economies of scale for both CO2 transport and storage. CCS in energy intensive industry can help ensure a competitive position for existing EU industries in a future carbon-restrained world, thus reconciling competitiveness with EU climate goals.

International cooperation

[1]COM(2012)497