MechChem Africa April 2020

In seeking a climate-friendly and economically viable process to capture and utilise carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), VTT and its business partners have launched a two-year project called BECCU to produce speciality chemicals from the CO 2 produced during bioenergy production. Captured CO 2 as a raw material for the chemical industry

B ECCU is a cooperative project between VTT, Business Finland and 11 stakeholders from various industries. The target is to com- plete a proof-of-concept for the integrated production of biopower and heat, transpor- tation fuels and speciality chemicals based on using CO 2 from biomass operations and hydrogen fromwater electrolysisor industrial processes. All stages of the concept will be demonstrated during the project using VTT’s versatile pilot infrastructure. In addition to VTT and Business Finland, the following stakeholders are also partici- pating in the project: Valmet, Top Analytica, Metener, Finnfoam, Kiilto, Mirka, Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto, CarbonReUse, Neste, Helen, the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland along with number of international research partners. “We aim to create new business op- portunities along the value chain, proving ultimate novelty for producing fully CO 2 - based speciality chemicals such as polycar- bonate and polyether polyols. Speciality chemicals from polyols are selected to be the project’s primary target as they provide excellent market potential. Selected com- parative P2X-concepts such as ash-treat- ment, SNG and methanol production from

captured CO 2 will also be evaluated. CO 2 can be captured from air and from processes at power plants and production facilities. It can be then be used to replace fossil fuels as a rawmaterial inmanufacturing numerous chemical products. VTT has previ- ouslyestablished that facilities that utiliseand process biomass could be suitable pioneers for viable CO 2 capture. Although captured CO 2 has been often studied as a raw material for transport fuels, low cost electrical energy is usually required to make these synthetic fuels viable. For the BECCUproject, VTTand its business partners have selected chemicals, and in particular polyols – ((CH 2 CHOH)n), which are organic compounds containing multiple alcohol/ hydroxyl (OH) groups – as the primary end products. Polyols are in turn the rawmaterials for polyurethane products, such as building insulation and foam adhesives. The aim is to determine whether polyols canbeprofitablymanufacturedfrombio-based CO 2 and hydrogen (H 2 ) for downstreamuse in current markets. The project is developing a concept for the entire processing chain, from theuseof biomass inenergyproductionall the way to the capturing of the CO 2 and its use to manufacture chemicals. The end goal is to prepare this concept for the next stage where

industrial-scale investments can be secured. “Polyurethane products are increasingly being used in insulation for the global con- struction industry, so it is important that the fossil rawmaterials used in theseproducts are replacedbybio-basedand recycledmaterials, bothas part of theFinnish chemical industry’s sustainability targets and to strengthen its market position,” says Henri Nieminen from Finnfoam. “At Neste, we’re seeking solutions to re - duce CO 2 emissions by 20-million t per year by 2030. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, we’re continuallydeveloping sustainable fuels and circular economy solutions. We’re involved inBECCUbecause this project seeks possibilities for turning carbon dioxide from a problem into an opportunity,” says Neste’s Lars Peter Lindfors, Senior Vice President for Innovation. “Valmet’s mission is to convert renew - able resources into sustainable results. The concept of capturing biomass-based CO 2 for the production of new end products is a good fit with our mission. Achieving climate targets calls for new solutions and verifying them with the whole value chain – and the BECCU project is ideally suited for this,” says AriKokko,directorofTechnologyandR&Dfor the Energy Business Unit at Valmet. Power-to-X processes to be piloted The BECCU project will compare a variety of processes to capture CO 2 frombiomass used in energy production. Hydrogen, the second main rawmaterial of polyols, will beproduced via electrolysis using renewable electric- ity or supplied from industrial by-product sources. The team will test each stage of the process using VTT’s pilot and laboratory test equipment and assess the techno-economic requirements for their entire lifecycle. Theconceptwill alsobecompared toother Power-to-X concepts, that is, processes in which transport fuels and other chemicals, such as methanol and methane, can be pro- duced from CO 2 and H 2 . The BECCU project’s total budget is ap - proximately€2-million,anditsmainsponsoris Business Finland as part of Business Finland’s Green Electrification ecosystem, which was launchedat thebeginningof 2020 topromote the development Power-to-X processes.

The team will test each stage of the process using VTT’s pilot and laboratory test equipment and assess the techno-economic requirements for their entire lifecycle.

30 ¦ MechChem Africa • April 2020