MechChem Africa April 2020

⎪ Innovative engineering ⎪

Figure 1: The BECCU Project will strive to demonstrate the feasibility of a circular economy concept that produces environmentally friendly fuel from biomass while also capturing the CO 2 and using it to make Polyols, a raw materials widely used for manufacturing polyurethanes.

An outline of carbon capture and the utilisation (CCU) aspect of the BECCU Project. Olefins/alkenes are first produced through reverse water-gas shift (rWGS) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technologies. These are then converted to epoxides and then polymerised with CO 2 to obtain polycarbonate and polyether polyols.

“BECCU is one of the first co-innovation packages to be launched within the ecosys- tem, that is, in which research institutions and companies work together to develop new technologies and services. In addition to major driver companies, a significant number of SMEs are joining the project and getting involved inanextensive researchprogramme. The project will play a major role in develop- ing Power-to-X technologies and identifying newapplications,” saysPiaSalokoski, a leading financing expert at Business Finland. Alongside the public project, the partners will also be launching their own development projects, which will utilise the project’s re - sults and bring market perspectives to public research. Ultimately, since many of the envisaged end products such as building insulation have a long lifecycle, the concept may even lead to negative emissions, that is, they may be able to act as carbon sinks by reducing the CO 2 concentration in our atmosphere. An overview of BECCU’s project intentions VTT and its BECCU project partners are studying a processwhere 100%of the carbon in the organic polyol compound they produce originates from carbon dioxide. The BECCU concept begins from the ef-

ficient utilisation of biomass feedstock such as agricultural biomass (Figure 1). All stages of the concept will be demonstrated experi- mentally in theBECCUproject in cooperation with project partners. Polyol production proceeds from the cap- tured CO 2 and H 2 , which is produced either directly from the electrolysis of water using renewable electrical energy sources, or from industrial waste-streams of other chemical and petrochemical processes. The polyol manufacturing process is based on the production of olefins/alkenes through reverse water-gas shift (rWGS) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reaction technologies. The olefins produced are further converted to epoxides through oxidation reactions with peroxides andepoxides and thenpolymerised withCO 2 toobtainpolyols. This is theultimate novelty of the project concept. Polyols and polyisocyanates are the main building blocks of polyurethanes. Polycarbonate polyols are applied in polyure- thane applications where high performance, including high hydrolytic, thermal and UV stability, is required. The most common uses are very high-performance applications in coatings, adhesives and elastomers. Other type of polyols to be studied in the BECCU project are the polyether polyols. These are currently the most commonly used with

70% global market share. All the target end- products represent high potential both in terms of carbon capture andutilisation (CCU) and economic performance. A number of useful by-products such as transportation fuels are produced in the value chain of the targeted polyurethane end-products. These are taken into account in the techno-economic assessment of the concept. Also, comparative P2X-concepts for CO 2 utilisation will be evaluated. This en- ables comprehensive analysis of the concept related tooptional CCUapproaches. Selected comparative P2X-concepts for the techno- economic analysis are: • SNG: hydrogenboosting inbiogas produc- tion sites. • Methanol: CO 2 use in methanol synthesis for selected industrial environments. • Ash-treatment: CO 2 -based solid aggre- gates within bio-CHP production. Techno-economic assessments will be per- formed for different process configurations of the integrated BECCU-concept for heat, power, fuels and chemicals production. Based on the techno-economic feasibility and LCA of the value chain, business opportunities, future demonstrations and impact of policy framework will be evaluated with the indus- trial partners. http://www.beccu.fi/

April 2020 • MechChem Africa ¦ 31