Carbon capture and utilisation in the cement industry: A technological and economical assessment of carbon capture and electrolysis technologies and its implications on energy demand

Abstract

To reduce global warming, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is crucial. Inmany cases, this cannot be achieved directly through the substitution of fossil fuelsby renewable energy sources. Carbon capture and utilization projects can provide aviable solution, in particular for the cement industry, where carbon dioxide emissionsare immanent to the production process of clinker.The objective of this master thesis is to investigate and discuss the carbon captureand hydrogen production technology, as proposed by the carbon capture andutilization demonstration project ‘Carbon-to-product-Austria’. To achieve this, the cement production as well as carbon capture and hydrogen production technologies will be evaluated in order to derive technological and economic implications for the potential implementation in the entire cement industry in Austria. Furthermore, the electricity demand for the production of renewable hydrogen via water electrolysis will be calculated to allow a comparison with the current national renewable energy strategy in Austria.The existing research projects support the technology choices made in this demonstration project, as mono ethanolamine-based amine scrubbing is the onlycarbon capture technology available, that provides a sufficient technological maturityto be applied in an industrial scale demonstration project. However, existing alternative technologies provide viable alternatives, especially from an economic perspective, once the technological maturity is further progressed. The available hydrogen production technologies via water electrolysis also differ in their respective technological maturity, but can provide viable applications, depending on the respective production requirements and locally available electricity and heat sources.The energy required for the renewable hydrogen demand of such carbon capture and utilization pathways cannot be covered by the existing renewable energy targets forthe year 2030 as stated by the current Austrian climate and energy strategy.Therefore, an evaluation of a potential increase of the renewable energy targets and further renewable energy development in Austria need to be considered, or alternatively ways to import the renewable hydrogen from suitable geographies need to be discovered.