Butterfuly

HECO2 Theme 5 Butterfly

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is necessary to initiate a green transition. Industry will have to do its part by reducing its emissions. However, greenhouse gas emissions of some industrial processes do not only come from the combustion of fossil energy but also from the processes themselves. A well-known example is the lime production where 75% of the CO₂ emitted comes from decarbonation of calcium carbonate. In these particular cases, the most ecological fuel will not prevent the release of CO₂, which is why carbon capture is being studied.

The Butterfly project aims to study a carbon capture technology after oxy-combustion on lime production.

When capturing CO2, the more concentrated is CO₂ in the flue gas, the less energy is needed to capture it. Therefore, the more concentrated is CO₂, the better the environmental impact of the capture and the capture from an economic point of view will be.

A conventional PFR kiln for lime production induces exhaust fumes concentrated at 20% in CO₂. The Butterfly project aims at modifying the PFR kiln to induce a recirculation of the flue gas and to feed the combustion directly with pure oxygen (oxy-combustion). These two actions will have the impact of increasing the concentration of CO₂ in the exhaust fumes to about 80%. A CO₂ purification unit (CPU) will be studied in order to purify and capture CO₂.

The Butterfly project studies the design of the new PFR kiln as well as the capture (CPU) of CO₂ after enrichment of the flue gas in CO₂.

The Chemical Engineering research is in charge of the environmental aspects of the project and will apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in an eco-design approach.