LEILAC project case study

The LEILAC (Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement) projects will seek to prove a new type of carbon capture technology can be applied to the cement and lime industries, called Direct Separation. This technology provides a common platform for CCUS in both the cement and lime industries, and seeks to effectively “future-proof” these industries against tighter emissions standards for CO2 emission reductions and CO2 capture.

The LEILAC1 project developed, built and operates a pilot plant at the HeidelbergCement plant in Lixhe, Belgium to demonstrate this technology is unique because it aims to enable the capture of the unavoidable process CO2 emissions from both industries without significant energy or capital penalty other than compressing the CO2.

The LEILAC pilot is designed to run a throughputs of up to 240 tonnes per day, carry out fundamental research on the process demands and performance, and demonstrate that the technology works sufficiently robustly to begin scale-up planning.

The LEILAC2 project aims to scale-up the direct separation technology developed and tested in LEILAC1 and to build a Demonstration Plant that will separate 20% of a regular cement plant’s process emissions –around 100 ktpa of CO2.