In October, the LEILAC team hosted a visit for Members of the European Parliament
A welcoming speech and introduction to the visit was given by Pascal Arimont, a Belgian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Christian Social Party – stressing the need for industrial decarbonisation, the need to progress efforts, and welcoming the development of the LEILAC pilot.
An overview of the massive scale of the challenge facing the European cement industry was then provided by Koen Coppenholle, Chief Executive of the European Cement Association, CEMBUREAU, illustrating the vital role that cement plays globally combined with the challenge faced by the carbon release from the limestone itself.
MEP Chris Davies, of the Liberal Democrats for the United Kingdom, then provided an overview of the actions taken to date to enable CCUS as a necessary and feasible means of decarbonising Europe, and called for further, rapid action by all parties: including industry, Member States, and the Commission.
Christian Schwarck, Deputy Director EU Affairs of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) provided an overview of the potential for CCS and CCU in Europe – indicating that it is a viable option, stressing the benefits of shared transport and storage infrastructure in supporting widescale deployment.
Rob van der Meer, Director EU Public Affairs at HeidelbergCement, provided information regarding the steps taken to date by industry to decarbonise European industry, and HeidelbergCement’s challenging vision for carbon neutrality by 2050, and the current efforts being taken to address the unavoidable emissions associated with the industry.
Phil Hodgson, the CEO of Calix, then provided an overview of the LEILAC project itself. LEILAC is a pilot project for Calix’s novel carbon capture technology that simply separates the unavoidable CO2 released from the heating of limestone. As it does not need additional energy or processes to do this separation, the pure CO2 can be captured for minimal cost.
He revealed that the initial trials of the LEILAC pilot are extremely promising and that the technology concept is working as expected, albeit not yet pushed to maximum capacity. It has successfully demonstrated that limestone and cement meal can be processed; that the CO2 is successfully separated; that there have been no negative impacts on the host plant, and that the pilot is safe and easy to operate.
