PILCCU – Piloting of ÅA CCU

The technologies used in the project are the so-called ÅA process routes to recover magnesium and CO2 mineralization to turn magnesium together with CO2 into durable building materials. The application aimed at is Neste's operations in Porvoo, giving information for other CO2 emitting industries in Finland as well, using suitable magnesium silicate-based rock found in large amount in Finland as mining tailings and other mining residues. Economic benefit will result from the sales of magnesium carbonate (hydrate), silica and metals obtained from the ÅA CCU routes, plus savings from CO2 emission rights under the ETS (currently 60 €/ton).

This first 2-year assessment (Phase I) will address the properties of CO2 streams to be processed at Neste Porvoo (and later other industries in Finland), the logistics of the most suitable rock, testing that at ÅA and based on the findings select the preferable one of five different ÅA process routes. This shall then be scaled up to a scale of 10 kg/h CO2 sequestration to see bottlenecks for the design of a pilot plant that would (during Phase II) process several tons of CO2/h.

The actual construction and testing of the pilot plant will commence during Phase II of this project (2024–2025). In parallel with the testing and process design activities PILCCU will investigate markets for utilization of the products as construction materials and thermal energy storage (TES) materials, and the public acceptance of this CO2 emission mitigation technology which is hardly known in Finland. Also life cycle assessment (LCA) shall be included in order to quantify the environmental footprint of large-scale application of the ÅA CCU route, eventually aiming at 1 Mt/year (~35 kg/s) CO2 mitigation or more. The final stages Phase I will also include the process engineering design and equipment selection for the several t/h pilot plant.