HERCCULES

HERCCULES aims at defining a first-of-a-kind, integrated and replicable approach for the implementation of the whole CCUS chain to two strategic sectors of the circular economy - Cement and Energy-from-Waste (EfW) – in an area – Italy and Greece – where the industrial promise of CCUS is largely unexplored. Leveraging on the potential of two clusters of emitters in Northern Italy (cement + EfW) and Greece (cement), HERCCULES will pave the way towards the implementation of the first full-scale CCUS chain in Southern Europe.
Technological, infrastructural, safety, societal, regulatory and financial issues will be addressed by a multidisciplinary approach to building a “HERCCULES paradigm” comprising nine basic chapters.

1. TRL7-8 demonstration of 2 flexible and retrofittable CO2 capture technologies, to be tested in 2 large-scale cement plants + 1 EfW plant with residual waste/biomass feed to approach nearly zero or negative emissions (>9000 h of tests).
2. Design of the optimal CO2 transport network for utilization and storage under different infrastructural evolution scenarios.
3. TRL8 Geological storage of captured CO2 in the two most advanced CO2 sites in Southern Europe (Prinos and Ravenna).
4. Demonstration in the industrial environment of novel CO2 mineralization solutions and re-use technologies for the production of a breakthrough hydraulic binder enabling the industrial production of carbon-sink concrete (>1000 h of tests).
5. Experimentally-supported, Techno-Economic Analyses with a risk assessment to ensure the safety of the full CCUS chain.
6. Advancement of societal readiness through a participative approach.
7. Identification of business models and financial mechanisms tailored to CCUS.
8. TRL8-9 pre-FEED studies on the most promising HERCCULES implementation options.
9. Ad-hoc case studies to verify the replicability of the HERCCULES paradigm.

Know-how, data and models will converge into a dedicated exploitation plan to seed CCUS across Europe.

Reason for applying to HSbooster.eu services

We are applying because we know we have standards-related issues in our proposal and we would like to consider all of them properly. In particular, for WP4 where new materials are going to be tested, it would be important to know which questions we have to ask to ourselves to detect possible issues with standardization that we could investigate already along the project / speed up for possible commercialisation. 

Main Standardisation Interests

In our understanding, standardization will affect our project in two main issues: 

1. CO2 purity - standards for the purity of the captured CO2 (already existing? new needed?)
2. CO2 utilization - WP4 activities aim at further strengthening the reduction of carbon footprint along the entire cement and concrete value chain. This goal will be pursued through the utilisation of the captured CO2-rich streams, spent sorbent from the EfW-CaL technology and recycled minerals (i.e. waste demolition material) for the production of several sustainable construction materials and aggregates (Supplementary Cementitious Materials, low carbon clinker and carbon-negative concrete/binder). The CaO-rich purge streams (namely, the coarse sorbent purged from the calciner bed and the fine sorbent recovered from the filter) need to be completely characterized to check if their quality specifications meet the standards required and if they can be used as a raw meal for clinker production. In addition, a zeolites-based mineralization plant will be engineered, constructed and demonstrated. The tons of carbon-sink concrete that will be produced by mixing the CO2-charged zeolites with standard aggregates, need to be characterized according to the concrete standards. 

HERCCULES has just started (1st January), so no experimental activities have been carried out yet.