Achieving climate neutrality by 2050 requires a rapid paradigm shift towards the implementations of new, climate-positive solutions that can boost the European market. Emerging new solutions for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) have great potential to decarbonize production in the chemical industry, while allowing value-creation from own carbon emissions. In this context, the PYROCO2 project will demonstrate the scalability and economic viability of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) to make climate-positive acetone out of industrial CO2 and renewable electricity derived hydrogen.
Core of the technology is an energy-efficient thermophilic microbial bioprocess that is projected towards a creating a reduction by 2050. The acetone produced by the PYROCO2 process will be demonstrated as an ideal platform for the catalytic synthesis of a range of chemicals, synthetic fuels, and recyclable polymer materials from CO2, while generating a portfolio of viable business cases and pre-developed processes for replication and commercialization.
The PYROCO2 demonstrator plant will be able to produce at least 4000 tonnes acetone annually from 9100 tonnes of industrial CO2 and green hydrogen. It will be located in southern Norway, a strategic placement that guarantees access to CO2 feedstock and green energy at a competitive price and connects several carbon-intensive industries with chemical production through industrial symbiosis.
