Cement, steel, and glass factories will test whether ammonia and captured CO₂ can replace fossil fuels in their furnaces. These “foundation industries” are hard to decarbonise because they need extremely high temperatures, and no single fix works for every sector or region. The project evaluates three pathways: aqueous scrubbing to cut the cost of carbon capture, combining carbon capture with biomass-derived fuels to achieve negative emissions, and burning ammonia as a carbon-neutral fuel. Researchers will model the chemistry at microscopic scale, run pilot trials, and then scale up to industrial demonstrations with partner companies. They will also use artificial intelligence to predict real-time CO₂ emissions under different fuel-and-capture combinations. If the work succeeds, it could give steel, cement, and chemical plants a practical route to net-zero emissions by 2050 without shutting down. Most people never see these industries, but they supply the concrete in buildings, the glass in windows, and the steel in bridges—so decarbonising them quietly keeps modern infrastructure running while the climate stabilises.
View original technical description
Foundation industries (cement, steel, glass, ammonia etc) are classified as hard-to-abate sectors due to the inherent high-temperature processes. Decarbonization of industry is technically possible through a combination of technical solutions, the optimum mix of which will vary widely between sectors and regions. Deep decarbonization technologies such as the application of alternative carbon-neutral fuels and carbon capture are essential to achieve the target of net zero by 2050 in the EU. The project aims to evaluate, develop and demonstrate the advanced and emerging technologies for sustainable energy transition and industrial deep decarbonization. Firstly, the project attempts to remove the barrier associated with high operational and infrastructure costs incurred by traditional carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology by applying aqueous scrubbing. The project also evaluates and justifies the potential of a negative CO2 emission solution by combining CCUS with biomass-derived carbon-neutral fuels (BECCS). In addition, the project aims to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study on the application of ammonia in selected industrial processes as an alternative carbon neutral fuel to replace fossil fuels. The project attempts to apply a wide range of research methods at different scales from microscopic material design to laboratory scale testing and pilot scale trials, and finally to industrial scale deployments supported by the industrial partners. Multi-scale modelling such as reaction kinetics modelling, CFD modelling and process modelling will be performed for system optimization. Techno-Economic Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment on the carbon footprint of the full supply chain will be conducted for all three above-mentioned decarbonization pathways. Additionally, Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven approach will be used to predict the dynamic CO2 emissions from industrial sites under scenarios using different combinations of renewable fuels with CCUS.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know