In Garray, a town of Soria, the smoke of a biomass plant is no longer lost in the air. There they have mounted a plant capable of catching the CO₂, clean it and sell it as if it were any other industrial product. The result is called “Co₂ Green” and today travels to refreshment factories, greenhouses or chemical companies. What was previously a residue is now a raw material.
Short. The Life Co₂-Intbio project He has joined The Garray Biomass plant, underway since 2013, with a system to capture, clean and liquefied CO₂. It was developed for four years With a budget of 8.9 million eurosof which the EU contributed 1.9 million.
The consortium is leaded by the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León, together with Metal Carbides, Garray Bioelectric and Enso Operations & Maintenance. According to project documentationthe objective is to demonstrate the technical and economic viability and create new value chains for a “green” commercial co₂.
More in depth. The key is in the connection between the biomass central and the capture plant. Biomass provides biogenic combustion gases and energy/steam; The new plant, Designed by metal carbidessubject them to a process of chemical absorption with amines, followed by filtering, cooled and distillation. The result is liquefied and purified to food quality, Certificate under the FSSC 22000 standard.
The complex has the capacity to produce up to 33,000 tons per year of “CO₂ Green”, which is distributed to beverage, greenhouses and chemistry companies in the area. In addition, proximity avoids long -distance transport: the project monitoring tool estimates a saving of about 295 tons of CO₂ per year only in logistics. And the plan includes a potential stop of up to 50,000 t/year if production is extended, According to the project itself.
The first of its kind? Here it should clarify. This type of installation applies to a very concrete niche within carbon capture, since these are biogenic emissions, from biomass. In other words, it is not about the centrals that are dedicated To capture and store (CCS) nor of Direct air capture (DAC)but they transform it into a commercial product.
Some media They mention it as the first European installation in operation dedicated to capture and value biogenic CO2 with food use at an industrial scale. However, other countries begin to explore this road: in Denmark, the Kassø project of European Energy This year began to produce e-methanol Using Co₂ captured a biogas plant, and the Tønder Biogas plant announced the first biogenic supply for that chain, According to information published by the company. The difference of Soria is that it already operates at an industrial scale and its CO₂ is not buried, but is used in the local economy.
Another type of capture. Europe does not start from zero. In Norway, the Northern Lights consortium (Equinor, Shell, Totalenergies) injected the first tons of CO₂ into the Aurora submarine reservoir, 2,600 meters under the seabed. In parallel, the Heidelberg Materials cement inaugurated the Brevik CCS plant, the first large -scale industrial capture in the cement sector. There the co₂ of the furnaces is captured, liquefied and sent by boat to Northern Lights for storage. In other words, Brevik captures and dawns storage, Two pieces of the same CCS chain.
New advances. Garray demonstrates that capturing biogenic and using it is technically and commercially viable in Europe. While Norway opens the way to large -scale geological storage, Castilla y León shows that the use of CO₂ can activate local economy and cut emissions tangible.
The difficult – and decisive – will be climbing without self -enhanced: apply this tool where it provides value, replicate it in other parts of Europe and, above all, accompany it of what remains the most urgent task: emit less greenhouse gases.
Image | Freepik
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