PROJECT CO2MENT FAQS

Project CO2ment is a project partnership between Lafarge Canada, Svante, and Total Energies to demonstrate Svante’s carbon capture technology at the Richmond cement plant.  The project began in 2019 and consisted of three phases, pre-treatment, capture and utilization; the demonstration is currently embarking upon the third last phase, utilization. 

The Richmond Plant was built in 1956 and was Lafarge’s first cement plant outside of France. The plant underwent modernization in 1996 with the installation of a new pre-heater pre-calciner kiln. The Richmond plant is one of two cement plants in BC and supplies cement to the greater Vancouver area, Vancouver Island, the BC Interior and Pacific Northwest.

For Lafarge, sustainable development is a long-standing commitment dating back to our first principles of action in 1977. Our growth and competitiveness are inextricably linked to the quality of living conditions in the places where we operate, and there can be no sustainable economic development without the preservation of nature. We are always seeking ways to increase our environmental performance at our operations, but beyond that, we work to develop innovative solutions that can help design and engineering professionals achieve sustainable construction.

We can create a world where people, profits, and the planet go hand in hand. Thanks to our vast resource network, including technical experts and financial stability, we can lead the way in implementing and testing new technologies that fundamentally change the way we manufacture and use building materials.

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is a set of technologies and processes that trap carbon dioxide, a notorious greenhouse gas that impacts global warming, and either use (utilizatione) in it to make the manufacturing of other products in a closed loop or safely store it deep underground – typically in saline aquifers or depleted oil wells.

In the CCUS space, Svante provides companies with carbon capture technology and partners with other organizations who will use the captured CO2 or store it safely underground.

Carbon capture refers to technologies that trap unavoidable carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from heavy-emitting processes such as chemical production and the burning of fossil fuels. 

Svante’s carbon capture technology can be used to capture CO2 directly from the air (known as direct air capture or DAC), as well as from the source of emission at industrial sites, known as “point-source carbon capture.” Point-source carbon capture takes CO2 out of emissions from hard-to-decarbonize industrial sites, such as lime, pulp & paper, cement, steel, oil & gas, fertilizer, aluminum, and hydrogen plants.

The CO2 is concentrated (if captured from a dilute form) and transported via pipeline or vehicle, and subsequently sequestered in secure underground carbon storage sites, such as saline aquifers. Alternatively, the captured CO2 can be utilized using other technology to manufacture new products, used for numerous commercial purposes such as concrete curing, also known as “green cement,” where captured CO2 is injected into concrete and trapped. One such application is the use of CO2 in the production of syncrude or synwaxes, for the production of sustainable fuels, lubricants and cosmetics as an example. Other applications include sustainable jet fuel and consumer products such as diamonds and shoe soles made from carbon.

The UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that to limit warming to 1.5C, we must employ carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies alongside other climate change-fighting tools such as renewables, electrification, and more.

The world needs to capture and remove CO2 that’s already in the atmosphere (through direct air capture technology), as this CO2 continues to drive global warming. We also need to prevent more CO2 from reaching the atmosphere in the first place, which is what point-source carbon capture technology, such as Svante’s technology, is for.