MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide and BASF plan to develop world largest cross-border CCS value chain. The goal is to significantly reduce CO2 emissions at the industrial cluster in the port of Antwerp, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The joint project Kairos@C has been selected for funding by the European Commission through its Innovation Fund, as one of the seven large-scale projects out of more than 300 applications.
Kairos@C will be jointly developed by Air Liquide and BASF at its Antwerp chemical site. By avoiding 14.2 MMt of CO2 over the first 10 years of operation, it will significantly contribute to the EU’s goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050.
Besides combining CO2 capture, liquefaction, transportation and storage on a large scale in the North Sea, the project includes several innovative technologies. Notably, for capturing the CO2 from production plants, Air Liquide will use its patented Cryocap technology and, for drying the CO2, BASF will apply its Sorbead solution.
The project is planned to be operational in 2025.
Kairos@C is paving the way for the next phases of carbon abatement in the port of Antwerp. The project will also be connected to shared CO2 transport and export infrastructures, including a first-of-its-kind CO2 liquefaction and export terminal, which will be built under the framework of Antwerp@C, a consortium that aims to halve CO2 emissions in the Port of Antwerp by 2030. Air Liquide and BASF are founding members of Antwerp@C.
As MRC informed earlier, BASF is strengthening its global catalyst development and helping customers to bring new products faster to the market. As part of this strategy, BASF is building a new pilot plant center at its Ludwigshafen site. The new Catalyst Development and Solids Processing Center will serve as a global hub for pilot-scale production and process innovations of chemical catalysts. The new building is scheduled for completion by mid-2024.
We remind that BASF aims is to electrify its production processes for basic chemicals, which are currently based on fossil fuels.
We also remind that in mid-February, BASF said it was restarting one of its steam crackers at its Ludwigshafen complex in Germany after operations were halted earlier that month due to a technical issue. The naphtha cracker produces ethylene and propylene, and is one of two crackers on the site. One has a production capacity of 420,000 metric tons/year, with the other"s capacity at 240,000 metric tons/year.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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