HECO2

The HECO2 structuring project is a programme made up of a number of complementary areas, supported by 20 partners from the Walloon ecosystem and backed by the GreenWin and MecaTech clusters. 

AXIS1: Low-carbon industry - electrification

Partners: AGC Glass Europe with John Cockerill, Aperam, CRM, GPAI and ULB

HECO2's “electrification” axis 1 is presented here and aims to set up the first demonstrators and engineering studies for partial or total electrical heating (therefore without direct CO2 emissions) of high-temperature, high-power furnaces that traditionally use fossil energy (with direct CO2 emissions) during a combustion process.

AXIS 2: Generation of low-carbon hydrogen by hydrolysis

Partners: John Cockerill with UCL, ULB, CRM, PEPPS Engineering, Pepite, I-care, APERAM, Centexbel, Materia Nova.
The project focuses on the production of hydrogen by electrolysis, with the aim of improving the performance of water electrolysis to produce green hydrogen under the best technical and economic conditions. It specifically aims to develop containerised solutions to facilitate testing and the flexible transition to widespread use of hydrogen. A pilot autonomous and connected containerised electrolyser with optimised cells will be set up. In addition, the electrical energy to be used in the electrolysis process will be of renewable origin, as the container will be installed on the site of the MIRIS project, a test microgrid consisting in particular of electricity generated by photovoltaic panels and a hybrid storage system.         

AXIS 3: Hybrid plasmalysis (Hydrogen by hybrid plasmalysis of local methane deposits & Hydrogen by hybrid plasmalysis of local methane deposits & structured carbons without CO2 emissions).

Partners: GATE2 with AGC PLASMA Engineering, GAZONOR BENELUX, LUMINUS, Vanheede Biomass Solutions, Umons and Materia Nova.          

HYBRID PLASMALYSIS technology is the new generation of plasma pyrolysis, which consists of splitting the methane molecule into its components (hydrogen and solid carbon). This natural gas/methane dissociation process has existed for many years, but requires high temperatures, thermal insulation processes and expensive components, high maintenance costs and frequent production stoppages.

The new HYBRID PLASMALYSIS technology resolves these drawbacks and extends the possibilities for using various sources of methane. It allows the quality of hydrogen and co-products to be adjusted to demand, and significantly reduces CO2 emissions compared with other technologies.

Axis 5: two CCUS projects

> BUTTERFLY: Development of a CCUS-compatible ‘PFR’ lime kiln

Partners: TECforlime SA (Carmeuse) with CRM Group, Umons, Uliège, Euro Bureau, Construct, ‘Chaudronnerie & Tuyauteries Industrielles’, Coretec Engineering and VOCSens 

The BUTTERFLY project aims to develop solutions for capturing and concentrating CO2 directly in the lime manufacturing process to make it compatible with the requirements of sequestration or utilisation applications.   

> SATURN: Development and fine-tuning of a post-combustion CO2 capture and concentration solution

Partners: APERAM with ‘TECforlime SA (Groupe Carmeuse)’, AGC, Prayon, CRM, Umons, Uliège, Coretec Engineering, VOCSens
The capture of CO2 from so-called ‘Hard-to-Abate’ emissions is an essential technological building block available to manufacturers to reduce their respective environmental impact. Clearly complementary to a necessary strategy of decarbonisation, or even defossilisation of energy, this component is not, however, trivial to deploy on an industrial scale.