A new liquefaction plant is to be installed by energy partners Hitachi Zosen Inova (Hitachi) and ASCO Carbon Dioxide Ltd (ASCO) to separate and liquefy renewable carbon dioxide (CO2) at a Swiss biogas plant.
To prevent CO2 from being released into the atmosphere, the ‘state-of-the-art’ facility will capture the CO2 that is removed during biogas to biomethane upgrading before the gas is filtered and dehydrated under high pressure.
With a processing capacity of 4,000 tonnes per year, the plant will produce biogenic CO2 to be used for a range of applications including in various industrial processes, medical technology, for carbonating beverages and preserving food.
“This project brings together environmental and economic benefits,” said Ralph Spring, CEO of ASCO. “It’s a ‘first-of-its-kind’ project in Switzerland and we hope that it will be used as [a] best case example for future biogas or waste-to-power plants.”
The project is also being developed by CO2 Energie AG, a subsidiary of Swiss energy company ‘Regionalwerke Baden’ (RWG) and ‘Recycling Energie AG’, which last year collaborated on a similar project in Nesselnbach.
“With the new plant [at Nesselnbach], we will be able to capture around 90% of the CO2 produced, which amounts to up to 3,000 tonnes of CO2 annually,” said a spokesperson.
Liquid CO2 is stored in large tanks before being collected by Messer Schweiz AG, an industrial gases company in Lenzburg, and sold on the national CO2 market.
Switzerland’s CO2 goals
As part of its Energy Strategy 2050, Switzerland is aiming to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.
Having set a previous target to halve its emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, the country has committed to offset part of its emissions abroad through bilateral agreements with developing countries such as Thailand while also supporting climate projects there.
Switzerland plans to save around 43 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents – or a third of its total emissions – in this way.
To stay on track with its targets, the country’s Federal Council said in a report that 12 million tonnes of CO2 will have to be stored annually by 2050.
This will involve the upscaling of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and negative emission technologies (NETs), which will take place in two phases: a ‘pioneering phase’ up to 2030 and a ‘targeted scaling phase’ up to 2050.
Swiss direct air capture (DAC) firm Climeworks has set lofty ambitions to capture 1% of global CO2 emissions each year by 2025, while the DemoUpCARMA project – funded and led by ETH Zurich – is working on cross-border CO2 transport, underground mineralisation in Iceland and concrete storage.
