100,000 tonnes of CO2 captured per year in 2030. This is the ambition of the start-ups RepAir and C-Questra with their project to capture CO2 in the air (DAC) on the Grandpuits site, in Seine-et-Marne . Although it has nothing to do with the TotalEnergies refinery in conversion, this project fits well into France’s carbon capture-storage (CCS) strategy, which wants to develop underground CO2 storage, in addition of that at sea. However, a study by the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) judges the Grandpuits area favorable for such storage, in saline aquifers at a depth of 1,800 meters. The first application to explore the area was submitted by the Dutch start-up C-Questra, specializing in CO2 storage logistics.
After digging a well to carry out its injection and sequestration tests, C-Questra will need CO2. This is where RepAir comes in. Born in 2020 in Yokneam, in the north of Israel, this young company is developing technology from a chemistry laboratory at the University of Delaware (United States) working on hydrogen. Unlike other CO2 capture solutions in the air, based on liquid or solid solvents, RepAir uses an electrochemical process with cells composed of two nickel electrodes and a classic electrolyzer membrane.
Its process captures continuously, at room temperature with a low intensity current, when other technologies involve regenerating solvents or absorbents once saturated with CO2 during high temperature and energy-intensive operations. “Our technology displays energy consumption of around 600 kWh per tonne of CO2, compared to around 2.5 MWh for other technologies, i.e. 70% less», Indicates Jean-Philippe Hiegel, strategy and development director of RepAir, who arrived in this role after fifteen years at TotalEnergies and a stint in the Northern Lights joint venture, dedicated to offshore CO2 storage in Norway.
Less than 100 euros per tonne of CO2 captured
Thanks to an initial fundraising of $10 million in 2022, RepAir has built a pilot unit with a capacity to capture one ton of CO2 per year from the air on the roof of its Yokneam laboratories. Installed in October 2023, it has already made it possible to accumulate data from 5,000 hours of capture carried out on three test lines to evaluate the performance of the electrodes. At the same time, the team filed a patent to replace the metal in cell separators with recycled polymer. “We are also working with partners to develop a membrane more appropriate to our needs.», specifies Jean-Philippe Hiegel. The start-up plans to produce its electrodes in gigafactories around the world, close to the collection points.
So many improvements and industrial choices which should allow RepAir to keep its commitment to a process emitting only 5% of the CO2 captured over its life cycle and to display a capture price of less than 100 euros per tonne. The storage units will be able to produce up to 1 million tonnes of CO2 captured per year on the same site. In April, RepAir also entered into a partnership with the New York start-up Cella, specializing in CO2 mineralization for a first project in Kenya powered by geothermal electricity. In June, it also announced a partnership with the company EnEarth for offshore storage in Greece. And in August with C-Questra for land storage in France and Poland.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
