Technology breakthroughs can change the cost base in established industrial gas markets – as well as unlocking new opportunities.
The message comes from Steven Schuermans, CEO of Belgian CO2-reduction company Solveno Technologies, which is a two-year-old business going after both mature and emerging markets with its novel industrial technologies.
“We like well-understood opportunities in established markets, where the efficiency gains we deliver present a compelling return-on-investment use case. But in our case there are also less established use cases in thermal energy storage that we should be able to unlock soon through partnership,” Schuermans told gasworld.
The company has a compelling story when it comes to recovering CO2 for reuse, which is the mature market opportunity in its sights.
“Here, our CO2 recovery unit captures off-gas from dry ice production plants, and then it converts it back into liquid CO2 for reuse. What makes our proposition stand out, though, is its efficiency, autonomy and the use of CO2 as a refrigerant. Our technology is more energy-efficient than rival commercial units that are on the market today. it means our system can rack up some big savings for customers very quickly – and then keep on providing those same cost savings for decades.”
The company delivered its first 3.5-tonne CO2 recovery unit last September and expects to deliver several more in 2025, before ramping up production thereafter.
“The other advantage of our patented, oil-free tech is that in requires a low level of maintenance. That is another way in which it delivers efficiency and reliability,” said Schuermans.
The company has a small facility today but through partnerships and smart working it can already handle and deliver for large orders.
“Our enterprise resource planning software is set up for us to scale quickly by managing workflows and feeding through what’s needed to our international partners to deliver when orders come in. And that same efficiency carries through to the installation and then the follow-up customer care.”
A big chance in biogas
As well as CO2 recovery from dry ice, the other fast-growing CO2 recovery opportunity for Solveno lies in biogas upgrading. Its technology can capture emissions right after the biogas upgrading process to eliminate methane slip and cut CO2 emissions, creating a new value stream for its customers in the process.
“Our biogas CO2 recovery system really delivers. It allows for the efficient separation of CH4 from the CO2-rich offgas, which maximises CO2 recovery and improves the methane’s carbon intensity score,”said Schuermans.
CO2 can drive energy storage
If those opportunities in dry ice production and biogas are well understood and something that Solveno can move on today, the other opportunity in its sights is less immediate, but not any less promising.
“CO2-driven pumped themal energy storage is an opportunity we stand ready to unlock at scale, but we will need an established industrial partner or two to get there,” said Schuermans.
Solveno’s thermal energy storage systems convert electrical energy into heat and cold that can be used for long-term storage of eight hours or more. This is done in several steps. First a closed loop CO2 system absorbs electrical power and then stores the heat of compression and the cold of expansion in uncoupled buffers. When needed, the process can be reversed to drive a turbine and create electricity again – or cold and hot energy can be discharged directly from the buffers. The technology is comparable to a hydro storage system without the geological constraints, allowing for grid balancing services at large, even multi-gigawatt, scale. Another advantage of the technology is its ability to use surplus heat to improve its overall efficiency.
“All components of the technology have been tested individually and our small-scale prototype is in development, but we will need to find an industrial partner that stands to benefit to really deliver something special at a larger scale,” said Schuermans.
Solveno’s CEO noted that large utilities looking at new projects might well be a good fit for such a trial, as well as any organisation managing its own electricity grid, like an airport.
“To demonstrate the technology, we can build it small and show how the components all work in concert, whatever the size of facility. It would be fantastic to find that first partner and carry things forward.”
