Conference Abstract – GHGT-18: Assessment of the CESAR1 solvent for full-scale deployment

by | Jan 20, 2026

Abstract

Rapid upscaling and deployment of more cost-efficient and sustainable carbon capture solutions is needed to reduce the emissions of CO2-intensive industries. Solvent-based carbon capture is an important technology that can be readily adopted to many emission sources. Such technology can achieve high capture rates and deliver CO2 at high purity with a relatively low energy demand. In the AURORA project, the open and non-proprietary CESAR1 solvent technology is optimised and qualified for commercial deployment. To achieve these goals, a structured methodology for technology qualification and benchmarking was developed. This methodology (1) allows for a fair comparison between the CESAR1 solvent-based technology and the current benchmark, which relies on 30 wt% aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) as its chemical scrubbing agent, and (2) supports risk mitigation for the deployment of large-scale carbon capture projects with the CESAR1 solvent applied to different scenarios and end-users[1]. An important part of the qualification is to validate the solvent performance for a broad range of flue gas conditions (CO2 concentration, water content, flue-gas flowrate, temperature). In the AURORA consortium there are four end-users representing three different industrial sectors (oil refining by TotalEnergies and Motor Oil Hellas, cement by Heracles, and materials recycling by Umicore), while five different cases are defined for full-scale deployment at these end-user sites.

Keywords: post-combustion carbon capture; Amine based CO2 absorption, CESAR1 solvent; full-scale industrial cases; benchmarking

Authors: Hanne M. Kvamsdal, Thor Mejdell, Karl Anders Hoff, Anette Mathisen( SINTEF Industry), Diego Morlando, Hanna K. Knuutila (Department of Chemical Engineering, NTNU), Geir Haugen (SLB Capturi, Norway), Amirali Rezazadeh (SLB Capturi, Denmark), Carlos A. Paipa Zambrano, Stéphane Jouenne (TotalEnergies OneTech), Nicholas Agon (Umicore), Vasilis Kaloidas, Paraskevi Velli (Heracles GCC), Marios Katsampiris (l Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries S.A.)

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