Calix and Leilac Awarded $15m Grant for Zero Emissions Lime and Cement CCU plant

A World-First Supported by the Australian Government 

Leilac and its parent company, Australian environmental technology company Calix Limited, announced that it has been awarded a $15 million grant from the Australian Government’s Carbon Capture Technologies Program. The grant will support the construction of a world-first, renewably powered carbon capture and use (CCU) demonstration plant in South Australia to produce near-zero emissions lime and supply captured industrial CO₂ emissions to the Solar Methanol Project for the creation of low-carbon transport fuels for the shipping sector. 

“Carbon capture technology will play a big part in the global effort to address climate change, and I am proud that Leilac’s core technology will be used in another complementary and innovative way to decarbonise industrial emissions,” said Daniel Rennie, Leilac’s CEO.  

“This project is important because we aim to demonstrate renewable electricity as a pathway for net-zero lime and cement and, at the same time, capture and use CO₂ that is unavoidably produced in a novel way to make low-carbon transport fuels. We welcome the support of the Australian Government and the collaboration with Vast and Mabanaft to apply the Leilac technology to demonstrate additional decarbonisation solutions for multiple hard-to-abate industries.” 

Demonstrating Zero Emissions Lime and Cement 

Lime is an essential material used in the iron, steel, alumina, paper, pharmaceuticals, food, farming, and chemical industries. Demand for lime in Australia alone is predicted to grow by 57% between 2022 and 2050. Like cement, lime is produced by heating limestone to form quicklime (calcium oxide). When heated, carbon dioxide is unavoidably released directly from the raw material, with this process accounting for the majority of the cement and lime industries’ emissions. 

Electrification plus carbon capture by Leilac’s core technology enables the avoidance of fuel emissions and the capture of unavoidable process emissions. The innovative CCU project aims to capture and use this unavoidable CO₂ to make a low-carbon transport fuel for the shipping sector, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of multiple industries and demonstrating a cost-effective CCU decarbonisation pathway for cement and lime.  

Using captured emissions to make sustainable fuels 

The novel, renewably powered CCU project aims to generate two revenue streams through the production of near-zero emissions lime and the sale of captured CO₂ for use as a chemical feedstock.

The Leilac technology will be used to capture up to 20,000 tonnes of process CO₂ emissions annually. Up to 15,000 tonnes of that CO₂ will be sold to the Solar Methanol Project each year to produce green methanol, with additional captured CO₂ potentially supplied to other users in local industry. The Solar Methanol Project is being developed by a consortium including Vast (NAS: VSTE) and German energy company Mabanaft, under the Australian-German funded HyGATE initiative.  

In a second phase, the project will aim to expand production to include the processing of cement raw meal to a near-zero emissions cement clinker product, with captured process CO₂ again supplied for use. By incorporating cement clinkering as an additional process in the Leilac technology, the project aims to develop a novel route to zero emissions clinker production that reduces cost, energy consumption and footprint.