HERCCULES and COREu projects - Dissemination event “Development of the CCUS Chain in Greece"
September 17th, 2026 - Kavala, Greece
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Optimizing carbon capture and storage infrastructure including physics-based reservoir modelling
The deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) requires a potentially complex infrastructure to transport and store CO2 underground. Its optimal roll-out is key to limiting costs and enabling a timely deployment in line with ambitious mitigation scenarios. However, identifying the optimal design of the infrastructure is computationally challenging. Within this framework, mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) offers a computationally effective solution, which, however, requires linear models. Not surprisingly, geological reservoirs are typically represented as static sinks with constant injection rates and storage capacities as parameters. This approach neglects the dynamic properties of CO2 injection, such as the reservoir pressure evolution over time, limiting the ability to evaluate their impact on the CCS chain design.
In this work, we propose a novel MILP model that integrates physics-based reservoir modelling into CCS chain optimization. Extending existing work on reduced-order modelling of reservoirs, we combine proper orthogonal decomposition and trajectory piecewise linearization to obtain a precise, yet computational efficient MILP model for the dynamic behaviour of CO2 injection. Compared to full-scale reservoir simulations, the model computes the pressure around the injection well with ±">5% accuracy and significant computational speed-ups (500-1800 times faster). We demonstrate its application in a full chain MILP model with an illustrative case study optimizing the decarbonization of a small industrial cluster through CCS, highlighting the model’s ability to couple optimal operation of capture technologies with varying injection rates and to ensure the reservoir safety constraints while designing the chain.
Authors: Luca Bertoni, Olav Møyner, Jan Wiegner, Matteo Gazzani
Ultra-low emissions cement production via hybrid oxyfuel-solvent CO2 capture
This paper proposes and evaluates a hybrid process for decarbonizing cement clinker manufacturing that combines partial oxy-fuel combustion in the pre-calciner with post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) using monoethanolamine (MEA)-based chemical absorption. Unlike traditional CCS approaches, this design aims to leverage the synergy between the two processes: partial oxyfuel calcination to efficiently tackle most of the direct CO2 emissions from CaCO3 calcination and solvent-based post-combustion CO2 capture for processing both the rotary kiln flue gas and the unrecovered CO2 from partial oxyfuel (i.e., the CO2 purification vent stream).
The study examines different designs and integration parameters for implementing this CO2 capture solution in existing cement plants, identifying a configuration with 50% oxygen enrichment and a 3+3-stage preheater as the best balance between retrofit complexity and thermal efficiency. A key feature of this hybrid architecture is its thermal autonomy: heat integration analysis shows that waste heat recovered from the cement plant, especially exhaust air from the clinker cooler, can fully meet the solvent regeneration requirements, eliminating the need for auxiliary steam generation even at capture rates above 99%.
Furthermore, the research highlights the decarbonization potential of combining this hybrid capture process for cement with 100% alternative fuel firing (RDF waste in the kiln and calciner). Under this scenario, the plant can achieve net-negative emissions of -181.9 kgCO2/tclk.
A comparative techno-economic analysis with alternative CO2 capture technologies, such as post-combustion solvent process, full-oxyfuel, and partial oxyfuel, identifies the proposed hybrid process as a highly competitive strategy for deep decarbonization of cement making. Although partial oxyfuel configurations present marginally lower CO2 avoidance costs, the hybrid process features a CO2 avoidance rate close to 100% (or greater in case of biomass/waste fuel usage in the calciner), effectively coping with a high carbon tax scenario
Authors: Riccardo Cremona, Sebastian Quevedo Parra, Manuele Gatti, Matteo Carmelo Romano