Global industry leaders unify their technologies & expertise to lower carbon emissions

Carbon capture technology provider Svante is using Gasmet FTIR gas measurement technology at the Lafarge cement manufacturing site in Richmond, BC Canada to optimise process efficiency & quality control.

Svante is a leading provider of commercially viable, economically scalable, second generation carbon capture technology which quickly captures (COâ‚‚) carbon dioxide from flue gas, concentrates it and releases it for safe storage or industrial use.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology can capture up to 90% of the COâ‚‚ emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes, preventing the carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Svante’s approach is tailored specifically to the challenges of separating COâ‚‚ from nitrogen contained in diluted flue gas generated by industrial plants such as cement, steel, aluminum, fertiliser and hydrogen, which is typically emitted in large volumes, at low pressures, and dilute concentrations.

In 2019, LaFarge selected Svante and implemented Project CO2MENT with the objective to make its Richmond plant the most carbon efficient cement plant in Canada. Svante connected with its analytical instrumentation partner, Vanko Analytics to help solve the demanding gas monitoring applications associated with carbon capture processes.

Vanko, the western Canada distributor of Gasmet Technologies assigned engineering team lead, Paresh Gandhi to integrate its proven multi-stream sampling system expertise with the turnkey Gasmet FTIR multigas CEM system.

The value of accurate analysis

Brett Henkel, co-founder & VP strategic accounts and government affairs at Svante explains that the company chose the Gasmet CEM (continuous emission monitoring) system for this project following an engineer-led review of available technologies.

“We then had a collaborative discussion with Vanko about how the technology would meet the timelines of the project and fit in with our financial parameters,” he recalls. “Rather than being a typical buy-sell transaction, this was more of a joint effort to figure out what would work best for all parties.”

Allan Lyster, analytical product manager at Vanko observes that technology capable of making this type of measurement to the level of accuracy required is not widely available.

“Gasmet’s FTIR measurement technology is very accurate and cost effective compared to other solutions – and we were lucky to have engineers who appreciated the value of accurate analysis,” he says. The CEM system enables plant owners to monitor COâ‚‚ levels in addition to other gases from a library of more than 5000 compounds.

The right system for the job

Jamie McKerrow, director of engineering at Svante notes that the fact that the system was specifically designed to measure flue gases and was able to be installed in an industrial environment were important considerations. “The unit we used was a demo machine and Gasmet did a great job of commissioning it rapidly,” he adds.

Read the full article on Gasmet’s website.