Over 2 million viewers watched the episode of Superquark on the Italian Television Channel Rai1 on 26 August, which highlighted the innovation and ambition of the European research project CLEANKER, currently being tested at the Buzzi Unicem cement plant in Vernasca.
The journalists Paolo Magliocco and Daniela Franco, with a report by the researcher Martina Fantini from LEAP, who is in charge of the scientific coordination of the project, explained how this initiative aims at isolating carbon dioxide (CO₂) produced by the cement plant during the production process, before it is released into the atmosphere.
The evocative name, CLEANKER stands for Clean clinker production through the calcium lopping process, i.e. producing "clean clinker" by capturing the CO₂ generated by the production process, through the technology of the regenerative calcium loop. The objective is to isolate CO₂ from gases, concentrating it by over 90% and making it subsequently available for underground storage or for reuse in other industrial fields, such as synthesis processes or production of green fuels.
The pilot plant will be inaugurated in October of this year and, during the same month a phase of experimental campaigns and analysis will begin that is set to last one year, ending by 2021.
If expectations are confirmed, CLEANKER could represent an important innovation for the cement sector and for the protection of the environment.