Enviro tech company Calix (ASX:CXL) has announced that its CO2 capturing project has begun commissioning on time and on budget in Belgium.

The Low Emissions Intensity Lime and Cement (LEILAC) project is designed to enable Europe’s cement and lime industries to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions dramatically without significant energy or capital penalty.

 

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It involves Calix’s carbon capture technology called Direct Separation, which provides a way to capture the unavoidable CO2 emissions from lime and cement production, done by “re-engineering the existing process flows of a traditional calciner, indirectly heating the limestone via a special steel vessel”.

The project has received significant backing from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, and has been in design and construction phases since 2016. Having now been commissioned it will begin its first runs, with longer-term runs over the next 18 months aimed at preparing for scaled production.

Calix chief scientist Mark Sceats said the project formed a key plank in the EU’s target of reducing CO2 emissions by 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.

“This is a significant development milestone for the Direct Separation application of Calix’s technology. It has taken nearly five years of considerable effort and focus to reach this achievement,” he said.

“It is all the more satisfying given Calix, an Australian business, has initiated this project, attracted technical and industrial multinational giants in Europe to form a project consortium, and has led the project successfully since inception.

“I look forward to a successful commissioning and fingerprinting exercise over the next few months – which will considerably de-risk this application.”

Calix (ASX:CXL) shares were flat at 75c.

Calix listed last year, raising $8 million to commercialise its patented technology called Calix Flash Calcination. The process involves grinding down minerals and flash-heating them at up to 800 deg C, then snap freezing the gases that emerge.
 

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Archer (ASX:AXE) commences its quantum computing project. Archer’s 12CQ Project commences with the aim of building a carbon-based quantum computing chip capable of room-temperature quantum information processing that would form the future basis of a universal quantum computer.
 
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Some big tech capital raises for global growth. Dubber Corp (ASX:DUB) raised $22m while Syntonic (ASX:SYT) raised $5.4m, both for their global growth strategies.