Accelerating Low carbon Industrial Growth through CCUS: ALIGN-CCUS

The ALIGN-CCUS (ALIGN) project is a joint industry-led research initiative to accelerate the demonstration and implementation of the next-phase of European CCUS projects by addressing specific R&D gaps across the CCUS chain. The mission of ALIGN is to overcome hurdles for initial projects and to prepare for large scale, cost effective, implementation of CCUS. The proposal is structured to meet the immediate R&D needs of industry, combined with foresight to overcome challenges linked to the wider commercialization of the technology through capture at integrated industrial and power clusters. The ALIGN consortium offers pilot plants and other state of the art test facilities such as the Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), RWE (Niederaussem, DE), UNIPER (Wilhelmshaven, DE), Tiller pilot rig (NOR) and the CO₂ Corrosion Test Facility at IFE to test key components of the process with underpinning modelling and analysis.

In addition to testing at existing pilot plants, a pilot installation for the conversion of CO₂ to transport fuels (DME/Methanol) will be installed and tested. Communicating the technical and economic feasibility, including evidence based environmental impact assessment to decision-makers and to the wider society, is crucial for the acceptance of CCUS, and an important element of ALIGN.