Industries such as cement, pulp and paper, and waste-to-energy are often described as “hard to abate”. Much of their carbon dioxide (CO2) comes from the materials and processes they use, not only from the energy they consume, so switching to clean power alone is not enough. Carbon capture offers one solution. The CO2 is separated from a plant’s exhaust gases before it reaches the atmosphere and is then stored or used.

ACCSESS, funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme, set out to make this technology cheaper, safer and easier to replicate across industrial sites. The project was coordinated by SINTEF Energy Research in Norway and brought together 18 industrial and research partners from eight European countries. Over five years, its technologies were tested at real industrial sites, including a waste-to-energy plant in Norway, a paper mill in Sweden and a cement plant in Poland.

One technology made a particularly big leap, moving from technology readiness level (TRL) 4 to TRL 7. On this nine-step scale, TRL 4 means a technology has been validated in the laboratory, while TRL 7 means a prototype has been demonstrated in a real operating environment. In one test campaign, the system reached a CO2 storage capacity of more than 100 kg per hour, an important step towards industrial use.

This matters for the machinery sector because capture and storage systems are built from process equipment. As these technologies mature, demand is likely to grow for new reactors, separation units and control systems. The results also fit the demonstrator projects to be funded under the Horizon Europe Clean Industrial Deal call opening in January 2027. Now that the project has ended, the partners will continue developing the results towards the market.

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