Carbon2x Riihimäki
Carbon2x pilot in Riihimäki, Finland
Carbon2x captures emissions from waste incineration and turns them into CO2-based, high-quality raw materials. It will help reduce our dependence on fossil-based raw materials, improve Europe’s self sufficiency, and decarbonize waste incineration.
Fortum is piloting Carbon2x at its Riihimäki waste-to-energy plant during 2022. The goal of the pilot is to test the carbon capture and utilization of the plant's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The Riihimäki pilot will specifically look at the production of methane by combining the plant's CO2 emissions with hydrogen.
The results of the pilot, which is a cooperation with the Finnish start-up company Q Power, will boost Fortum’s 3-year research project that aims to produce special plastics out of methane.
Carbon2x is a strategic programme of Fortum’s Recycling and Waste business and it can help the company reduce the CO2 emissions of its waste treatment operations significantly and produce high-quality raw materials for new products.
Benefits of CCU technology
Carbon capture and utilization will have a significant role in mitigating climate change and promoting circular economy. Carbon2x enables the use of waste as energy and molecular level recycling without emissions. In the Carbon2x programme, non-recyclable or non-reusable waste is processed at Fortum’s waste incineration plant in Riihimäki. At the first stage of the Carbon2x programme, the carbon dioxide captured from the flue gases of waste incineration is combined with hydrogen to produce methane and methanol. From Fortum’s perspective, this is an intermediate phase, as our deeper interest lies in the production of products of higher degree of processing such as specialty plastics.
