Company & process
GreenCO2, a Joint Venture between Biorefinery Alco Bio Fuel (ABF), industrial gas supplier Messer Benelux and IJsfabriek Strombeek, purifies biogenic CO2, thereby replaces the use of fossil CO2 and so reduces greenhouse gas emissions in Belgium.Together the partners invested 25 million euros in 2 carbon dioxide recovery units, located at Alco Bio Fuel in North Sea Port (Ghent), capturing yearly 160,000 tons of green CO2. This is equivalent to taking 117,000 cars off the road in Belgium (on the basis of the emission standard of 90gCO 2 /km for a car travelling 15 000 km yearly).
CO2 is released when ABF processes biomass into bio ethanol. This biomass is organic material (crops) that extracts CO2 from the air during the growth process.
Working towards a climate neutral world
For Alco Bio Fuel, the recent investment in a capacity extension is another important step towards climate neutral production. "We are taking up the Euro pean challenge of being climate neutral by 2050" says Charles Albert Peers, CEO of Alco, "However, as a company we already want to achieve this aim by 2030”. For Alco, this project is a fantastic example of effectively taking CO2 out of the air, and according to Peers "absolutely necessary to achieve climate neutrality”. For Messer and IJsfabriek Strombeek this investment supports their portfolio of multiple sources of CO2, which makes them a reliable partner for CO2. It also gives them the opportunity to offer CO2 to their customers which does not originate from a fossil source.
Uses
After capture and treatment, our CO2, also known as carbon dioxide or, in liquids, carbonic gas, has many uses:
Refreshing bubbles in soft drinks
Protective atmosphere in food packaging
Growth booster in greenhouse horticulture
Purification of drinking water
Alternative to the aggressive acids in wastewater treatment
Refrigerated transportRefrigerated transport
Dry ice, a cooling and cleaning agent
Alco Bio Fuel (ABF)
processes biomass (feed crops) into sustainable products such as bioethanol, high-protein animal feed and corn oil, biogenic CO2
is a joint venture between Alcogroup, Vanden Avenne Commodities & Vandema and Arvesta.
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Messer Benelux
via Messer Industries, part of the German family-owned Messer Group GmbH with worldwide subsidiaries.
produces and distributes a wide range of industrial gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, argon, hydrogen, helium and carbon dioxide,
supplies gases in a variety of markets and applications, with the recovered green CO2 finding its way mainly to the food industry.
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IJsfabriek Strombeek
is a Belgian family business, based in Meise.
produces and supplies a wide range of industrial, food and medical gases and dry ice for various applications and markets.
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