CO2 capture
Alco Energy Rotterdam is one of the few European ethanol plants that captures and re-uses CO2. This process of capture and re-use is also known as Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU).
We produce this CO2 during the fermentation process and call it biogenic or green CO2.
On the AER site there is an installation owned and managed by the companies Linde and OCAP purifying and compressing this CO2. This installation has been operational on a continuous basis since the summer of 2016 and processes up to 400,000 tonnes of green CO2 annually.
The CO2 goes by pipeline to the Westland where it is used in the horticultural sector. In the greenhouses the fossil CO2 extracted from natural gas is replaced by our green CO2. This CO2 is absorbed by the tomatoes and peppers stimulating the growth process. And in this way the circle is complete. A good example of circular economy.
Using our CO2 in an environmentally friendly way also reduces the CO2 footprint of our bioethanol. Thanks to this capture and re-use of CO2, Alco Energy Rotterdam is one of the European bioethanol producers with greenhouse gas emissions far below the EU average.
