Converting waste into carbon-storing materials: A win-win for the environment
O.C.O Technology Limited operates a carbon capture and utilization (CCU) facility in Avonmouth, Bristol. The facility transforms industrial waste into valuable material while permanently removing CO₂ from the atmosphere.
The process utilizes Air Pollution Control Residue (APCr) – a hazardous fine-grained waste material found in flue gas residues. In the UK, APCr is usually transported over long distances for treatment and disposal at hazardous waste landfills. The project captures CO₂ and injects it into the waste material. It is then converted into artificial limestone through a chemical process.
This limestone stores carbon for more than 1,000 years while preventing the environmental damage caused by conventional limestone quarrying. The manufactured limestone can then be used in concrete, road construction, and other infrastructure projects, saving resources and reducing the demand for virgin aggregates.
Project Standard
The project contributes to the the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
Carbon capture and utilisation: Turning emissions into valuable resources
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is essential to mitigate climate change. But many industrial processes, like cement, lime, or glass manufacturing, are not free of emissions. Thus, innovative approaches aim to remove unavoidable emissions from the atmosphere or capture emissions at the source of heavy industries.
Carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) captures carbon emissions from industrial processes and uses them as feedstock for other operations. The captured CO2 can be used to produce concrete, fuel, chemicals, or plastics. Depending on the intended use, the CO2 is either temporarily or permanently sequestered, which has a positive effect on the climate because they have permanence from several decades to over 1,000 years.
CCU projects in the ClimatePartner portfolio are registered with international standards.
The project aims to contribute to these United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Four criteria for projects to meet quality thresholds
The life cycle of a climate project
A climate project has a set life cycle consisting of various phases, from the feasibility assessment to the retirement of Verified Emission Reductions (VERs).
The project developer reviews the general feasibility of the project, the project design, and the financing. Then, the Project Design Document (PDD) is prepared, which contains all the basic information about the project, such as the objective, location, timeline, and duration.
In this phase, independent auditors examine the PDD and the information it contains. This phase often also involves field visits with on-side interviews and analyses. Auditors are accredited, impartial assessors who have to be approved by the relevant standard as a validation and verification body (VVB). TÜV Nord/Süd, S&A Carbon LLC., and SCS Global Services are examples of VVBs."
Once validated, the project can be registered with a standard such as the Verified Carbon Standard or the Gold Standard. All high-quality climate projects are based on international standards. They provide the framework for project design, construction, carbon accounting, and monitoring. Recognised standards make the climate project system and the projects themselves resilient, traceable, and credible.
After the climate project has been registered, the monitoring begins. Here, the project developers monitor and document the data of the project activities and progress. The duration of the monitoring phase varies from project to project: it can cover two years, but documentation over five or seven years is also possible.
At the end of each monitoring phase, a VVB checks and assesses whether the values and project activities stated in the monitoring report are correct. As with validation, visits to the project site are often part of the verification process.
Once verified, the emission reductions that were confirmed in the verification phase can be issued as VERs. The steps of monitoring, verification, and issuance of VERs are repeated regularly and are therefore considered as a cycle.
Once a VER has been used, it must be retired. This process is also reflected in the registry. If the financing of a climate project is done through ClimatePartner, the VERs are bundled in a system certified by TÜV Austria and then retired on a regular basis. This ensures that each VER can no longer be sold and is only used once, preventing double counting.
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