03-04-2025

Carbon Clean announces successful completion of world’s first industrial deployment of CycloneCC

Carbon Clean today announced the successful completion of the world’s first industrial deployment of CycloneCC. The modular unit has achieved the major milestone of around 4,000 operating hours over a six-month period, moving CycloneCC to Technology Readiness Level 7 (TRL 7)¹. CycloneCC has been operating continuously, delivering a high purity CO₂ product, which exceeds the projected target and meets Fertiglobe’s CO₂ purity requirements.

System validation has confirmed that the industrial demonstration unit can now be further scaled up and commercialised. 

The mobile CycloneCC unit was installed on site in under a week at Fertiglobe’s nitrogen fertiliser plant in the Al Ruwais Industrial Complex in Abu Dhabi – a record for the carbon capture sector. The CO₂ captured from a reformer flue gas stack has been used by Fertiglobe in urea production.

CycloneCC is Carbon Clean’s breakthrough modular technology, which provides a viable alternative to conventional carbon capture plants. Process intensification reduces mass transfer equipment by a factor of 10, decreasing the overall footprint by up to 50%. The combination of rotating packed beds (RPBs) and Carbon Clean’s proprietary amine-promoted buffer salt APBS-CDRMax solvent increases the efficiency of the carbon capture process while delivering extremely high performance.

Aniruddha Sharma, Chair and CEO of Carbon Clean, said: “Fertiglobe’s willingness to invest in first-of-a-kind (FOAK) projects cements its status as a decarbonisation pioneer. Our collaboration with Fertiglobe for this industrial demonstration unit is a major step towards CycloneCC’s full commercialisation, so that it can be deployed at scale globally. Installing a carbon capture plant in less than a week is a feat never achieved before. We’re excited to have delivered this industry first in carbon capture.”

Innovative use of Carbon Clean-developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) has contributed to the plant’s increased reliability and availability, as well as maximising the performance of the solvent. The plant has been operating in open loop mode, with human operators implementing AI-suggested recommendations.

Ahmed El-Hoshy, CEO of Fertiglobe, said: “At Fertiglobe, creating value via sustainability is at the heart of our operations. We are committed to meeting the increasing global demand for low-carbon solutions, which bring us closer to a more sustainable future. This collaboration with Carbon Clean at our facility in Al Ruwais reflects our commitment to leveraging advanced technologies, including AI, to advance our decarbonisation goals and meet rising global demand for our products.”

¹ Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are a measurement system for assessing the maturity level of evolving technologies. Carbon Clean has adopted the TRL definitions provided by the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas (IEAGHG) R&D programme.