The ‘Basque Industrial Hub for Circularity’ is born, an innovation ‘hub’ to decarbonize the Basque industry

2024-02-03

The companies Calcinor , Sidenor , SBS Process, Lointek , Petronor Innovación, Smurfit Kappa , Nortegas , and the Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium , together with the Energy Cluster and the Tecnalia technological research and development center , have joined together to create the first pole business and technology of Euskadi aimed at the decarbonization of the industry.

The BIH4C is part of the ‘Net-Zero Basque Industrial Supercluster’ (NZBISC) initiative,

promoted by the Basque Government-SPRI, Iberdrola and Petronor, and which has the support of industrial clusters.

The ‘Basque Industrial Hub for Circularity’ (BIH4C), led by Tecnalia , aims to promote the transformation of existing industrial areas through the search and implementation of energy synergies, the efficient use of resources and technological innovation, they described in a press release sources from the innovation hub.

BIH4C will promote the establishment of synergies between different industrial sectors through the development and demonstration of innovative decarbonization technologies in real operating environments. Among others, hydrogen oxycombustion in the steel industry, potentially from oxygen and hydrogen produced by electrolysis in the refining sector; the capture of CO 2 in the lime industry and its use to produce methane or, in the future, synthetic fuels in the refining sector; or the carbonation of steel slag using CO 2 captured in the lime industry, for the production of construction materials for the cement industry. Likewise, other possible synergies will also be studied in the form of hub expansion plans; for example, the production of biofuels from industrial by-products, such as waste paper or lignin.

The objective is to identify opportunities to reduce emissions through industrial synergies and technological validation in an industrial environment, with the vision of reducing CO 2 emissions by 20% and the consumption of material resources by 10% in the coming years. water and energy of the participating companies. In addition, BIH4C will develop a tool to identify circular synergies in energy and resource use in the Basque industry. This tool will allow mapping and quantifying, by industrial zones, the generation and demand of ‘multi-carriers’ such as O 2 , H 2 , CO 2 , methane or various waste and raw materials, and evaluate the impact that circularity can have in the efficient use of raw materials and the decarbonization of the Basque industry.

Reference hub in Europe

The ‘hub’ is created within the framework of the European project IS2H4C, ‘Sustainable Circular Economy Transition: from Industrial Symbiosis to Hubs for Circularity’, which seeks to establish new models of sustainable regional development, paving the way towards a cleaner and greener future. The consortium, made up of a total of 31 partners – of which ten are Basque companies and entities – from nine countries, “will demonstrate this new model in four key industrial ‘hubs’ in Europe, located, in addition to Euskadi, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey.

This is an unprecedented initiative on Europe’s path towards a circular economy and aims to have a profound impact on industrial practices, environmental sustainability and social well-being.

In the case of Euskadi, BIH4C is part of the ‘Net-Zero Basque Industrial Supercluster’ (NZBISC) initiative, promoted by the Basque Government-SPRI, Iberdrola and Petronor, and which has the support of industrial clusters. Its objective is to “promote the reduction of emissions in the Basque industry and, at the same time, promote new opportunities for the territory derived from the development of innovative decarbonization technologies and services,” conclude the same sources.