Lack of carbon dioxide – a threat to the transition to a circular economy

Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans met with Ragn-Sells during his visit to Estonia.

On Thursday 19 May, representatives of the environmental company Ragn-Sells met Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, during his visit to Estonia. Mr. Timmermans was introduced to one of the Nordic region's largest ongoing circular projects, the Oil Shale Ash-project, and the challenges facing the project: the lack of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Ragn-Sells’ Oil Shale Ash project aims to produce clean carbon negative PCC (precipitated calcium carbonate) from historical landfill ashes, generated from the incineration of oil shale rock. A result of the past 60 years of Estonian energy production. The preparations are currently underway for the demo- and industrial plant.

- Despite the huge climate savings potential that the project has, a major challenge is that at present the project does not qualify for any of today's EU green funding options. The reason being that our technology uses carbon dioxide generated from a fossil fuel origin, says Alar Saluste, project manager at Ragn-Sells.

From left: Kai Realo, CEO of Ragn-Sells Estonia, Rainer Pesti, Business Development Manager at Ragn-Sells Estonia, Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Commission, Alaur Saluste, project manager at Ragn-Sells, and Pär Larshans, Director of Sustainability at Ragn-Sells.

Ragn-Sells propose that the European Commission establishes a transition period, during which the circular economy production units could also use fossil carbon dioxide if there are no alternative sources available. The transition period could be linked to the launch of the European CO2 transportation network.

- Today we have the technology to recycle and use carbon dioxide and to store it in products. This solution would help decrease the carbon emissions from electricity production in Estonia with approximately 15 percent, says Alar Saluste.  

Vice President of the European Commission, Mr. Frans Timmermans, commented on his visit to the Estonian National Television.

- The oil shale ash valorising project is an impressive example for the whole production sector and promised to raise the CO₂ issue in Brussels and come back with the potential solutions, said Mr. Frans Timmermans.

For further information, please contact:
Alar Saluste, project manager at Ragn-Sells Estonia, +372 53494861, Alar.saluste@ragnsells.com
Emma Ranerfors, press officer at Ragn-Sells, +4610 723 24 16, press@ragnsells.com

Background:
During the last 60 years, Estonia has incinerated oil shale rock to produce energy. As a result, more than 600 million tons of oil shale ash have been disposed of in nature, placing an enormous burden on the environment. Ragn-Sells has developed a patented solution transforming oil shale ash into useful calcium carbonate using carbon capture technology. The calcium carbonate pilot and industrial plants are planned to be built in the city of Narva, in Eastern Estonia near the ash hills deposits.