LIFE RE&UCE: Alucha

The project LIFE RE&UCE is a collaboration project between Alucha, Essity, and the Grolman Group. The project LIFE RE&UCE will demonstrate the recovery of Circular Calcium Carbonate (CCC) and renewable energy (pyrolysis oil) from paper mill sludge. Hezelburcht was involved in the grant application and Grant Agreement (GA) negotiations, and will be supporting the consortium partners with compliance during the implementation. The project duration is set for May 2024 until October 2027.

Mining Calcium Carbonate is an unsustainable process

Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) is one of the most widely used minerals worldwide. However, mining from limestone mines and producing it is a linear and a very intensive process with a large CO₂ impact. The paper industry is one of the largest consumers of CaCO₃ (~25%), where it is largely used as a filler. Wastepaper therefore represents a large potential source of raw material for recycling CaCO₃, thus avoiding a major environmental impact.

Recycling paper sludge to recover calcium carbonate

Alucha has developed a new pyrolysis process to sustainably process paper sludge, a major waste stream from the paper industry. Using this process, calcium carbonate is recovered from the paper sludge, allowing it to be processed into a high-quality circular raw material for the paper, paint, and plastics industries.

Alucha and partners are working on the next steps

Alucha currently has a small-scale pilot plant (Mine1) capable of converting paper sludge into CCC and pyrolysis oil. The next step is a demonstration plant (Mine2)—a considerable==a scale-up compared with the current pilot plant. The LIFE RE&UCE project is currently working on establishing the following:

• Building a demonstration facility in which the key technology is demonstrated
• Establishing 4 value chains for CCC (plastics, adhesives and sealants, paints and coatings & rubber)
• Conducting 4 feasibility studies for other European paper mills

Through these activities, LIFE RE&UCE can play a vital role in closing the CCC circular economy chain, and help increase their market share.

LIFE Mitigation for realising a demonstration plant

To achieve the realisation of the demonstration plant, Hezelburcht successfully assisted the consortium in their application for an EU LIFE proposal. We are proud of our collaboration!

We experienced the cooperation with Hezelburcht as very pleasant and are satisfied with the great success! Thanks to expert advice and in-depth knowledge of European grants, we successfully submitted our project within the EU LIFE programme. We also greatly appreciate our cooperation after award. - Gijs Jansen | Alucha