We are pleased to announce that Enterprise Estonia has supported applied research in Ragn-Sells’s OSA project in the amount of 255,269 Euros. The support helps us to carry out industrial-scale trials of production of climate-neural calcium carbonate from oil shale ash and design the preliminary version of the production processes and production unit.
The goal of the OSA project is to produce climate positive calcium carbonate from the fly ash that is a by-product of oil shale power plants in Ida-Viru County. The CaCO3 can be used in industrial production of various materials. This would be a unique patented technology on the world level, and would represent a climate- and carbon-neutral method of producing calcium carbonate.
Producing calcium carbonate from natural limestone is a CO2-intensive process that is similar in terms of emissions to cement production – close to 1 tonne of CO2 is emitted for each tonne of product. Producing calcium carbonate from fly ash will mean less natural limestone will need to be quarried and processed in a carbon-intensive manner.
The OSA project is focusing on finding new uses for the fly ash that has been accumulated as a by-product of the Estonian oil shale industry over the last 50 years and valorising it into highly pure calcium carbonate. In the first phase of the project, it is planned to establish a plant that will make it possible to produce 0.5 million tonnes of ultrapure calcium carbonate per year from the fly ash currently deposited in hills in Ida-Viru County.
Ragn-Sells has invested close to one million euros into scientific research on oil shale fly ash.
- Name of fund: European Regional Development Fund
- Amount of support: €255,269
- Description of project: through applied research, RS-OSA Service OÜ is developing the technology for valorising oil shale ash. In the course of the project, the technology will be piloted on a semi-industrial scale and the initial design and structure of the production unit will be developed for implementation on an industrial scale
- Objective: the goal of this applied research is validation of technology on a semi-industrial scale and production of at least 250 kg of PCC to test its properties in cooperation with end users and develop the initial design of production processes and the production unit for operation on an industrial scale. In addition, initial trials for processing the PCC produced will be carried out to evaluate its suitability for future product development.
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