Cryocap™ LQ

World-scale cryogenic CO₂ liquefaction plants featuring a highly compact, custom design optimized for ultra-low operational expenses.

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Cryocap™ LQ is Air Liquide's high-capacity, flexible CO₂ liquefaction solution. It supports global carbon value chains by efficiently liquefying captured gas for transport, handling 700 to over 7,000 tonnes per day.

High-capacity liquefaction for industrial hubs

Air Liquide has developed Cryocap™ LQ specifically to liquefy massive volumes of CO₂. This chemical-free, HSE-friendly solution allows for the aggregation of CO₂ from various emitters utilizing different types of upstream carbon capture technologies.

The technology is perfectly suited for CO₂ industrial hubs and basins where the gas must be transported via ships, trucks, or trains. It offers exceptional performance advantages:

Unmatched Efficiency: Reduces specific energy consumption throughout the process by 40% compared to traditional industrial CO₂ liquefaction methods, while ensuring very high CO₂ recovery.
Trace Impurity Removal: Capable of removing moisture and other compounds (such as O₂) to meet the strictest CO₂ sink specifications.
Highly Compact: Because a single compressor is used for both the feed and the refrigeration cycle, it serves as a highly compact and cost-effective solution.

Advanced compression and distillation sequence

The Cryocap™ LQ process acts as a comprehensive industrial solution to compress, liquefy, and purify the raw CO₂ stream resulting from upstream units.

Compression & conditioning: The CO₂ feed gas is compressed in the feed/recycle compressor, dried at an intermediate pressure, and then compressed again.
Cold process splitting: The high-pressure, dry gas is cooled down and routed to the cold process, where it is split into various streams.
Distillation: One of these streams is purified by distillation in the Stripping Column to produce the liquid CO₂ product, which is then routed to the unit’s battery limits.
Self-refrigeration: The remaining streams are expanded to different levels and vaporized in the main heat exchanger, providing the exact refrigeration load required for liquefaction. Once vaporized, these streams are recycled at ambient temperature back to the feed/recycle compressor.

Key characteristics:

Very low OPEX
HSE friendly
Supports low-pressure to high-pressure CO₂ product
Compact footprint

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What capacity boundaries can a single Cryocap™ LQ train accommodate?

Our customized plants feature a flexible design scale engineered to handle large industrial capacities from 700 to more than 7,000 tonnes per day (tpd) per train.

Can the system remove trace oxygen impurities from the liquid product?

Yes. Cryocap™ LQ incorporates specialized internal separation stages built to reliably handle final impurity polishing, such as trace oxygen (O2) removal, to protect product stability.

Can Cryocap™ LQ plants recover and reuse waste heat?

Yes. Air Liquide’s advanced cryogenic architecture allows for the recovery and reuse of process heat generated during liquefaction. A prime example is our 3,500 tonnes-per-day Stockholm Exergi installation, where the captured process heat is recycled directly into the municipal district heating network to optimize regional energy efficiency.

Stockholm Exergi: World-scale Biomass Carbon Capture (BECCS)

Air Liquide’s innovative Cryocap™ LQ technology has been selected by Stockholm Exergi, Sweden’s capital energy provider, for its pioneering Bio-Energy Carbon Capture & Storage (BECCS) project. Built at an existing heat and power biomass bio-cogeneration facility, the unit will be one of the largest in the world with a liquefaction capacity of 3,500 tonnes per day.

Supported by the European Innovation Fund, the facility is designed to liquefy and permanently sequester approximately 8 million tonnes of biogenic CO₂ over its first 10 years of operation. True to Air Liquide's circular efficiency goals, this compact, chemical-free, and non-flammable cryogenic installation features a cutting-edge energy setup that recovers process heat to supply Stockholm's municipal district heating network.