The installation, a metal tower 11 meters high, flanked by a container and two tanks, one for storing liquid nitrogen and the other for capturing carbon dioxide, could almost go unnoticed beside the two enormous lime kilns that continuously transform limestone, extracted from a quarry owned by Bocahut, into calcium oxide. This network of pipes and tubes, perpetually covered in white dust, is the demonstrator for the Lyon-based start-up Revcoo, which has developed a proprietary process for capturing CO₂.
Since 2024, the technology has been tested on this 120-hectare open-air site, owned by French construction group Eiffage and located in Haut-Lieu, 25 kilometers south of Maubeuge. “For now, our pilot has a capture capacity of 1,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year. Our goal is to multiply that by 10 by 2027, then reach 80,000 to 100,000 metric tons in 2030, the equivalent of the site’s total emissions,” said Hugo Lucas, founder and president of Revcoo.
The 33-year-old engineer founded the start-up in 2019 with the ambition of contributing to the decarbonization of heavy industry. His patented “CarbonCloud” technology is relatively straightforward: it captures smoke from the factory’s chimneys, separates out the CO₂ by freezing it, liquefies it, and then stores it in tanks. The entire process runs on electricity, requiring no water or chemical solvents.
This pilot project represents a step toward large-scale cryogenic CO₂ capture, potentially offering a cleaner, solvent-free alternative for industrial decarbonization.
Source: “Capturing CO₂ through cryogenics: Eiffage pioneers new technology to decarbonize its industry,” Le Monde, August 7, 2025
