Some of the leading companies in Bulgarian industry presented their strategies and innovative projects for decarbonization at two consecutive events at the Bulgarian pavilion within the COP28 climate conference here on Sunday. The transition from fossil fuels to green solutions were discussed by AES Corporation Executive Vice President Juan Ignacio Rubiolo, Holcim Bulgaria CEO Rossen Papazov, Stara Zagora Regional Economic Development Agency Executive Director Rumyana Grozeva, and Evgeny Angelov of the Bulgarian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.
Rubiolo listed as technologies with the potential to carry out this transition the re-equipping of the existing power capacities for thermal energy for work with other types of fuels, such as natural gas, waste biomass pellets, melting of salts, small modular reactors, hydrogen, and ammonia. He said his company has two labs - in Chile and Bulgaria - where they research various new technologies because of the assets' challenging conditions.
Representatives of Holcim and Construction and Heidelberg Materials Group said that construction is a big source of greenhouse gas emissions: it contributes to 39% of world emissions, which is why it is so important to seek solutions for the sector. When producing concrete, for example, Holcim seeks to reduce emissions by replacing fuels and using alternative raw materials.
Heidelberg invests in a project for offshore hydrogen storage, ANRAV project head Konstantin Bozhinova said. This is the Group's only project approved for funding by the European Investment Fund and is unique for Europe in many respects. If successful, the project will ensure the safe storage of approximately 800 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide a year. The plan is to have the project operational in 2028.
Within a discussion on industrial symbiosis, Theodora Borissova of Solvay Sodi and Maya Stefanova of Agropolychim said that the two companies' SAPHIRRE project goes even beyond storage towards finding ways to use carbon dioxide in agriculture and construction. That is an example not only of sustainability and circular economy but also of close cooperation between big producers, they said.
In the future, the products made through decarbonization methods will be extremely competitive, Bozhinov concluded.
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