The installation – a metal tower 11 meters high, flanked by a container and a tank, one for storing liquid nitrogen and the other for capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) – would 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, it has been tested on this 120-hectare open-air site, owned by French construction group Eiffage and located in Haut-Lieu (northern France), 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," explained 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 off the factory's chimneys, sorts out the CO₂ by freezing it, liquefies it, and then stores it in tanks. The entire process runs on electricity, with no water or solvents required.

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