Norway launches public–private carbon capture programme

The project, one of the biggest of its kind to date, brings together SINTEF, the independent research organisation, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Aker Clean Carbon, the industrial technology company, in an eight-year programme called SOLVit.

Gassnova SF, the Norwegian government body with responsibility for CO2-management including capture, transport, injection and storage is providing financial support of NOK 34 million for the first phase of the project, which runs till the end of 2010.

SOLVit will work to develop chemical processes that can capture CO2 from the process industry and emissions from coal and gas powered power stations. Within these sectors, it is estimated that the 4,000 largest facilities account for about 40 per cent of man-made CO2 emissions globally.

International energy companies have been invited to participate in the programme to provide input from the perspective of facility operators.

SOLVit will be Europe’s leading science cluster for CO2-management, according to Unni Steinsmo, chief executive of SINTEF. “The programme includes the building of a large laboratory facility that will strengthen our standing in the international arena and improve our position in competition for financial support for scientific research from institutions such as the European Union,” she says.

“Results from the development research in the new laboratory in Trondheim will be tried out in test centres, and hopefully also in full-scale facilities already in the first phase of the programme. This makes SOLVit even more exciting,” said Steinsmo.

Aker Clean Carbon is heavily involved in bidding for CO2-capture projects in Norway and in the UK. Jan Roger Bjerkestrand, chief executive, says the wide-ranging and thorough cooperation on scientific research under SOLVit to develop better and more energy effective chemicals for the capture and cleansing processes will strongly support the company’s standing in these bids.

In previous collaborations Aker Clean Carbon and SINTEF have developed processes based on amines, which have the ability to cleanse CO2. One of these solutions is ready to be applied. Phase one of SOLVit will test other amine solutions under development by Aker Clean Carbon and SINTEF.

“We have a clear goal to bring the cost of CO2-capture and cleansing down significantly. In phases two and three of SOLVit, the parties will try to introduce new chemical solutions and elements to the process to cut costs. The aim is to come up with a process facility for CO2-capture that can operate on half the energy consumption of today’s processes,” says Bjerkestrand.

The programme will include the construction of a NOK 42 million laboratory at Tiller in Trondheim. SINTEF will provide NOK 25 million of the funding for the lab, which will be situated next door to SINTEF’s existing multi-phase laboratory.

The lab will be provide a test centre for pilot projects, including a 30 metre tall tower and a 25 metre processing column, the height needed in full-scale industrial facilities. The lab will also be available for SINTEF’s domestic and international customers and partners.

The SOLVit-programme will also involve testing of chemicals and processes in a mobile capture facility, which has been developed by Aker Clean Carbon and is currently being built at Aker Verdal. The mobile facility is large enough to process parts of emissions from power stations and industrial sites in periods of several months at the time.

SINTEF and NTNU have already established laboratories for small-scale testing of CO2-capture, putting Norway among the few countries with a complete set of laboratories in this field, from testing in the lab to pilot runs at semi-industrial scale.

Also under the SOLVit programme, NTNU will offer positions to six doctoral candidates and ten master students on the subject of CO2-capture.

“SOLVit is an important contribution to educating high-quality academic experts, for which there is great demand. The combination of education and industrial development in this project is very exciting and a great challenge,” says Torbjørn Digernes, Rector of NTNU