Milestone for Swedish-Norwegian CCS project

Today, Sweden’s largest CO₂ capture test plant starts at Preem’s refinery in Lysekil, with support from CLIMIT and Swedish energy authorities. The goal is for the tests to form the basis for a full-scale CCS plant  and send CO₂ for storage in Norway.

Swedish-Norwegian cooperation

– It is very positive that Sweden and Norway can collaborate and develop a pioneering, international infrastructure for CCS in Europe, says Trude Sundset, CEO of Gassnova.

The pilot project in Lysekil is a collaboration between Preem, Aker Solutions, Chalmers University of Technology, Equinor and the Norwegian research institute SINTEF. The Swedish Energy Agency and the Norwegian research and technology development program CLIMIT contribute with funding.

The entire value chain will be evaluated

From carbon capture at the refinery, local storage, transport to the planned storage location off the Norwegian west coast and for the storage itself. The results of the pilot project will then be made public – in order for more companies to be able to use the technology and reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. This knowledge sharing is in line with the thinking in the Norwegian full-scale project.

The mobile test facility (MTU) from Aker Solutions, which starts at Lysekil today, has previously run test campaigns at several locations in Norway, including at the Technology Center Mongstad (TCM) and Heidelberg Materials’s cement plant in Brevik. In 2020, the test facility will capture carbon dioxide from the flue gases from Preem’s hydrogen gas plant at the Lysekil refinery.

Climate neutral by the year 2045

The technology for capturing and storing carbon dioxide is an important component for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for achieving Sweden’s and Norway’s climate goals. For Preem, this is an important piece of the puzzle to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to become climate neutral by the year 2045. The goal is for the tests to form the basis for a full-scale CCS plant that can be operational by 2025.

– We see carbon capture and storage as a vital measure to reduce global carbon emissions. For Preem, a full-scale CCS plant could initially reduce emissions from our Lysekil refinery by 500,000 tonnes, which is close to a quarter of the refinery’s total carbon emissions, says Petter Holland, CEO of Preem.

The full-scale project in Norway, which includes a transport and storage project led by Equinor, is scheduled for a final investment decision in the Norwegian Parliament this fall, and – if all goes according to plan – can be put into operation three years after.
Last Fall, Preem signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Northern Lights consortium regarding sending the CO₂ to their planned CO₂ storage

– Equinor is involved in several different projects in the capture, transport and storage of carbon dioxide. This project can give us third-party volume for our transport and storage project, Northern Lights. In addition, a carbon capture technology is used that may be relevant for our facilities. This type of collaboration between industry, research and government is crucial to the success of carbon capture and storage, says Torbjørg Klara Fossum, Vice President of Global CCS Solutions at Equinor.

Since 2014, Gassnova has worked closely with industry to put in place what could be Europe’s first industrial CCS project. Initially, it is planned that CO₂ will be captured from Heidelberg Materials’s cement plant in Brevik and/or from Fortum’s Oslo waste-to-energy plant in Oslo. Subsequently, the CO₂ will be transported by ship to a land facility outside Bergen before it will be piped to a storage deep below the seabed in the North Sea.

For more information

CLIMIT and the Norwegian full-scale project

For more on Preem’s CCS initiative: https://www.preem.se/om-preem/hallbarhet/ccs/

For more info on Northern Lights: https://norlights.com/