Aker Solutions awarded carbon capture study contracts from Yara, Norcem

Aker Solutions won strategically important contracts for concept studies for carbon capture at Yara's ammonia plant on Herøya and Norcem's cement production facility in Brevik, Norway.

Norcem and Yara are among three companies in the running to receive funding from the Norwegian government to build and operate a full-scale carbon capture plant at their respective facilities. The government aims to fund at least one of the plants, which would be operational by 2022.

"Perfecting carbon capture will be key to meeting global climate goals," said Luis Araujo, chief executive officer at Aker Solutions. "The confidence placed in us by both Yara and Norcem shows we are taking a leading role in this crucial technological push."    

Aker Solutions has previously carried out extensive testing with a pilot capture plant at the factory in Brevik. The results were so promising that Norcem selected Aker Solutions' technology to be used for a potential facility at the cement factory in Southeast Norway.

The study for Norcem will design a carbon capture plant that's integrated with the cement factory, including a process to turn the CO₂ into liquid and storage facilities that can be used before shipping. The plant will have a capacity of about 400,000 t of CO₂ a year. The Yara study will design and develop a capture plant for the reformer flue gas and will also include liquefaction. Both concept studies are set to be completed in September this year.

Norway's Gassnova last week announced the kick-off of the concept studies as part of a goal to establish a complete carbon capture and storage (CCS) chain, including capture, transport and permanent storage, by 2022. The concept phase will also seek to establish more accurate cost estimates. The next phase in the process will involve front-end engineering design (FEED) work until around mid-2018 before an investment decision is made by the Norwegian government in the first half of 2019.

Aker Solutions has since 2008 developed and qualified an improved carbon capture technology, investing extensively in research and development, testing and operations. The company has gathered experience through design, construction and two years of operations of the amine plant at Technology Centre Mongstad and carried out extensive tests in the US, the UK and Norway using its mobile carbon capture pilot plant. The Paris climate agreement has spurred increased international interest from several industries, including ammonia and cement production.

"Aker Solutions can now offer carbon capture plants at lower costs and with less energy demand using a new non-corrosive and environmentally-friendly solvent that has very low degradation," said Oscar Graff, who heads Aker Solutions' CCS efforts. "The solvent is very robust and can be used for various types of flue gases and gives minimum emissions and waste products."

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