The Norwegian Government has strengthened its support for CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad by providing it with an additional NOK 400 million ($67.7m) for carbon capture technology testing over the next four years.
The full scale project at Mongstad has been cancelled, however, at the same time, the Government renewed its commitment to ‘continue and strengthen’ TCM, the world’s largest and most advanced carbon capture testing centre.
Frank Ellingsen, Managing Director, TCM, said:
“We are pleased to see the renewed commitment from Norway to CCS. Climate risk is now firmly on the agenda of energy investors. With shareholder and compliance pressure pushing energy companies to decarbonise, CCS will reach an inevitable tipping point. TCM plays a vital role in reducing the technical, environmental and financial risk of CCS to accelerate that moment.”
Bård Vegar Solhjell, Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Ola Borten Moe and Minister of Environment, said:
“The Government will intensify its efforts in technology development. Our commitment and high ambitions for Carbon Capture and Storage remains as strong as ever.”
To date, major technology brands have already registered their interest for testing using TCM’s amine plant, including Aker Solutions (which is continuing its use of the plant), plus Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Siemens.
In addition to the fully operational Amine and Chilled Ammonia Process plants at TCM, 14 leading technology vendors are queuing up to use available space for testing their technologies, which could be used for the construction of one or several smaller test units.
Over the last year TCM has enabled a series of major advancements in reducing the cost and the technical, environmental and financial risks of implementing CO2 capture technology. The key achievements from the Amine and Chilled Ammonia plant include gaining operational experience from more than 7,000 hours of testing with more than 90% of uptime. In terms of reducing technical risk of carbon capture, TCM highlighted the following achievements:
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Developing documented and transferable experiences on the operation, start-up, shut down, emergency shut downs etc., which is available to the CCS community
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Developed and verified simulation tools for the total facility based on NH3 and MEA, to be used in the planning, operation and evaluation of day to day activities at TCM
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Established an available analytical laboratory tool box
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Operated with zero injuries and environmental impacts
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Developed a toolbox for process monitoring including emissions
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Extensive research into possible effect of amines. More than 55 external studies have been performed
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Established a test centre network with national and international institutes and research organisations.
As well as the NOK 400 million commitment to TCM, Norway’s allocation for CCS R&D through the research programme, Climit, will also be increased by NOK 100 million over two years. The Government will also promote CCS capacity building and deployment internationally. The Norwegian Government has committed to ensure the financial and other conditions necessary to result in at least one realization of full-scale CCS project in Norway by 2020.