07-05-2012

Aker Solutions celebrates opening of carbon capture plant at Mongstad

Aker Solution today celebrates the official opening of the carbon capture plant at CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad, which forms a basis for further development of its proprietary carbon capture technology.

The Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will today make the official opening at CET 1400. Aker Solutions has designed and delivered the amine plant, which is one of the two plants at the centre. The start-up of the amine plant is an important milestone for Aker Solutions.

After several years of research and development, the capture technology shall now be tested and verified in a large plant. The main objectives are to verify operational parameters (performance data) and to increase the technical and economical knowledge regarding operation of an industrial scale plant.

"This is a great day for Aker Solutions. The cooperation between Gassnova and all the TCM partners during the engineering and construction period has been positive. We are now ready for start-up, and we look forward to demonstrating good performance data," says Valborg Lundegaard, head of Engineering in Aker Solutions.

Aker Solutions has a long track record regarding CO2 handling. In 1996 the CO2 injection platform for the Sleipner field was delivered and in 1998 the first pilot plant in Norway for CO2 removal from flue gas was delivered and tested.

In 2007 Aker Clean Carbon was established to focus on development and commercialisation of the carbon capture technology. Based on extensive research and development an energy reduction of about 30 per cent has been achieved, including minimum disposal of plant emissions. The technical solutions and improvements have been tested in pilots and qualified by DNV and now these solutions shall be tested further in the large scale plant at Mongstad.