Today, 21 June, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy entered into a cooperation agreement with new companies that will participate at the European CO2 Test Centre Mongstad (TCM), together with Statoil and the Norwegian government.
This marks an important milestone for the carbon capture facility at Mongstad,” says Egil Sael, Statoil’s vice president for business development in Manufacturing.
“It is positive that several international companies have joined Statoil and the Government in this technology development. These companies are users of carbon technology and can contribute with extensive experience and expertise.
“The development of technology for carbon capture is of key importance to Statoil,” Mr Sael continues. “We are pioneering in this area, as projects such as Sleipner and Snøhvit in Norway, and In Salah in Algeria, demonstrate. The development of new capture technology at Mongstad will consolidate our position as an international leader within carbon management.”
TCM will build a test facility with the capacity to remove 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the refinery and the new combined heat and power (CHP) station that is under construction. The CHP station will supply 280 megawatts (MW) of electricity and 350 MW of heat when it comes on stream in 2010. Work to develop technological and commercial solutions for carbon management is being done in parallel.
The purpose of the test facility is to develop, test and qualify carbon capture technology in order to reduce costs and the risks associated with carbon capture on a large scale. The intention for Statoil is to develop technology that can be used in a plant for capturing of more than two million tonnes of carbon dioxide at Mongstad and that can get wide international application.
“We have chosen to work in parallel with one technology with great potential, chilled ammonia, which is less mature and therefore represents a higher risk,” says Dag Vareide, Statoil’s vice president for research and technology. “We also want to develop further more mature technology - amine technology.”
Statoil has signed a joint development contract with the international technology company Alstom for development of carbon capture using chilled ammonia. The objective is to construct a chilled ammonia test plant with design capacity to capture at least 80,000 tonnes of carbon and Statoil intends to include this in the work at the TCM test centre.
Statoil and Alstom have been collaborating on chilled ammonia capture technology since 2005. The newly-signed deal is an important step towards the commercialisation of this process. The aim is to reduce the amount of energy needed for carbon removal, thereby increasing energy efficiency and reducing costs.
The plan is to develop amine technology in parallel.
“We have more experience with amine technology, and its use includes carbon capture at Sleipner, Snøhvit and In Salah,” says Mr Vareide.
“It will be designed for removal of 20,000 tonnes of carbon or more. The final size will be determined in the further planning work together with the new participants in TCM,” he says.
The test facility will be completed during 2010. The time schedule is very tight and the test facility’s realisation is particularly dependent on close cooperation with technology suppliers. The deal with Alstom will contribute to technological advances and is a milestone in the work to develop technological and commercial solutions for carbon management at Mongstad.
The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy today announced which companies will take part in the European CO2 Test Centre Mongstad.
See press release from the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy >>
Contacts:
Cathrine Torp, vice president, communication, Manufacturing & Marketing, catt@statoil.com, mobile +47 41 56 02 64
Egil Sael, vice president, business development, Manufacturing, egil.sæl@statoil.com, mobile +47 90 88 10 64