Norway launches €40 million carbon capture research programme

2008-08-18T00:00:00-00:00

Norway has launched a €40 million research and development programme aimed at finding a more cost-effective and efficient technology to capture CO₂.

SINTEF, an independent research organisation, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Aker Clean Carbon have signed up to collaborate on the eight-year SOLVit programme. The first phase of the effort will receive €4.3 million from the Norwegian government’s CO₂ management research programme.

SOLVit aims to develop more efficient and cost-effective chemical processes that can capture CO₂ from process industry and fossil-fuel power station emissions.

“We have a clear goal to bring the cost of CO₂-capture and cleansing down significantly,” says Jan Roger Bjerkestrand, chief executive of Aker Clean Carbon. “The aim is to come up with a process facility for CO₂-capture that can operate on half the energy consumption of today’s processes.”

To carry out the work, the programme will construct a new €5.3 million laboratory at Tiller in Trondheim in northern Norway. The unique test centre will include a 30 m tower and a 25 m processing column.

The project will also develop a mobile capture facility, which will be large enough to process part of the emission from actual power stations and industrial facilities for periods of a few months.

“Results from the development research in the new laboratory in Trondheim will be tried out in test centres and hopefully also in full-scale facilities already in the first phase of the programme,” says SINTEF chief executive Unni Steinsmo.

For further information:
www.sintef.com
www.akercleancarbon.com/
www.ntnu.no/english/

Afion Media Ltd

Norway launches €40 million carbon capture research programme