Since the early 1990s, Aker Solutions’ engineers have worked on carbon capture technology concepts. In 2007 Aker Solutions and Aker ASA established a new company, Aker Clean Carbon, to accelerate and commercialise efforts to develop carbon capture technology and management. Aker Solutions has now increased its ownership stake in Aker Clean Carbon to 50 percent.
“We firmly believe that technology tailored for capturing carbon dioxide from existing sources is the quickest and cheapest way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Together, our two companies have more than 15 years’ experience and competence in carbon capture, transport and storage,“ says Jan Roger Bjerkestrand, CEO of Aker Clean Carbon.
European carbon capture test facility
Aker Clean Carbon has recently signed a contract with Aker Solutions to build a European CO2 Technology Centre at Mongstad in Norway. It will be the most advanced carbon dioxide test facility project to date. Aker Clean Carbon will provide the technology, project management and carry through commissioning and initial operation of the plant. Aker Solutions will provide engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction (EPC) services to build the plant.
Engineering commenced in 2009. Aker Solutions will deliver a mechanically complete test plant for capturing carbon dioxide at Mongstad in 2011. The company will be providing engineering and procurement services for the project from its Solent office in the UK. Pipe racks and several packages of process equipment will be fabricated and assembled at its yard at Stord in Norway. The construction installation work at Mongstad will be carried out during 2010.
“Technology Centre Mongstad is the most advanced and flexible carbon capture facility we have seen in the industry to date. We are building a test centre that will help develop future carbon capture solutions for decades. This complex project is both challenging and exciting. This is how we learn and develop together, by overcoming the hurdles, so we can take the next big step towards building full-scale carbon capture facilities,” says Mr Bjerkestrand.
Subsea CO2 storage
In 2009, Aker Solutions was also awarded a contract to perform a front-end engineering design evaluation of technology solutions for the subsea facilities that will enable the injection of CO2 for sub-surface storage. The contract was awarded by Gassnova, the Norwegian state enterprise for CO2 capture and storage. The evaluation work will concern the Norwegian west coast power plants at both Kårstø and Mongstad. The CO2 from these plants is planned to be piped offshore for storage within the Norwegian continental shelf.
"To play an active role in developing something as technologically challenging and environmentally significant as subsea CO2 storage means a lot to us. We are very pleased to work with Gassnova on this groundbreaking project," says Mads Andersen, executive vice president, Aker Solutions.
Leading experience
The Sleipner T project for Statoil is the world’s number one reference project in offshore carbon dioxide capture and storage. The facility has been in operation for more than ten years. Aker Solutions was responsible for the conceptual and detail engineering for the entire carbon dioxide capture and injection facility.
Aker Solutions was also the main installation and construction contractor for the Snøhvit LNG plant in Hammerfest, Northern Norway. Aker Solutions’ scope included the conceptual design of the carbon dioxide export system, compression, pipeline and subsea injection. Carbon dioxide is removed from natural gas down to below 50 ppm before the gas enters the LNG process. Indeed, 0.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide is removed, compressed and pumped via a 150 km, 8 inch pipeline for subsea injection and storage in a reservoir.
Aker Solutions also has expertise and recent project experience in reservoir modelling and evaluation of carbon dioxide injection, storage verification and EOR projects for clients including Norwegian Petroleum Directory, Sintef, Det Norske Veritas, and Saga Petroleum, as well as for clients in the EU and USA.
Developing zero-emission technology
| Amine-based processes for carbon dioxide capture are well established in the process industry. Aker Clean Carbon is developing technology to apply these and new processes into the global market, and the company has also now found a method that could eliminate waste emissions of amine.
Potential emissions of amine from carbon capture facilities have been raised as a concern in recent public debates, and reducing the possibility for such emissions has been a high priority at Aker Clean Carbon.
Amines in liquid form are used to capture carbon dioxide. If emitted in air, some amines could decompose and possibly create nitrosamines, which may have some hazardous characteristics at high concentration levels. Cleansing systems within the facility remove most of the amine from the exhaust gas and Aker Clean Carbon has recently conducted tests of emissions to air that show measures just one fifth of the values currently anticipated in the plans for large-scale carbon dioxide capture facilities. |
 |
Through its development of improved carbon dioxide capture technology, Aker Clean Carbon has also developed a method to eliminate amine emissions to air. This method includes installing a dedicated cleansing-bath as the last step in the treatment of the exhaust. Any amine left in the system will be captured by this bath. This would also reduce the amount of amine needed in the facility.
Aker Clean Carbon has applied for patent protection for the method, which will also be demonstrated in the company’s mobile test unit (MTU), which recently moved to Scottish Power's Longannet coal-fired power station in Scotland, UK. Aker Solutions and Aker Clean Carbon are part of the consortium, led by Scottish Power, which recently qualified as an entrant to the UK government’s competition to develop the UK’s first commercial scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The prime objective for the mobile test unit is to provide operational data from reliable field tests. The move of the MTU to Longannet will further demonstrate and qualify the technology by testing for the process for the first time on coal-based flue gas.
“Demonstrating that our carbon capture technology works on a coal-fired power station of Longannet’s size is the next step towards full-scale facilities,” says Mr Bjerkestrand.
The mobile test facilities, constructed by Aker Solutions, comprise three main units; a flue gas pre-treatment unit where most of the impurities are removed, an amine process unit in which the CO2 is removed from the flue gas and a re-claimer unit to recover degradation products. Two different solvent mixtures will be tested during the test period as part of Aker Clean Carbon’s SOLVit R&D programme.
Aker Clean Carbon is leading SOLVit - a major scientific research and development programme to produce improved, cost-effective amines for the carbon dioxide capture process. The programme was launched together with Sintef, an independent research organisation, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU. The programme was launched in Norway in August 2008 and runs for eight years.
Test results from the MTU in Scotland show significant reductions in energy demands. "We have gathered vast amounts of data from operations on issues such as energy demands, capture ratios and degradation. We have confirmed a capture rate of about 90 per cent and in test campaigns achieved a reduction in the energy demand of about 30 per cent from established reference figures in the industry," says Mr Bjerkestrand.
"These are encouraging results that tell us we are moving in the right direction. A lot of work still remains and we have detailed plans on how to further develop our technology. An important next step for us to prove and qualify the technology will be to build large scale demonstration plants, as we are doing at Mongstad," says Mr Bjerkestrand.
Printable version