Aiming to Make CO₂ Calculations More Accurate and Accessible

ThermoPhys was established in 2024, and its first pilot project was completed
in February 2025. The company currently has three employees and plans to expand. The team includes experts with more than a decade of research experience from SINTEF.

The goal is to fill a critical gap in the CCS value chain and make computational tools more comprehensible. With support from CLIMIT-Demo, ThermoPhys launched a pilot project to map industry needs and potential solutions. The company now plans a larger CLIMIT Demo application in collaboration with both commercial software providers and end users.

From Frustration to Solution

– We were frustrated that decades of research on CO₂ and hydrogen were scattered and inaccessible to the industry, says Øivind Wilhelmsen, one of the founders of ThermoPhys. He explains that while advanced computational codes developed at SINTEF and NTNU are publicly available on GitHub, they lack user interfaces or support for the people who actually need them. ThermoPhys was founded to make this knowledge available through user-friendly software. The objective is to improve safety and reduce costs throughout the CO₂ capture, transport, and storage value chain.

– In CCS, it’s not enough to know that CO₂ can be stored, you must also understand how the mixture behaves under different conditions. Will it form acid? Dry ice? Hydrates? These are questions the industry is asking, and we believe ThermoPhys can help answer them, says Ernst Petter Axelsen. As Gassnova’s representative in CLIMIT, Axelsen is advisor to ThermoPhys on the project.

From Open Source Code to Commercial Interface

ThermoPhys builds on open-source research code, packaging it into a visual and user-friendly interface. – You shouldn’t have to be a domain expert to understand what’s happening inside your pipelines. But the model still has to be scientifically grounded and based on the best available data, says Wilhelmsen.

The aim is to make it easier for both operators and financial stakeholders to make well-informed decisions, based on accurate and validated calculation methods.

Collaboration with Oliasoft and a Dedicated Cloud Platform

ThermoPhys is currently advancing on two fronts. In addition to developing its own software, the company is working with others who aim to offer digital CCS tools. In collaboration with Oliasoft, ThermoPhys will integrate its models into software for well injection.