“Need to prioritise national projects”

Earlier this year, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy appointed Jan Gabor as a member of the Programme Board of CLIMIT, and he attended his first meeting in October. “It was both pleasant and very motivating to be invited, and I look forward to making a contribution,” says the newest member of the Board.

“I think the most interesting thing will be to get a close-up view of how the authorities and the various technical disciplines are approaching the management of CO₂, and to examine the many competent applications for support for technology development. So for me, this position will involve a great deal of useful learning.”

How do you encounter CCS in your day-to-day work?

“Mo Industrial Park is now installing a pilot plant for capturing CO₂, where we plan to run a test campaign over six months using flue gas from Elkem Rana and SMA Mineral. The project, which is supported by Gassnova through CLIMIT Demo, uses technology from Aker Carbon Capture, and will be the first of its kind in the world for emissions from furnaces in the metal industry. The project will provide the necessary knowledge to be able to proceed with planning a full-scale facility to capture and store CO₂. The project is also looking at possible links to CCU, i.e. the use of CO₂ as a raw material in industrial processes.”

“We are also working on a project to use hydrogen in connection with a new furnace being built by Celsa Armeringsstål which will phase out CO gas and reduce CO₂ emissions by 60,000 tonnes per year. Replacing fossil energy with green hydrogen at the rolling mill in the industrial park puts the company on track to reach its climate goals of a 50 per cent reduction by 2030 and zero emissions by 2040.”

What do you think is CLIMIT’s most important contribution to the green transformation?

“The short answer is that CLIMIT needs to help bring about technological solutions that significantly reduce CO₂ emissions. The goal of 55 per cent lower emissions by 2030 is very challenging, so we need to make best use of the funds CLIMIT has at its disposal.”

What should CLIMIT prioritise in terms of technology development in the future – where are the gaps?

“I believe CLIMIT should give rather greater priority to national initiatives. That means providing support for the technology development that is crucial to realising projects that are now in planning. It is important to identify where in these projects the technical aspects can be improved; no two emission points are exactly the same and there is a high degree of innovation and technology development in every case. CLIMIT’s role is to stimulate technology development, but in order to achieve emission reductions in the industry that make a difference, the government funding agencies must be provided with sufficient resources to ensure that oven-ready projects can actually be implemented. This is where I see the biggest gap when it comes to achieving the demanding national targets for reducing emissions.”

What needs do you see for the CLIMIT programme over the next five years?

“There will be a great need to create solutions for storing CO₂ that are technically appropriate for the individual major emission points in Norway. For those located by a harbour, systems for transport and storage should in principle be easier to establish than for those that are not. But in any event, the storage aspect should be central to CLIMIT for years to come. At the same time, we also need to look at solutions that can help us to establish capture facilities in all sorts of places in Norway, where offshore storage may not be an available solution.”