CO₂ capture from char production using coal as feed stock

Char-C is a Norwegian led cooperation project with CDI Global as lead partner. Polish Polchar, supplying char to the process industries, Air Products, supplying gas separation technology, Elkem, being the customer, and Sintef, research partner joined the project aimed at carrying out a techno-economic study looking at the potential for establishing a factory manufacturing char in Norway with CCS.

The project looked at capture technologies and localization for the factory. In the project we had the opportunity to measure exactly the contents of our flue gas on site in the current Polish factory to better understand which capture technologies would be best suited for capture. Finally, Aker Solutions’ amine solution was considered marginally better than membrane or VPSA solutions, mainly due to its’ higher TRL. As regards localization we looked at South-Eastern Norway (Grenland), Western Norway (Rogaland and Hordaland) and the area around Mo i Rana. Due to its’ proximity to the Northern Lights’ reception facility we chose Kollsnes as having the best potential to save the most CO₂ and be most cost-effective, since we will not need to compress or transport our CO₂. We also saw that Kollsnes would yield synergies with surrounding industry and public sector due to our vast energy production in the form of steam.