CO₂ case Eyde

The Norwegian process industry’s greatest advantage is that it is highly energy efficient and uses renewable hydropower as its source of electricity. A combination of a well-regulated industry and the sole use of renewable power leads to that Norway has one of the smallest industrial carbon footprints in the world. One implication of the low carbon economy is higher demand for products with small carbon footprints from both production and use. Norwegian process industries are, and will continue to be capable of supplying this demand with new, increasingly clean and innovative products and processes.

The Norwegian process industry is part of EU’s emissions trading system (EU ETS). Emissions covered by the EU ETS are targeted to decrease by 43 percent between 2005 and 2030. Norwegian process industries’ emission abatement efforts will thus take place alongside those of EU-wide industries.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is fundamental for achieving the goals set in the process industry roadmap; supposedly to contribute to more than half of the CO₂ emission reduction. It is therefore crucial that a deep understanding of the potentials and pitfalls for capturing CO₂ sources widely in the industry. Each emission site is unique with individual combinations of CO₂ concentrations, temperatures, other emissions and process heat availability.

This makes the background for establishing the project “Eyde case CO₂” with focus on following four:

1. Establish the baseline
a. Provide details on number of sources on each site, volumes, concentrations, pollutants, temperatures, available heat/energy, potentials for up-concentrating off-gases, and an assessment of space availability for CCUS installations.
b. Based on the information obtained, each emission site will be assessed on readiness and capture potential, yielding a list of potential projects for the next stages of development.

2. Detailed study of selected sites – closed furnaces
a. A more detailed study on those sites that are based on off-gas from closed furnaces, or with the potential to be closed in the future.

3. Review of CO₂ capture technologies
a. This delivery will provide an overview and assessment of relevant CO₂ capture technologies for accessing readiness of implementation in the selected industrial plants.
b. An updated review of CCU alternatives will be reported

4. Final report
a. The final report will summarise the findings in item 1 to 3 and provide recommendations for utilisation of the project results towards the next development phase.

The involved partners are the Eyde-Cluster, SINTEF Industry, SINTEF Energy Research and the industry partners Elkem, Eramet, Alcoa and Saint-Gobain. The project is economically supported by Gassnova.