[ What we do ]

CO2 Management AS provides CO₂ sequestration services, including efficient solutions for large-scale CO₂ transport & infrastructure, as well as advisory on CO₂ capture & storage. Cooperation and cross-border network is essential to facilitate CO₂ distribution from onshore clusters to offshore storage.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are expected to play a significant role in reaching the climate goals from the Paris Agreement and contributing towards a carbon neutral energy future. CCS implementation can enable continued use of fossil fuels in the short-to-medium term, while renewable resources gradually replace the current infrastructure. CO₂ can be captured and separated at industry source points, including power plants, waste-to-energy facilities, ammonia and hydrogen plants, and cement and steel production facilities. With more than 60% of the global emissions coming from source points, the prospects for CCS to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions are immense. Captured CO₂ is then transported and safely stored in the lithosphere, by geological sequestration into offshore saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Generally, geologically stored CO₂ becomes more securely trapped with time through dissolution and carbon mineralization.

Additionally, structural seals and capillary forces provide barriers to retain CO₂ for geologic time scales. Risk of CO₂ leakage from storage sites are minimized by careful site selection, building on the exploration knowledge of the petroleum industry, and continued geochemical and geophysical monitoring. To date, more than 200 million tons (Mt) of CO₂ has been stored globally in 18 commercial CCS projects, with no current evidence of leakage.

In addition, carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is a viable tool for sector coupling and for enabling circular economy. Captured CO₂ can be used in numerous ways, such as chemical feedstock (e.g. urea, polymers and methanol production), for enhanced oil recovery combined with storage (CO₂-EOR), enhanced weathering, CO₂-based fuels, concrete building materials, biochar, microalgae production, forestry techniques and land management. Utilization of CO₂ through various pathways can, therefore, be an incentive for CCS and offset some of the costs associated with carbon capture and storage.

Norway has a unique position in the carbon capture and storage segment in Europe. The industry here has world-leading CCS experience through Europe’s two commercial CCS projects, namely Sleipner (1 Mt CO2/yr stored since 1996) and Snøhvit (0.7 Mt CO₂/yr stored since 2008) as well as novel capture testing facilities at Technology Center Mongstad, Vestland. In addition, the first whole value-chain CCS demonstration project Northern Lights will be operational from year 2024 supported by government funding, involving source point capturing, liquefication and transport by ships, and permanent CO₂ storage in a deep saline aquifer located offshore of Western Norway with great upscaling potentials (initially 1.5 Mt CO2/yr). For context, 1 Mt of CO₂ stored corresponds to GHG emissions from more than 200 000 cars driven for one year, 170 000 homes' electricity use for one year, or 2,3 million barrels of oil consumed.

The Norwegian Continental Shelf contains numerous potential offshore sites for safe and permanent CO₂ storage (estimated 70 Gt capacity; equivalent of 233 years' worth of storage at rate of 300 Mtpa), and Western Norway can connect storage capacity to major CO₂ emitting source points in other parts of Norway and Europe. Several countries have placed restrictions on the ability to store CO₂ underground, thus increasing the need for cross-border CO₂ transportation to countries where such storage is allowed, e.g. offshore in the North Sea where existing petroleum exploration and production occurs. While there is sufficient capacity to sequester several hundreds of years of CO₂ emissions, one of the biggest challenges in the short term is to connect storage sites to local industry sources, making this a top priority for CO₂ Management AS.

Map of Nordic CO2 storage potential. Source: Lyng Anthonsen, K., Frykman, P., & Møller Nielsen, C. (2016). Mapping of the CO2 storage potential in the Nordic region. GEUS Bulletin, 35, 87-90. https://doi.org/10.34194/geusb.v35.4946

CO2 Management AS invests in innovative technologies that can accelerate the ongoing energy transition targeting carbon-intensive industries to achieve sustainable energy production and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions in hard-to-abate sectors.

www.zegpower.no

The Coast Center Base and our partner ZEG Power secured a substantial amount of funding for a pilot plant introducing clean and highly efficient production of hydrogen by patented ZEG-technology, with integrated CO₂ capture.