Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
5/24/13
The Oslo-based Aker Solutions said late last week that it has netted a contract to perform the world’s first capture carbon tests on cement production operations. Aker said it will capture CO2 from flue gas emitted from Norcem’s cement production plant in Brevik, Norway, about two hours southeast of Oslo, with its so-called ‘mobile test unit’ (MTU). “The MTU is a fully fledged CO2 capture plant that includes all processes and functions you will find in a large scale commercial plant,” Aker said in a release.
Aker said the contract is being footed by Norcem, the Norwegian branch of the cement-making giant HeidelbergCement; the industry trade group the European Cement Research Academy and the Norwegian CCS RD&D research program CLIMIT. However, it did not disclose the contract value. Aker said the project will give Norcem and HeidelbergCement “valuable information for future decision-making on reduction in CO2 emissions.”
First Cement Capture Demo
Aker said it will be world’s first to install and operate carbon capture equipment on a cement production plant. “The cement industry is a major emitter of CO2 and there is a potential to reduce emissions substantially,” Aker Solutions’ Head of Front End & Technology Henning Østvig said in a statement. Aker did not return requests for additional information.
The work being conducted as part of the project could be significant given that cement production currently accounts for roughly 5 percent of the world’s anthropogenic CO2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. The Paris-based research organization has in recent years drawn attention to the need to increase RD&D work on CCS for industrial applications like cement given that there are no other ways to reduce emissions from such industries, but to date has concluded that investment is woefully off pace.
