Sep-2024

Advancing carbon capture for mass deployment across industries (RI 2024)

Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) is an extensive and flexible test centre for developing CO₂ capture technologies and a competence centre for carbon capture.

Liv Lønne Dille and Hans Wilhelm Gullestad
Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM)

Article Summary

It is advancing carbon capture for a cleaner and greener future by bridging the gap between technology developers, science, and industrial application of CO₂ technologies. The main objective of the centre is to test, verify, and demonstrate different technologies related to cost-efficient and industrial-scale CO₂ capture. The goal is to facilitate the advancement of carbon capture technology for mass deployment across industries. TCM is an important part of Norway’s contribution to mitigating climate change.

Nestled within Alver, bordering the Austrheim municipality, the centre is close to Equinor’s oil refinery, from which it receives CO₂-rich flue gas for testing a diverse array of technologies.

Since its inception in 2012, the centre has conducted 23 test campaigns as of the beginning of 2024. These campaigns, predominantly orchestrated by technology suppliers, encompass both proprietary initiatives and open-ended, research-driven endeavours lasting up to six months. Within TCM’s infrastructure, the amine plant serves as a proving ground for mature technologies, representing the final phase of development before integration into full-scale capture plants. Conversely, the site for emerging technologies provides a platform for pioneering experiments with nascent technologies.

Sixty people work across departments specialising in technology, operations, business development, and administration. Ownership and financing are divided among the Norwegian state (34%) by Gassnova, Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, each holding equal shares. TCM upholds stringent health, safety, environment, and quality (HSEQ) standards. Comprehensive contractual agreements underpin each test campaign, delineating emission permits and procedural commitments aimed at ensuring a secure working environment.

Beyond its core function of technology testing and consultancy services, the centre is committed to knowledge dissemination, leveraging insights gleaned from open test campaigns to contribute to the global discourse on carbon capture and storage (CCS). With more than 60 scientific publications to its credit, TCM’s experts command significant recognition within the international CCS community.

The centre is pivotal in advancing CCS as a key tool in the battle against climate change, with notable contributions, including support for the Norwegian Longship project. Its mission is to help industries achieve their CO₂ capture targets and mitigate the threat of global overheating.

For Indian technology developers, the centre offers high technological advancement potential at low financial risk by testing and verifying carbon capture technology at its amine plant or site for emerging technologies ahead of full-scale application.

It gives access to instrumentation, analytics, engineers, and operators at an experienced facility operating carbon capture plants. The centre provides industrial testing with flue gas sources in a single purpose-built facility with 24/7 operations.

For Indian project developers/emitters, the centre can lower risk investment via its advisory services founded on key learnings from operating a 100,000 t/yr facility for 12 years. It can guide you on emissions monitoring and permits, flue gas characterisation, solvent and waste handling, maintenance learnings, winterisation, preliminary design, and cost estimations. TCM brings operational expertise in Hazard and Operability (HAZOP), operator training, and more. Also, it participates in problem-solving during feasibility and feed studies and after the commissioning of full-scale projects.

This short article originally appeared in the 2024 Refining India Newspaper, which you can VIEW HERE