Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
4/25/2014
While the development of a full-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration facility at Mongstad was cancelled by the Norwegian government last September, research continues at the Technology Centre Mongstad, with plans for further expansion in the near future, Tore Amundsen, CEO of Gassnova said during a briefing at the US Energy Association’s offices this week. Amundsen, and several other representatives from Gassnova and the wider Norwegian climate change community, visited the USEA’s Washington office as part of a US tour which included stops at several U.S. CCS demonstration projects, including Southern Company’s Kemper County Energy Facility and Air Product’s Port Arthur demonstration project.
Currently, TCM is testing two potential forms of CCS, an amine based capture technology and a chilled ammonia based technology. The center offers space for the future development of one large or several small test facilities for additional technologies. Fifteen companies expressed interest in the available space. TCM has now narrowed the list of candidates to five. The new technology or technologies to be installed will be announced this fall and, it is hoped, will be operational during 2015. The test space for the chosen technology or technologies will be much smaller than the test spaces for the amine and chilled ammonia test facilities, as test facilities of that size are very costly Amundsen explained, comparing the proposed technologies to those currently being tested, “The reason for this is these technologies are much less mature than the amine technology was when we started on with it.”
An open exchange of information is at the center of TCM’s mission, offering the results of their studies to the public, which they hope will make for easier application of the technology world-wide. “One of the main reasons for TCM has to do with reducing technical risks, particularly risks that you would experience when taking on building large scale capture plants,” said Amundsen. The availability of this information will, it is hoped, help companies avoid making mistakes that could otherwise be avoided. TCM is also a member of a recently formed network of test centers, comprising of nice test centers. “The idea is to share as much as we possibly can.” Amundsen said.
