STATOIL, GASSNOVA DEVELOP TESTING METHODS FOR AMINE CAPTURE TECHNOLOGIES

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
06/29/12

Statoil and Gassnova have developed a set of methods for testing for potential emissions from post-combustion amine capture systems that they hope will eventually be the basis for a uniform testing methodology worldwide. The two companies, both owned at least in part by the Norwegian government, said they have compiled a “toolbox” of testing methods to help conduct risk assessment work on the technology, one that has seen great enthusiasm from the carbon capture and storage industry but in recent years has been the center of controversy in the Scandinavian nation due to a potential link to public health and environmental concerns. The testing methods will first be put into use during technology qualification work for Norway’s upcoming commercial-scale demonstration project at Mongstad.

While neither company revealed much detail in terms of specific techniques, the methods include standardized sampling procedures within the power plant and surrounding environment and analysis protocols, both looking for variables linked to the formation, degradation and spread of any potential amine solvent emissions into the atmosphere. “Basically, you have to understand what takes place when you subject the amine to heat, stress and degradation,” Gassnova CEO Bjørn-Erik Haugan said in an interview with GHG Monitor this week.

Companies Hope to Share Methods with Others

Statoil said in a company release that the testing methods were compiled through a collaborative effort with research and academic institutions. “Until now, the methods for calculating these emissions have not been good enough, and this has been one of the most significant uncertainty factors in relation to health risk linked with amine-based CO2 capture facilities,” Statoil’s Arne Myhrvold said in a company statement. He said that the ultimate goal is to eventually share the methods with other groups—such as the Electric Power Research Institute—that are conducting similar research into the impacts of potential emissions. “We want to share these methods with others, and our goal is for them to become the industry standard for open amine facilities,” Myhrvold said in an interview with GHG Monitor. “The work we have done through the [Mongstad] project has been pioneering, and the results are a very important milestone; not just for the project at Mongstad, but for the entire industry in its work to develop CO2 capture technology.”

Myhrvold said that the methods could lead to a uniform testing method for the technology, where much of the research to date has not been standardized or shared publically. “Different researchers around the world have measured different things related to this issue, and it has been difficult to get a hold of what kinds of methods they have use, what their detections limits are and the validity of everything,” he said. “If these methods are widely adopted, it will now be much easier to compare results. We’ll be comparing apples with apples.”

Scale-Up Issues Raised Red Flags

Originally developed for oil and gas applications as an agent for removing CO2 and other compounds from gas streams, amine solvents are now one of the world’s most popular carbon separation technologies. Their use has particularly boomed in recent years due to the deployment of aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) for scrubbers as a retrofit technology for older coal-fired power plants. However, questions surrounding the technology emerged in recent years as its use was scaled up for use at commercial-scale power plants. Research released by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health suggested that during the CO2 separation process, while most of the amine solvent was recycled back into the plant to be used again following carbon separation, a small percentage of the compound was released into the atmosphere. While the Norwegian researchers estimated that amines alone pose little threat to public health and the environment, they raised concerns about the potential for carcinogenic compounds being formed when the amines degrade and react with other materials in the surrounding environment. Those compounds could form nitramines, amides and nitrosamines, considered highly toxic to humans even at low concentrations, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said.

The issue emerged on the political front last year when the Norwegian government said it would delay making a final investment decision on its planned 350 MW Mongstad CCS demonstration project until 2016, citing concerns over the lack of information on the health and environmental impacts of amine technology. Meanwhile, a small group of researchers have begun to research the issue worldwide. However, many gray areas exist given that most amine solvents used on the market today are proprietary, and testing methods and results are often not shared publically.

Techniques to be Used at Mongstad Technology Qualification

Even though a financial decision for the CCS demonstration project at Mongstad has been pushed to 2016, the government has continued moving forward with the venture in earnest. Five post-combustion capture technology providers are currently vying for a contract with the project via a technology qualification process, which began last fall. Companies like Alstom, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Aker Clean Carbon are applying the techniques as they test their technologies for thousands of hours at test facilities, both at Norway’s separate test center at Mongstad, unveiled last month, and elsewhere. Statoil said that all of the technology providers will be using the risk assessment methods at their test sites and that data on any emissions will be taken into account when Statoil, Gassnova and project partners Sasol and Shell make a final investment decision, the company said.

Haugan said that vendor testing is currently underway as part of the qualification program. “We are issuing the vendors special equipment to stress test these amines through pressure and heat see how they will degrade,” he said. “Once those degradation products form, you need to identify them and then ask what happens to them throughout the rest of the treatment plant. Are they leaving the smokestack? If so, in what concentrations?” Haugan said researchers will also test for degradation products that could be produced when any emissions react with particles in the atmosphere and surrounding environment, as well as how any products may affect area vegetation or animal life. “What we have tried to develop is a complete toolbox needed to make an assessment of the environmental and health risk. That means that we have looked at the best way to sample both the gas and liquid phases and the best way to preserve, work with and analyze the samples,” Myhrvold said. “We have done a lot of work on what happens in the atmosphere from the point source of emissions to where it is dispersed—what kind of atmospheric chemistry exists and what are the significant reactions in the atmosphere. We have learned a lot from that and we have implemented those learnings into some dispersion calculation models.”