On Thursday, April 27, CCS Haugalandet arranged an evening conference at Nordsjø Kontorpark in Haugesund to provide an insight into the important work the industry in the region is doing to manage its greenhouse gas emissions. CCS Haugalandet is a consortium consisting of Equinor Kårstø, Eramet Sauda, Gassco, Hydro Karmøy, Sintef and Haugaland Næringspark. CSS Haugalandet has been awarded project funding from Gassnovas to carry out a technical-economic analysis of a common infrastructure for the safe transport and storage of CO2 from the large industrial plants in the region.
The auditorium in the office park was full, and there were also a number of participants who followed the conference digitally. The list of participants ranged from local politicians from across the region, national climate and environmental organizations, students and representatives from local businesses.
Karoline Sjøen Andersen is project manager for CCS Haugalandet on behalf of Haugaland Business Park. She talked about the collaboration and how a common infrastructure for CO2 management will reduce costs and realize emission cuts faster.
Tiril Fjeld, General Manager of Haugaland Næringspark, explained how Norway's largest regulated business park is at the heart of green industrial development in Haugalandet. "While the business park will create new green jobs in the region, it is important to work closely with the existing industry in the region," Fjeld emphasized, pointing to CCS Haugalandet as a good example of this.
Kristin Jordal, Chief Scientist at Sintef Energi, explained to the audience how the increase in CO2 emissions has accelerated in recent years and how such a development is harmful to our planet. She also gave them an introduction to what CO2 and carbon capture and storage are and how it is possible to capture CO2 and transport it to a permanent and safe storage in reservoirs under the seabed.
All the major industrial players in the CCS project are actively working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Svein Erik Losnegård is an advisor for new value chains at Gassco, and explained how the opportunities for transporting both CO2 and hydrogen between Norway and the continent. He emphasized emphasized that large quantities of hydrogen will be crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially in Europe..
Energy coordinator at Equinor Kårstø, Geir Klungtveitpresented a number of specific measures Kårstø has implemented over the past year to reduce its emissions. Among other things, he said that through much better energy utilization, they reduced their emissions by 90,000 tonnes in 2022. Biogas, wind power, blue ammonia, green hydrogen from their own K-Lab and the CCS Haugalandet were mentioned as some of the measures.
Hydro Karmøy is known for its technology pilot, as the most climate- and energy-efficient technology for aluminum production in the the world. Plant manager Arne-Martin Kjærland told about a significant increase in aluminum demand, and especially on recyclable metal. Hydro is is committed to creating new markets for its low-carbon products, and has now among other things entered into cooperation agreements with Porche and Mercedes, which will not be able to achieve their climate goals without help from Hydro. He went on to say that Hydro, with only 1% CO2 content in its exhaust gases, has challenges in capturing it. Nevertheless, they aim to capture volumes on an industrial scale by 2030.
In Eramets'production, coke is the main contributor to CO2 emissions. Kåre Bjarte Bjelland, Director of Strategy and Communications, explained how the company is actively working to replace fossil coke with biocarbon. They also recently received NOK 132 million from Enova for energy and climate projects , including a CCS pilot. The ambitious goal is full-scale carbon capture by 2028.
In summary, the industry players see opportunities in the challenges they are now facing. They also agree that the opportunities are strengthened through collaborations such as CCS Haugalandet. Haugaland Business Park emphasized that with such an important infrastructure in place, we are a highly relevant region for large-scale hydrogen production and other industries that depend on this type of solution.
