Norway-headed pure-play carbon capture company Aker Carbon Capture AS has announced that it has been awarded a feasibility study by the Netherlands-headed "green and clean" energy and hydrogen company Tree Energy Solutions B.V. (TES) to explore the implementation of a carbon capture plant at a waste-to-energy (WtE) facility in Germany.
According to a statement, the planned capture capacity will be 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.
The captured CO2 will be transported by railcar to the TES facilities at Wilhelmshaven in Northern Germany to produce electro-synthetic methane (eSNG), which is synthetic renewable natural gas (RNG) derived from green hydrogen and CO2.
We look forward to the collaboration with Aker Carbon Capture on our route towards net zero. This evaluation of an industrial scale project will allow us to select the best of different available capture technologies based on real-life performance going forward in massive scale-up, said Jens Schmidt, Chief Technology Officer at TES.
Third study in Germany
This is the third study awarded to Aker Carbon Capture in Germany, Europe’s largest economy and CO2 emitter. The country aims to cut its CO2 emissions by 65 percent by 2030 compared with 1990 and to become carbon neutral by 2045.
Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) has been identified as playing an important role in the country’s goal to achieve these targets, and the German government is expected to publish its Carbon Management Strategy later this year.
The study awarded to Aker Carbon Capture will assess the optimal CO2 capture, conditioning, liquefaction, and temporary storage facility.
The captured CO2 will be the feedstock to produce eSNG, which is a sustainable alternative to fossil natural gas. This conversion will take place in a region where green electricity and therefore green hydrogen are plentiful, making it highly cost-effective.
eSNG is easy to transport and store, which makes it a viable and scalable clean energy source. It is chemically identical to fossil natural gas and blends easily into the existing fuel mix. This makes it a very simple and cost-effective solution for scaling up the green transition.
By 2030, TES plans to produce around 15 TWh of eSNG annually, which is equivalent to 0.4 megatonnes of green hydrogen.
We are excited to be working with TES on this innovative decarbonization project. By using recycled CO2 to deliver green energy to users, further CO2 emissions are being avoided, contributing to Germany’s goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2045. We aim to deliver our modular Just Catch 400 unit, which has gained high market interest since its recent launch, said Jon Christopher Knudsen, Chief Commercial Officer at Aker Carbon Capture.
Widespread interest
At Twence’s waste-to-energy facility in the Netherlands, Aker Carbon Capture is currently delivering a Just Catch unit with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The company also started in May of this year the delivery of five Just Catch units to Ørsted’s bioenergy facilities in Denmark, with a design capture capacity of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
These flagship projects contribute to the company’s mission to serial produce carbon capture units providing cost and delivery benefits for the mid-scale emitter market.
