Swedish plasma gasification developers Plagazi AB have announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Icelandic carbon capture and storage (CCS) specialists Carbfix Iceland ohf (Carbfix) regarding the transport and storage of carbon dioxide in the planned Coda Terminal in Straumsvík, Iceland.
According to Plagazi, the Letter of Intent (LoI) has been signed for five ongoing European projects. This includes Köping Hydrogen Park in Köping, Sweden, which is Plagazi’s largest project and the LoI covers the entire amount of liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) produced.
Carbfix and its partners provide a much-needed liquid CO2 transport and storage service to accelerate the development of carbon capture technologies in Europe based on established low-risk solutions.
Proprietary CCM
Carbfix specializes in a form of carbon capture and storage (CCS) known as carbon capture and mineralization (CCM).
Using proprietary technology and a network of shallow wells, water-dissolved CO2 is injected for rapid mineralization in the basaltic rock below the surface in an environmentally sustainable way.
Carbfix and its partners have a truly remarkable CCS technology that will help reduce global emissions and accelerate future CCS operations that the company wants to support and further develop, said Torsten Granberg, CEO of Plagazi.
Developed in 2007, the Carbfix technology has been continuously applied on an industrial scale since 2014 to mineralize a total of 80 000 tonnes of CO2 from the Hellisheiði geothermal power plant in Iceland.
Since 2021, Carbfix has also mineralized CO2 from Climeworks’ Orca plant, the world’s largest direct air capture and storage (DACS) facility at the same site.
Reaching the world’s climate goals requires a significant contribution from carbon capture and storage solutions. Through eight years of continuous industrial-scale operations, the Carbfix technology has been demonstrated to be economical, safe, and effective, said Edda Sif Pind Aradóttir, CEO of Carbfix.
Transport and storage as a service
The Coda Terminal, which is managed by Carbfix, will be a highly scalable hub for storing liquid CO2 on land in Straumsvík, Iceland.
The company has recently commissioned the engineering firm EFLA for a pre-design of Coda Terminal.
For years, EFLA has brought climate issues to the forefront of all its projects. We at EFLA are therefore very proud to have been considered the most qualified to pre-design Coda Terminal and thus be able to take part in this extremely important project, said Reynir Sævarsson Coda Terminal’s design director and EFLA’s Chairman.
The front-end engineering and design study (FEED) will include a requirement analysis and pre-designs of equipment and buildings, as well as an evaluation of factors such as zoning plans, costs, and schedules.
Due this summer, the study precedes the subsequent final design phase.
Concurrently, work will commence on an environmental impact study for the project.
Global warming will not be stopped without the application of all available solutions. Most IPCC scenarios assume that some of the emission reductions will have to come from CO2 capture and storage. Iceland plays an important role here, because of the ideal conditions for this type of storage. We can prove to the outside world that this is possible on a very large scale, said Reynir Sævarsson.
Set to mineralize 3 million tonnes annually
The Coda Terminal storage site has an estimated net storage potential of at least 200 million tonnes of CO2 and a target injection capacity of 3 million tonnes of CO2 per annum by 2031, mineralizing it underground with the Carbfix technology.
The Coda Terminal will increase our capacity approximately two hundred-fold, and our agreement with EFLA is an important and welcome step towards that goal, said Edda Sif Pind Aradóttir.
The CO2 will be captured from Rio Tinto’s aluminum smelter at the site as well as industries across Northern Europe and shipped to Iceland in specially designed carriers.
Carbfix will offer a combined transport – performed by DanUnityCO2 – and storage service for facilities such as Plagazi’s major investment in Köping. Pilot injections are expected to start in 2023.
Important for Plagazi’s commercialization
Partnerships with various hydrogen and carbon dioxide users are important steps in the commercialization of Plagazi’s project portfolio.
Signing a large-scale and Europe-wide collaboration with a supplier such as Carbfix is a long-term solution for Plagazi’s customer projects.
The collaboration with Carbfix and its CCS technology also brings Plagazi one step closer to achieving its net negative carbon emissions in its process and further strengthens the company’s claim as a truly renewable, circular, and emission reduction solution.
For Plagazi, this Letter of Intent is very important as the company has now identified a solution for the entire volume of liquid carbon dioxide produced from five of our European projects, where discussions on more projects are ongoing. The letter of intent with Carbfix is a huge enabler and a step in the right direction in the commercialization process for our European projects ended Torsten Granberg.
