Norwegian carbon capture startup Carbon Centric AS has announced that it will use proven technology to build an affordable and modular full-scale carbon capture unit at a waste-to-energy plant in Norway.
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A spinout of municipal energy company Østfold Energi AS, Carbon Centric is entering the carbon capture market and will offer turnkey carbon capture systems for waste- and biomass-fired combustion plants.
Carbon Centric is a true-born child of the waste incineration industry. We have matured solutions based on the industry’s own needs and desire for reduced CO2 emissions, said Fredrik Häger, Co-Founder and CEO of Carbon Centric.
The company will now raise money to build a carbon capture plant at Østfold Energi’s waste-to-energy (WtE) plant in Rakkestad. This will be one of the first full-scale carbon capture plants in the world linked to waste incineration.
Faster and cheaper
Carbon Centric specializes in carbon capture systems for small and medium-sized combustion lines with emissions of between 10,000 and 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.
According to Carbon Centric, KANFA has developed a design where, by using smaller and standardized dimensions, the company can produce modular carbon capture systems almost as off-the-shelf products.
This means that combustion plants can cut their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a faster, cheaper, and safer way.
As a starting point, Carbon Centric is technology-neutral, but we are keen to deliver products based on technology we know works. That is why we have entered into close collaboration with KANFA, which has over 10 years of experience with carbon capture and which, among other things, delivered the pilot to Fortum Oslo Varme’s waste incineration plant at Klemetsrud, said Fredrik Häger.
Raising capital
The company has been under planning for over a year and was established earlier this summer. The owners are Østfold Energi and the entrepreneurial team, and the company plans to raise capital during the autumn.
Enova, a government agency under the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, has also contributed NOK 17 million in support for the first plant.
Østfold Energi mainly works with the production of hydropower. However, carbon capture has long been a topic in the company, partly because Østfold Energi has a WtE plant in Rakkestad with district heating production and sale of steam.
We believe Carbon Centric will become an important player in the carbon capture segment. This is an exciting and important investment for us, said Oddmund Kroken, CEO of Østfold Energi.
Full-scale plant
Carbon Centric will help Østfold Energi and other energy companies to reduce emissions.
The special thing about this carbon capture plant in Rakkestad is that it is full-scale. Admittedly, we are talking about a relatively small plant of 10,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, but where other carbon capture plants have so far cleaned smaller partial streams of the flue gas, Carbon Centric will clean the entire flue gas volume, said Martin Vatne, Director of Strategy and Business Development at Østfold Energi and Chairman of Carbon Centric.
This means that the carbon capture plant must be able to handle production fluctuations in the waste incineration plant, while at the same time being confident that this does not negatively affect the incineration process.
Sale of sustainable carbon dioxide
The company will also offer services related to the operation, transport, and sale of CO2. Pending a permanent storage solution, Carbon Centric currently offers liquid CO2 with more than half biogenic origin to consumers of CO2.
By using captured CO2 that is already in the cycle, we help to cut the demand for fossil CO2. When greenhouse gases from these sources can finally be stored permanently, it means that we remove CO2 from the air, which there is broad agreement among the experts that we need to do to prevent dangerous climate change, said Fredrik Häger.
Expect better framework conditions
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered necessary to achieve the climate goals in the Paris Agreement and is therefore expected to become a major industry in Europe, where there are already over 400 waste incineration plants.
Anyone who emits significant amounts of CO2 will have to deal with CCS within a few years. We are optimistic that reasonable framework conditions will be introduced, where the waste incineration companies are paid to handle CO2 in an efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly way, just as they are paid to treat non-recyclable waste today, ended Fredrik Häger.
