Sweden's largest oil refiner and transportation fuel producer Preem AB has begun a pilot study on a carbon dioxide (CO2) capture demonstration plant, known as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at its Lysekil refinery. To be conducted during spring 2018, the study will investigate whether a demonstration plant at Preem's refinery in Lysekil can be built to capture CO2 thereby reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the plant.
According to a statement, the ambition is for a full-scale CCS facility for carbon dioxide capture at the Lysekil refinery, which is then transported by boat to the planned CCS hub on the Norwegian west coast and permanent storage in Smeaheia.
The vision is a full-size CCS plant that reduces the refinery’s greenhouse gas emissions radically. We want to lead the transformation towards a more sustainable society and then we must take responsibility for reducing our business’s climate impact. Being able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions via CCS technology is an important step in achieving Swedish and global climate goals, said Mattias Backmark, Head of Business Development at Preem.
Operating two refineries, Preem is one of the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters in Sweden – around 2 million tonnes annually (1.5 million tonnes at Lysekil and 500 000 tonnes in Gothenburg respectively).
The preliminary study is funded by Gassnova within its research and development program CLIMIT and is run by the Norwegian research institute Sintef with Preem and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg as project members for the Lysekil study.
CCS means that carbon dioxide is separated from a source of carbon in, for example, a refinery plant. The separated carbon dioxide is compressed into liquid form and then transported to a storage site deep into the ground. The purpose of CCS is to store carbon dioxide in, for example, the bedrock, thereby reducing fossil GHG emissions to the atmosphere.
The technology for CCS is still under development. In order to drive development, the EU has decided to fund demonstration facilities.
Facts
About SINTEF & Gassnova
Sintef is a Norwegian interdisciplinary research institute with international leadership in technology, science, medicine and social science. We conduct research as a research and development partner for companies and management and are among the largest research institutes in Europe. Gassnova is a Norwegian state-owned company that works with carbon capture and storage, CCS. Gassnova stimulates and finances research, development and operations that help to realize technology within industrial, full-scale pioneer plants within CCS.
