Negative CO₂

This edition covers the results and progress of the project in the period from September 2016 to September 2017.

Click here for the NER Negative CO2 newsletter 3 – Oktober 2017

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Haven’t heard about CO₂ capture and storage before? Click here for an introduction.

NER Negative CO2

The NER Negative CO2 project combines technologies and research that will be help us reduce the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere effectively and at a low cost. To achieve the climate goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, we need to effectively stop any and all emissions of CO₂ where possible, and compensate for emissions we cannot avoid (for instance from agriculture).

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the necessary measures include: the uptake of renewable energy, electrification, and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). These solutions alone will, however, not be enough. We need to decrease the amount of CO₂ that is already present in the atmosphere. We need large-scale negative emissions.

In the Nordic countries, there is a large potential for the capture and permanent geological storage of CO₂ from biomass. Norway has 20 years of experience in full-scale CO₂ storage, and is planning for a large-scale CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure ready by 2022 that could receive CO₂ northern and Western Europe. Sweden and Finland have large point source emissions of CO₂ from biomass.  

Chemical Looping Combustion

Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) is a technology able to capture CO₂ from energy production at relatively low cost and with a large efficiency. While conventional combustors burn fuel with ambient air, containing the needed oxygen as well as a lot of nitrogen, CLC installations burn fuel with solid metal oxide particles.

When the fuel reacts with these particles, which are called the oxygen carriers, the oxygen is transferred to the fuel giving the same combustion products as normal combustion. These are CO₂ and water vapor. The important difference is that the combustion products leave the so-called fuel reactor without any of the nitrogen in the air, and when the gas is cooled, the water vapor condenses resulting in an essentially pure CO₂ stream. At this is the important point, this can be done without any costly and energy demanding gas separation. Because the costly gas separation can be avoided, CLC is expected to reduce the cost of CO₂ capture dramatically.

The aim of the project is to take the technology to the next level in its development by upscaling it to a semi-commercial scale.