Oslo, Norway, January 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Aker Carbon Capture will provide a pre-engineering study to energy company St1 for the development of a carbon capture facility at Finnsementti’s Lappeenranta cement plant. The captured CO2 would be used for the first renewable synthetic methanol plant in Finland. Aker Carbon Capture’s Just Catch unit could capture around 40,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, enabling the production of 25,000 tonnes of methanol per year.
Aker Carbon Capture is currently delivering the world’s first carbon capture installation to Norcem’s cement plant in Brevik, Norwayand will bring the lessons of this project to the study of the Finnsementti carbon capture plant.
“We are delighted to enter the Finnish market and deliver a study for the promising Power-to-X market. Renewable synthetic methanol can replace fossil fuels used in maritime and road transport,” says Valborg Lundegaard, CEO of Aker Carbon Capture. “We are committed to helping decarbonize the hard-to-reduce cement industry with our proven and proprietary carbon capture technology. Finland has a strong ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2035, and we are ready to support Finnish industry on its decarbonization journey,” she continues.
Today, on an industrial scale, methanol is primarily produced from natural gas by reforming the gas with steam, then converting and distilling the resulting synthesized gas mixture to create pure methanol. The Lappeenranta synthetic methanol plant would use the hard-to-reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the limestone feedstock at the Finnsementti plant. The other feedstock needed is low-carbon hydrogen produced in an electrolysis process involving wind power and water. e-Methanol is produced during the synthesis of captured carbon and low carbon hydrogen.
“At St1, we see Aker Carbon Capture as a potential technology supplier with significant experience to support us in the St1 Power-to-Methanol Lappeenranta project. We are looking for solutions that provide a high level of technology readiness that can be thermally integrated in the processes of the cement plant Another part of the cooperation will be to study CO2 liquefaction and on-site storage options to secure the operation of the methanol plant, in case CO2 is not available from combustion gases from the cement plant”, declares Riitta SilvennoinenResponsible for the Energy Transition activity at St1.
“We look forward to working with St1 as they aim to be a leader in the production of renewable synthetic methanol. This collaboration marks the start of our carbon capture journey by Finlandoffering many opportunities,” says Joel Flittonsales manager Sweden and Finland at Aker Carbon Capture.
About the St1 Power-to-Methanol Lappeenranta Project
St1 researches and develops economically viable and environmentally friendly sustainable energy solutions and sees Power-to-X as an attractive possibility to help decarbonise the transport sector. It has extensively researched the potential for use and production of various Power-to-X products, such as synthetic methanol, green ammonia, and synthetic kerosene.
St1 aims to start producing synthetic methanol by 2026. The Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has granted the project conditional funding of €35.4 million, pending approval by the European Commission. Funding is provided by the European Recovery and Resilience Facility.
More information about the project is available on the St1 website:
https://www.st1.com/st1-is-planning-a-synthetic-methanol-pilot-plant-in-lappeenranta-finland
CONTACT:
Media contacts:
Aker Carbon Capture
Yannick Vanderveeren, communications manager
mobile: +47 458 36 358, e-mail: [email protected]
St1
Riitta Silvennoinen, head of the energy transition activity
mobile: +358 50 589 3036, e-mail: [email protected]
Investor contacts:
David Phillipsmobile: +44 7710 568279, e-mail: [email protected]
Christian Yggeseth, mobile: +47 915 10 000, e-mail: [email protected]
The following files are available for download:
SOURCE Aker Carbon Capture AS
