The world’s largest facility for testing and developing carbon capture technologies was inaugurated in Mongstad, Norway, in early May. Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) is a joint venture between the government of Norway, Statoil, Shell and Sasol.
“The launch of the world’s largest facility for testing and developing carbon capture technologies is an important milestone for all parties involved in the efforts towards a low carbon future,” said Tore Amundsen, TCM managing director.
Amundsen said that TCM’s main purpose is to become a global resource center for carbon capture technologies and to share experience and knowledge gained from testing with owners, vendors and the global research community. Aker Clean Carbon and Alstom will test their respective technologies in the first phase. The facility, which cost approximately US$1 billion, is designed to capture about 100,000 tons per year of CO2.
“The world’s CO2 emissions increase, and it is critical to develop carbon capture technology for global deployment on large point sources, such as power generation and large energy-consuming industries,” Amundsen said.
The Norwegian government, which owns 75 percent of the project, said its objective for TCM is to provide an arena for targeted development, testing and improving technology so that costs and risks of carbon capture and storage may be reduced.