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LINCCS updates: Defining CCS offshore

For industries emitting a lot of carbon-heavy flue gas, the piping-away and safe injection of carbon-dioxide (CO2) into offshore wells may be the only way to capture, remove and store the greenhouse gas.

LINCCS — the linking of large-scale, offshore CO2 storage to the carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) supply chain — is about the repurposing of offshore assets and knowhow into sustainable business opportunities. It also aims to store away 100 million tons of CO2 annually by 2030. That’s twice Norway's total yearly count of CO2 emissions.

Under the LINCCS partnership of research outfits, energy companies and suppliers, Aker Solutions is developing the subsea equipment that will define CCS offshore. Injecting liquefied CO2 gas from hard-to-abate heavy industry is the key to viable CCS.

Subsea deliveries

In May 2023, one of our standard CO2-control-valve “x-mas” trees (XTs) for injector wells was installed at the Northern Lights Project. The CO2 XT will control the injection of liquefied flue-gas (industrial exhaust) CO2 when the NL project starts up in 2024.

This first CO2 XT is a standardized piece of equipment and already an Aker Solutions offering to energy company operators and the CCS value chain. The standardized seabed equipment is just the beginning: a succession of CO2-specific trees to serve third-party CO2 injector wells are under development at our Norwegian development center.

Integrated CCUS

Developing subsea equipment is the latest in a range of pioneering CCS advancements. Aker Solutions has been developing carbon capture utilization and storage for more than 25 years, and the list of CCS successes has grown:

For the Sleipner Treatment Platform in Norway, a carbon-capture, compression and injection system separates and stores one million metric tons of CO2 every year in a giant, saline aquifer below the seabed.

The Northern Lights Project’s CO2 Processing facility on the west coast of Norway collects CO2 shipped from Norcem’s Heidelberg Cement plant in Brevik, southern Norway, before injecting it beneath the North Sea via one of our standard CO2 XT’s. We also did the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work for the land terminal, from where CO2 will be piped offshore.

At Net Zero Teesside in England, Aker Solutions contributes our integrated CCS knowhow to a project that includes the installation and commissioning of an 860-megawatt combined cycle gas turbine for CO2 captured at source and piped to geological storage offshore.

Aker Solutions will continue to advance LINCCS R&D in general and subsea CCS equipment in particular.

For more on our commitment to zero-emissions industry, watch this 2023 video from our development center for offshore CCS solutions.