Stratkraft recently created their Heimdal waste-to-energy plant and the pre-FEED study was awarded to Aker Carbon Capture. Stratkaft’s new plant has been expertly designed to annually capture 220.000 tonnes of carbon capture and now the project is ready to take the next step.

At the moment, lots of waste is treated by being put through a modern incineration plant, as this method has been shown to be the most effective and climate-efficient way to process final treatment. This method is especially useful when the waste has no other utility value, yet there are also issues such as carbon emissions, that make this method problematic.

Solving these emission issues, is where Stratkaft’s new plant found an opening in the market, as the way the plant works is efficient and extremely effective. For example, the district heating from Stratkraft’s waste-to-energy plant, which is based at Heimdal, has the ability to provide over 30% of the Trondheim municipality’s heating demand. The use of district heating will mean that the amount of electricity that is required is reduced, consequently making more electricity available for other uses. Furthermore, along with this reduction, the plant is also able to capture and permanently store carbon emissions and through this, the plant makes it possible to reduce an estimated 25% of Trondheim municipality’s carbon emissions. All of these benefits and abilities that these plants will provide, highlight why waste-to-energy plants and facilities are so important within the journey that Norway is going through, as they work towards their aim of achieving net zero.

Now the Heimdal waste-to-energy plant is ready to take the next step and this has led to the pre-FEED study being awarded to Aker Carbon Capture. This study will cover carbon dioxide capture, compression, purification, liquefaction and temporary storage of carbon dioxide. Once the Co2 has been processed at Heimdal, the liquid carbon dioxide will be put inside a truck and transported to an export terminal, where it will then be loaded onto a ship, so it can be transported for permanent storage.

Aker Carbon Capture was a good choice for a company to run the pre-FEED project, as the company has an excellent history with similar projects. In 2023, the company was given the opportunity to complete a full FEED by Hafslund Oslo Celsio, who is the largest supplier of district heating within Norway. Aker have also developed a carbon capture at the company’s waste-to-energy facility that is located at Klemetsrud, Oslo, Norway. It has been stated that Aker will create this project through basing the design on their modularised Just Catch 400 unit, also providing it with a design capacity that will enable the plant to capture an estimated 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

The Heimdal plant is also an excellent step forwards for Stratkraft, as they are a member of ‘CCS Midt-Norge’, which is an industry cluster that is dedicated to Co2 capture and storage within central Norway. This cluster represents around 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions which are emitted annually. The purpose and aim of the creation of this cluster is for it to increase understanding, progress and finally, potential economies of scale, which can all be linked back to the realisation of carbon capture and storage within the region.

Chief Commercial Officer at Aker Carbon Capture, Jon Christopher Knudsen, commented, “We are excited to extend our collaboration with Statkraft. The decarbonization of the waste-to-energy industry is crucial in achieving Norway’s ambitious climate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. By leveraging our product portfolio and ongoing projects, we maintain a robust position within the waste-to-energy sector.”

Project Manager in Statkraft, Bjørn Hølaas, has stated that it is, ‘exciting that Aker Carbon Capture is one of the three selected contractors who will carry out pre-FEED studies for CO2 reduction and removal from our waste incineration plants in Trondheim. Statkraft looks forward to continuing the good dialogue with Aker Carbon Capture, and not least studying the report from Aker when it is completed in the autumn.’