Aluminum production demonstration in Norway tests carbon capture technology
Norway's GreenCap Solutions has announced a demonstration project to test its carbon capture technology in aluminium production. The project will take place at an aluminium production plant owned and operated by Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy firm Hydro.
This collaboration aligns perfectly with GreenCap's strategy to collaborate with reputable industry leaders to scale their unique solutions, as stated by Ronny Bergerud, COO at GreenCap Solutions.
The project, funded by Norwegian state enterprise Gassnova through the CLIMIT programme, will run until May 2026.
GreenCap's technology is based on physical adsorption using a solid sorbent, without the use of chemicals. The process consists of three steps: gas pretreatment, CO2 adsorption, and zeolite regeneration.
In the gas pretreatment step, the gas is dried and cooled. The CO2 adsorption involves passing the gas through a reactor where CO2 is removed, leaving an extremely dry gas almost free of CO2. Zeolite regeneration uses small beads that absorb CO2 from the gas, acting as a filter. Once full, the filter is regenerated through a controlled heating and cooling cycle, releasing the captured CO2 while recovering thermal energy for reuse.
The project will focus on capturing CO2 from low-concentration point sources, such as flue gases, which contain around 1% of CO2. This is significant, considering that in 2023, the aluminium production sector accounted for approximately 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Morten Landsgard, Head of Electrolysis Decarbonisation for Hydro Aluminium Metal, stated that they are pursuing a cost-efficient solution to capture process emissions from primary aluminium plants. GreenCap's technology is ideally suited for direct air capture (DAC) applications.
GreenCap's technology has already seen some use in DAC units and CO2 recovery solutions in agriculture, totalling more than 100,000 operating hours in testing. The zeolite-based process from GreenCap Solutions for removing CO2 from flue gases in aluminum production is used by industrial companies in the aluminium industry.
Landsgardard of Hydro sees GreenCap's technology as holding promising potential for industrial-scale application. The direct emissions of CO2 from the electrolysis process used to make primary aluminium are significant, at around 1.5kg of CO2 per kilo of liquid aluminium. By capturing these emissions, GreenCap's technology could make a significant contribution to reducing the carbon footprint of the aluminium industry.
