It has been announced that a carbon capture demonstration campaign will be held at Swedish Mälarenergi’s combined heat and power (bio-CHP) plant in, Sweden, specifically, Västerås. The companies hosting demonstration are Capsol Technologies ASA (Capsol) and Sumitomo SHI FW (SFW). It is planned that the demonstration unit will begin operations in November of 2024.

Both Mälarenergi and SFW made an agreement which stated that SFW would be responsible for providing a mobile carbon capture demonstration facility. Whilst on the other hand, Mälarenergi would host the corresponding operation activities that would take place at their biomass plant in Västerås, Sweden. Furthermore, it has been stated that the mobile carbon capture unit, which will be delivered by Capsol has been based on the Hot Potassium Carbonate (HPC) process and it will incorporate the patented EoP® heat recovery technology by Capsol.

The purpose behind the demonstration campaign is to provide important data about the performance of the technical solution for Mälarenergi’s specific flue gas conditions, with the intention that the information gathered will go into use when it comes to optimising the planned full-scale capture plant at Mälarenergi. It is expected that this full-scale capture plant will reduce emissions by an estimated 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide on an annual basis.

Altogether, the system involves the HPC process which has a CO2 capture rate that exceeds 90% and also produces high-purity (<99%) CO2. Along with this, the electricity-powered technology makes low-temperature heat and contributes to sustainable heat production and low energy penalty. Finally, the potassium carbonate solvent is safe and non-toxic, which therefore makes the HPC solutions eco-friendly, as well as suitable for residential areas.

CEO of Mälarenergi, Niklas Gunnar, commented, “Carbon capture has great potential to counteract the climate crisis. What we need to move forward with our investigative work is plant-specific knowledge of how the technology can be applied to the combined heat and power plant in Västerås, in the most resource-efficient and optimal way possible. That is what we are now going to investigate, practically and on site.”