Sargas, the Norwegian company that proposed to finance and set up a power plant in Delimara and generate electricity at half the cost of that produced by Enemalta, has announced two major developments in the area of carbon capture and storage. Francesca Vella writes

The first involves a commercial alliance agreement with multinational corporation General Electric (GE) to provide a gas turbine for one of the world’s first gas-fired plants with integrated carbon capture for enhanced oil recovery.

The Sargas plant will combine a configuration of the existing LMS100 aeroderivative gas turbine package from GE with Sargas’ patented combustion and carbon-capture technology enabling low emissions power generation. The technology provided by Sargas captures carbon dioxide (CO2) at pressure, which requires lower capital investment costs and can be built quickly with existing or slightly modified subsystems and equipment.

Sargas claims its plant delivers significantly lower costs of electricity and captured CO2 per tonne and therefore enables the Sargas-led engineering, procurement and construction consortium to offer industrial-scale volumes of economically competitive CO2 for enhanced oil recovery applications worldwide.

GE’s LMS100 turbine is a combination of proven frame and aeroderivative gas turbine technology and represents one of the most extensive collaborations of design and manufacturing expertise in the history of GE, delivering unparalleled efficiency. In combination, the new configuration of the LMS100 in the Sargas plant can capture CO2 for enhanced oil recovery with high efficiency and low parasitic load.

Announcing the alliance, Sargas chief executive Henrik Fleischer said: “Traditional EOR supplies of naturally occurring carbon dioxide stored underground is running out, and with oil prices expected to remain above $80/bbl it is important for oil companies to maximise oil production with enhanced oil recovery. Traditionally, carbon capture for gas-fired turbine plants has relied on government subsidies and advanced technology research.

“Our solution, in combination with GE technology, will revolutionise the worldwide energy industry, providing carbon capture in both a flexible and affordable way for greater energy independence through EOR. It also offers low-emissions electricity in a proven and practical manner. Sargas is fortunate in being able to partner the best-in-class industrial giants, including Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) of Korea.”

DSME president and CEO Jaeho Ko greeted the announcement with enthusiasm for its potential to significantly enable a growing enhanced oil recovery industry and have a positive impact on global climate change policy and interventions.

He said: “We are particularly delighted that GE has entered into an alliance with Sargas. GE’s standing in the global turbine and power sector is unparalleled. We have developed the new CO2 technology with Sargas over the last three years and have every confidence that this new technology will make a fundamental contribution to the immediate deployment of economic cleaner energy.

“DSME is a leading engineering, procurement and construction operator in the shipping, oil and gas sectors, with over 35,000 personnel and $11 billion in annual sales. We at DSME are committed to the cleaner energy sector, thanks to this flagship technology, and stand ready to make this joint vision come true.”

Regarding the alliance, Darryl Wilson, president and CEO – Aeroderivative gas turbines for GE Power & Water said: “As one of the world’s most efficient gas turbines, GE’s LMS100 is an optimal solution for a pressurised carbon capture plant for EOR applications. The three-shaft system architecture of the LMS100 enables adaptability for use in a carbon-capture EOR application.

“The LMS100 provides a highly efficient production of pressurised flue gas that empowers Sargas technology. Enhanced oil recovery with compressed CO2 has been used for more than 30 years, but with increased demand expected, and with natural underground sources of CO2 being exhausted, there is an increased need for new sources. This new alliance between GE and Sargas can help promote energy independence through the development of oil fields in the United States.”  

Sargas plans to build

plant in Norway

In addition to having concluded a commercial alliance agreement with GE, Sargas also announced that it plans to build a commercial natural gas-fired power plant in the municipality of Fræna on the north-western coast of Norway.

It has acquired a controlling interest in Industrikraft Møre AS (IKM), a single purpose company licensed by the Norwegian authorities to establish the power plant. Sargas, having developed and patented this cutting edge carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, will head up the project ownership, which will later include other partners.

Sargas promises to capture 90 per cent of the carbon dioxide with this plant, which will be able to deliver about 450 megawatts. It would be able to deliver electric power to the area’s offshore oil and gas fields, the Ormen Lange gas terminal and to the onshore grid. The Ormen Lange gas field near the IKM site provides about 20 per cent of the UK’s gas imports and the power plant at IKM may increase energy security not only for this part of Norway, but also further secure the UK’s gas imports.

Other areas of exploitation include supplying the Norwegian offshore oil fields with electricity and premium quality CO2 for emergency oil recovery utilisation on a commercial basis. As well as the IKM project, similar full scale power plants projects are soon to be announced in the USA, the Middle East and Africa.

Separately, Sargas has engaged with DSME as its licensee, and SNC-Lavalin for a commercial agreement to prepare for offering turn-key provision of coal fired power plants.

Sargas and its partners are committed to providing cleaner global energy, and believe this joint effort to be a major contribution to the fulfilment of the UN’s climate goals for 2100.

Recently, experts such as Asbjørn Torvanger of the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo have concluded that equipping all new coal-fired power plants constructed from 2015 onwards with CCS, will be the single most effective way of fighting global warming towards the end of this century. Adding gas-fired power plants to such a scenario will further limit rising temperatures. The Sargas technology can produce electricity from all carbon based fuels, at affordable costs.

Sargas chief executive Henrik Fleischer said: “Creating a commercial value chain for CO2 as pressure support for enhanced oil recovery is a prerequisite for successfully battling global warming. Enhanced oil recovery is becoming an increasingly important way of bridging the expected increase in the energy gap until sufficient new sustainable energy sources that comply with the world’s energy demands are in place.

“Traditional supplies of naturally occurring CO2 of enhanced oil recovery quality stored underground are rapidly becoming scarce, and captured CO2 from power production represents the logical replacement.

“Our game-changing power production with enhanced oil recovery will, due to its high cost efficiency, facilitate a carbon capture regime affordable to all nations. The Sargas solution is based on well proven standard industrial components set up with our patented interface technology.”

Carbon capture and storage and the Sargas proposal for Malta

Carbon capture and storage (CCS), the technology that Norwegian company Sargas is proposing to use for a power plant that would be set up alongside the existing plant in Delimara, is considered to be an important element of the solution for reducing global carbon dioxide emissions.

Last November, at a business breakfast held at the Westin Dragonara Resort on the Sargas proposal, Paal Frisvold, from international environmental NGO Bellona Europe, explained that because it will take time to make the transition from fossil fuel to renewables, CCS has the potential to be a catalyst for change.

It offers a realistic solution in terms of global targets to reduce emissions substantially by 2050 and to ensure that the global average temperature increase is kept below two degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.

“I’m very eager to see CCS come alive, and Malta could be one of the first countries to provide the opportunity for carbon negative energy production.”

Mr Frisvold noted that 80 per cent of global energy production is based on fossil fuel and two-thirds of the global population need to improve their standard of living, so the demand for energy will increase. At the same time, carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced by 50 to 80 per cent by 2050.

Interestingly, CCS works by capturing and transporting carbon dioxide to an underground location where it is deposited for long-term safe storage. Carbon dioxide is mainly deposited in depleted oil and gas reservoirs and subsurface aquifers.

What Sargas is proposing is to finance a green power plant, which would be built at the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in Korea, transported to Malta and dry-docked in Delimara. A pre-feasibility study carried out by the company shows that the plant would be able to generate electricity at half the cost of that currently produced by Enemalta. The project would involve no investment or capital expenditure by the government.

The plant would be ‘green’ because it would capture 95 per cent of carbon dioxide in the exhaust, including carbon dioxide from biomass (olive stones/pits will be used) and fossil fuel. Once it is captured, the carbon dioxide would be shipped to Denmark and stored in old oil wells.

Sargas chief executive Henrik Fleischer explained: “When we came up with this solution, we took what we found on the shelf and re-configured it using existing models. There is no research and development involved. This is not an experiment. It is proven. We figured there was no point in creating a very fancy, expensive solution. And we have the capability to finance the whole project”.

He said the government would be able to decide whether to take over ownership of the plant. The minimum requirement would be a power purchase agreement by means of which Sargas would be able to sell energy to Malta.

The plant would be assembled at the DSME shipyard to keep costs as low as possible, he explained, noting that new EU rules stipulate that, by 2013, every country will need to buy carbon allowances through an auctioning mechanism.

Sargas’ full-scale reference plant in Stockholm is currently operational, with up to 32 per cent biomass in the fuel mix. The biomass is made from crushed olive stones imported from the Mediterranean, and Sargas expects to use a 50 per cent biomass fuel mix by 2015.

The technology is a patented combination of operational technologies (pressurised combustion and pressurised carbon dioxide capture), which the company has further developed and optimised. The plant is also very small, which is important considering Malta’s limited size.

The biopaste (biomass in the fuel mix) is guaranteed 100 per cent dust-free, which is equally important for Malta and was a similar pre-requisite when the Stockholm plant was built in the centre of the city.

Martin Roden, the director of business development at Sargas, explained that more than 900 plants around the world operate on a system of pressurised combustion.

The company is proposing that the plant is dry-docked at a location just south of the existing power plant in Delimara. It can be configured at either 180 megawatts (meeting the base load requirement) or 360 megawatts.