Negative ambitions at Arendaluka: how we can remove CO₂ to reach net zero

If we are to reach our climate targets, it won’t be enough to simply cut our emissions – we must also remove large amounts of existing CO₂ from our atmosphere, also known as “negative emissions”.

Negative-emission technologies already exist, and new ideas and technologies are continuously being developed. However, we lack a national plan for which measures and technologies Norway should focus on in order to develop cost-effective solutions for the removal of historical emissions.

At Arendalsuka, ACCSESS Project Coordinator Kristin Jordal (SINTEF) and Markus Sebastian Hole, head of public affairs at Hafslund Oslo Celsio (partner in ACCSESS), participated in an event on the topic, entitled Negative ambisjoner – slik må vi fjerne CO₂ for å nå netto null (“Negative ambitions – this is how we need to remove CO₂ to achieve net zero”).

Arendalsuka (lit. “Arendal’s week”) is a Norwegian political festival that takes place in August every year, in Arendal.

Removing CO₂ using CCS and biomass

ACCSESS is currently investigating negative emissions by implementing CCS in industries that have biogenic CO₂ emissions, such as waste to energy and pulp and paper.

Biomass, such as trees and plants, absorb CO₂ naturally as a part of photosynthesis. The carbon remains trapped in the biomass until it’s burned or decayed, when it is released back into the atmosphere.

However, using carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS), we can capture that CO₂ and prevent it from escaping into the atmosphere. This contributes to negative emissions, as we will have taken more CO₂ out of the atmosphere than we will have put in.

Read more: Introducing ACCSESS: Addressing drastic CO₂ emissions cuts and removal in four key industries

Significant potential for CO₂ removal in the waste-to-energy industry

In terms of waste-to-energy, approximately 50% of the CO₂ is biogenic, meaning there is a significant potential for CO₂ removal.

“There is enormous potential in the industry. ETH Zürich has estimated that the waste-to-energy in Europe alone can remove 5 million tonnes of CO₂,” said Markus. However, he went on to stress that Norwegian and European authorities need to establish incentives and frameworks on CO₂ removal in order to realise this potential.

“Waste-to-energy with CCS must be recognised as an important source of CO₂ removal,” he said.

However, in addition to regulations, there is still a lot of research that needs to be conducted on CO₂ removal technologies:

“A downside to all these technologies is that they take enormous amounts of energy,” said Kristin. “But we are working with them to see how we can make them more efficient, and how we can integrate them into a CCS system, because CCS is a prerequisite for a lot of the technical aspects of carbon removal.”

ACCSESS is currently trialling improved CO₂ capture using a mobile rig from Hafslund Oslo Celsio, using an enzyme from Saipem and a rotating packed bed absorber from Prospin and Proceler. Tests are currently concluding at Technology Centre Mongstad, with the next tests to be undertaken at Stora Enso‘s pulp and paper mill in Sweden.

Watch the event in full on YouTube (in Norwegian with sign language interpretation)

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