Fortum, TVO, Maersk to develop joint carbon emissions abatement project

Offshore staff

HELSINKI -- Finnish utilities Fortum and Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) have entered into an agreement with Maersk Oil and Maersk Tankers to develop a joint carbon emissions abatement project in the area of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

The partners hope to combine carbon capture at the Meri-Pori power plant with CO2 transportation by Maersk Tankers’ vessels and geological storage. Maersk Oil will investigate the possibility of providing final CO2 storage in the depleting oil and gas fields of the Danish North Sea, as well as the potential use of CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). The aim is to capture, transport, and store in excess of 1.2 million tons of CO2 per year. Fortum and TVO have previously selected Siemens Energy as the CO2-capture technology partner for the project.

The coal-fired power plant is in Pori on the west coast of Finland and has an installed capacity of 565 MW. The CCS demonstration is planned to process approximately 50% of the plant’s flue gas and to capture 90% of the CO2 it contains with Siemens’ proprietary post-combustion capture technology. It will reduce CO2 emissions in excess of 1.2 million tons annually, the company says.

Maersk Tankers already has the blueprints to build tanker vessels for the transport of CO2 from emission sources to storage sites. The vessels will be semi-pressurized and semi-refrigerated, keeping the CO2 liquid.

12/15/2009