Credit: Caroline Brundle Bugge/iStock
15.03.2023
The capture operators Heidelberg Materials (formerly Heidelberg Materials) and Hafslund Oslo Celsio in the Longship project have tested their capture technologies on their own flue gas. Both note that this has been important to ensure that the amine emissions will not exceed certain levels and the degradation products will be below the limit set by the authorities.
An amine-based CO2 capture facility will produce small amounts of amine emissions to air. Amines can react with other substances in the atmosphere to form nitrosamines and nitramines. Some nitrosamines and nitramines have shown carcinogenic effects in animal experiments. Any spread in the environment is therefore not acceptable and should be limited. The Institute of Public Health has given recommendations for how much nitrosamine and nitramine can be allowed in air and drinking water. This has given the Norwegian environmental authorities a method for setting emission limits for CO2 capture facilities.
An advanced model is used to calculate what a given amount of amine in the discharge results in emissions in the form of nitre and nitrosamines. This model uses advanced atmospheric chemistry, dispersion patterns and historical meteorological data to, among other things, calculate the amount of nitre and nitrosamines in the nearest drinking water source. Safety factors have been added and then the emission limit of amine has been set. The emission limit is related to how much flue gas is produced. For each of the capture facilities at Klemetsrud and in Brevik, an emission permit has been granted for 1 mg amine/Nm3 flue gas.
The selected CO2 capture technologies at the two capture facilities have provided documentation of specific performance related to CO2 capture, breakdown of amines and possible emissions of amines to air from previous test sites. Documentation on these parameters for specific flue gases from a cement plant and a waste incineration plant is available.
Both capture sites ran a pilot test campaign on the chosen technology on site. The pilot tests documented that the technology was suitable for the purpose and would meet the strict emission requirements when exposed to the specific flue gas.
Both Heidelberg Materials and Hafslund Oslo Celsio noted that this has been important to ensure that the amine emissions will not exceed certain levels and that the degradation products will be below the limit set by the authorities.
See related articles on the Norwegian Environment Agency’s website, which also contains the decisions made for Heidelberg Materials Brevik and Hafslund Oslo Celsio (“Decision on permit for polluting activities” – in Norwegian):
• CO2-fangst reduserer Oslos utslipp
• Karbonfangst vil halvere utslippene fra Heidelberg Materials Brevik
This article was written based on the report «Regulatory lessons learned from Longship», which is based on the experiences gained from the Longship project.
Longship will provide learning related to the regulation and incentivization of CO2 management activities that others can benefit from. As Langskip is the first entire CCS chain to be regulated in Norway, the interface between regulatory authorities had to be clarified. How dangerous are CO2 emissions? One of the main risk areas for the CCS …
The report “Regulatory lessons learned from Longship” is written by Gassnova. In this report the regulatory issues and challenges facing Longship and how these are resolved are discussed in light of the state’s different roles. – We are very pleased that we now can share this report which we believe will be useful for everyone …
