Steady progression into a busy autumn

Here follows a short status update from the world's first CCS development in the cement industry as the summer holiday approaches.

For neighbors looking into the construction area, it is perhaps a little disappointing that there are no major visible changes to be seen from week to week. Because there is no hiding the fact that, seen from the outside, there hasn't been much development on the construction site since the last update, early this spring. But this is primarily because the major construction works (demolition, foundation work, piling and concrete work) are virtually finished, and that the process plant is being built in modules elsewhere.

Full speed on deliveries

First and foremost, the major activity currently takes place in Lithuania, where the pipe arrangements are being prefabricated. This work is now progressing very well after being heavily delayed due to delayed deliveries of pipes from a supplier in the UK. As previously mentioned, there has been a challenge in the supply chain of stainless steel. But in Lithuania, production has now gained full speed, and prefabricated pipe spools are now continuously sent to Stord for painting before they are being sent to Trosvik in Brevik for assembly into modules.

The module construction at Trosvik has been delayed due to the abovementioned reasons, but is now no longer significantly hindered. Insulation and electrical assembly are also now ongoing on these modules at Trosvik.

Construction work in the harbour area

Furthermore, when it comes to construction work on the construction site, the highest activity is currently taking place in Grenland Havn's area where the quay facility is being prepared for the shipment of liquid CO₂. These days work is starting to lay pipelines for CO₂ (one for liquid CO₂ from tank facilities to ships, and one return pipe for CO₂ gas), and it is also imminent to start working on establishing the jetty which will eventually be equipped with a loading arm, valve arrangements, and shore power for the ship.

And as most of us are about to start again after the holiday, the large absorber with pipe will be lifted into place. More precisely, this milestone will take place in week 33, from August 14. A giant 650-tonne crawler crane will then be rigged up for this lift, which will be very visible to all passers-by. The absorber is 50 meters high and weighs around 230 tons, and the stack on top is also another 50 meters high and will be the plant's highest point. Immediately after this, the crane will be moved to the harbor area to lift in the six tanks for liquid CO₂ located at the east end of the new limestone storage. Next, prefabricated modules will eventually be transported from Trosvik to the cement factory by barge, and lifted in with the same crane.

New employees

Otherwise, we are happy to announce that all the 15 process operators who are going to run the CCS plant, are now employed. They will be mobilized from the start of October, and will then go through extensive training and lots of simulator training before we start testing and sequential start-up around next summer. They are undoubtedly facing an exciting time towards a start-up where "the whole world" is going to follow. Planning and preparations for testing, commissioning and start-up is currently subject to increasing attention in the project.

And again, we can happily report excellent results on everything related to health, working environment, external environment, and safety. By end of June, 412.000 hours have been worked on the construction site without serious incidents. So far, we have only had one injury with absence where a person slipped on the ice and sprained his foot.

In general, we are now entering a relatively quiet period at the construction site, as most people go on a well-deserved summer holiday. But the calm summer will be followed by a very busy autumn with large and very exciting operations on site. We can’t wait.