Italian contracting giant Saipem (BIT: SPM) and Stockholm Exergi have signed a letter of intent for a large-scale CO2 capture plant to be installed in the Swedish capital.
Located at Stockholm Exergi’s existing bio-cogeneration facility, the CCS project will be able to bag 800,000 tonnes of emissions a year from the biomass-fuelled Vartaverket power station.
Thus it will enable a net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, otherwise known as “negative emissions”.
Saipem’s scope of work covers the engineering, procurement and construction activities for the carbon capture unit, the CO2 storage as well as the ship loading systems for transportation.
In the meantime, the pact between the two groups allows the start of limited, engineering-related activities, while finalising the main terms of the EPC Contract, expected to be signed in Q3 2023.
Fabrizio Botta, chief commercial officer at Saipem, said: “We are pleased to be selected for this large-scale carbon capture project in Stockholm, and fully committed to support our client sustainability goals.
“This project will enable Saipem to further consolidate its position in the decarbonization sector and expand its portfolio in the CCS segment, providing a fundamental contribution to the energy transition of Sweden and Europe.”
Stockholm Exergi, the Swedish capital’s energy company, has already secured financial support for the CCS project from European Innovation Fund.
Once complete it will be one of Europe’s first large-scale plants to generate “negative emissions”, leading to the issuing of Carbon Removal Certificates which can then be traded on the market.
Per Ytterberg, Director of business development at Stockholm Exergi and Head of its BECCS business project, said: “The cooperation between us and Saipem is an important step towards the development of our large-scale plant for the separation and permanent storage of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS).
“Stockholm Exergi is at the forefront of establishing BECCS and the goal is to construct one of Europe’s first and largest value chain for bio-energy carbon capture and storage.”
