Educational day for the Crown Prince at TCM

HRH Crown Prince Haakon today visi6 March 2024 visited Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), the world’s largest and most flexible centre for testing and verifying CO₂ capture technologies. Accompanying him on the visit is Sharon Hudson-Dean, U.S. Chargée D’Affaires a.i. in Norway.

The Crown Prince Regent was welcomed by more than a hundred enthusiastic children from kindergartens and schools in Alver and Austrheim and was then given a detailed introduction to the work being done to develop technologies and projects for carbon capture and storage (CCS). Crown Prince Haakon was then given a tour of the plant and shown how CO₂ capture technologies are tested in practice. The four-hour visit concluded with lunch.

Focus on the green shift

Crown Prince Haakon is interested in business development and innovation, with a particular focus on environmental issues and the green shift. He believes that technical innovation has an environmental aspect and can contribute to solving the world’s challenges.

At Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) today, he was told about the testing of CO₂ capture technologies and what this means for the development and construction of full-scale carbon capture and storage facilities. TCM’s CEO, Muhammad Ismail Shah, explained that since its opening in 2012, the company has conducted more than 20 test campaigns, mostly for commercial technology providers, but also open, research-based campaigns, which have provided the CCS industry with valuable knowledge about the characteristics of different technologies. The Crown Prince was also briefed on the efforts of TCM’s industrial owners – Equinor, Shell og TotalEnergies – in reducing their carbon footprint and their significant role in TCM.

Longships underway next year

Aker Carbon Capture reported on its involvement in large-scale carbon capture projects. These include the capture plant at Heidelberg Cement’s Brevik plant, which will be operational in 2025 and where the technology has been tested at TCM. The planned capture of 400,000 tons of CO₂ per year will be transported to Northern Lights’ receiving facility in Øygarden. From there, it will be transported through pipes under the seabed in the North Sea. This project, which is part of the Norwegian Longship initiative, was also presented to the Crown Prince. Finally, Equinor’s plans to decarbonise the Mongstad oil refinery were presented.

Prepared for an official visit to the USA

The Crown Prince Regent has also recently visited the Bergen Offshore Wind Research Centre at the University of Bergen and attended a seminar for offshore wind industry players. Next month, he will embark on an official visit to the West Coast of the USA to promote business cooperation in green transition and digitalization initiatives.