Shah was invited to present innovation in carbon capture and storage (CCS) during the Net Zero Markets session. He used the opprtunity both to inform about the signficance of ten years of testing and verification at Mongstad, and about the status of realizing full-scale capture and storage both in Norway and internationally.

Shah began by telling about the background to why he, as an immmigrant from Pakistan, now is the leader of the world’s largest and most flexible centre for testing and verifying technologies for capturing CO₂. After taking a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in Peshawar, he traveled to Denmark where he took a master’s degree in oil and gas engineering at the University of Aalborg in 2008. Already as a student he became interested in climate technology and got his first job in the Norwegian company Xynergo, which belongs to Norske Skog. There he worked on projects for converting biomass into fuel. In 2011, the road went to Gassnova, which is the main owner of TCM, as an adviser in the technology area. In 2016, Shah was offered a job at TCM, and moved west with his family. Before he took over as Managing Director in January this year, he was TCM’s Technology Manager for two years.

17 test campaigns since inception

– At TCM, since opening in 2012, we have carried out 17 test campaigns for technology companies and research-related institutions, Shah said. Aker built the amine plant and was the first company to test its technology at the plant in 2013. There was then great uncertainty as to whether the tecnology worked as expected. However, this was tested and documented.

– The fact that Aker, in competition with several other companies, has been chosen as the technology supplier for the capture of CO₂ at Heidelberg Materials’s cement factory in Brevik is not only a feather in the cap for Aker, but also for TCM. At this facility, from 2024 onwards, 400,000 tonnes of CO₂ will be captured annually, and thereafter be transported to Northern Lights’ reception facility in Øygarden and stored in a reservoir under the seabed in the North Sea.

Testing at TCM important for Longship

This project is part of Longship – which is the largest industrial venture in Norway in recent times, financed by the Norwegian state and industrial players. Longship also includes capture of CO₂ in connection with Celsio at Klemetsrud, Oslo. In this project, which will start in 2026, capture technology developed by Shell Cansolv will be used.

– Shell Cansolv tested the technology in two rounds with us at Mongstad in 2014 – 2016. In other words, test programs at TCM have been of vital importance for the development of the Norwegian flagship for capturing and storing CO₂, Shah emphasized.

The TCM Manager also mentioned that the Norwegian investment in building a CCS industry is making its mark internationally, exemplified by, among other things, the fact that Aker is now building a compact capture plant in the Netherlands with the capacity to capture 100,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually. – The exciting thing about this project is that the catch will be used in production in local green houses, to replace fossil CO₂. The realization of a project that uses CO₂ capture in this way is both innovative and important.

Muhammad Ismail Shah made no secret of the fact that the construction of the test centre at Mongstad was expensive, but he is convinced that both Norway and the CCS industry internationally have received  value for the money. – TCM has been a gift to the world, he maintained – and justified the claim by, among other thngs, referring to the good cooperation TCM has with authorities, research institutions and technology suppliers in the USA.

Close cooperation with the USA

– One of the first to visit Mongstad during the construction of TCM was the then energy minister Steven Chu. Already in 2009, a bilateral agreement (MoU) was concluded between Norway and the USA, where carbon capture and storage was highlighted as an area for joint efforts and cooperation. Since then, a number of American companies have come to Mongstad to test their technologies, and have benefited from the expertise we have made available.

In addition to two facilities for testing conventional capture technologies, TCM has also established a separate area for testing new and less mature technologies. Shah pointed out that two American companies, TDA Research and Membrane Technology Research, have already carried out successful test campaigns, and that more want to do the same. In June, a large delegaton from the USA visited Mongstad to summarize experiences and discuss further cooperation.

The costs of capturing CO₂ must be lower

The TCM Manager concluded his lecture by emphasizing that testing of capture technologies at Mongstad has been crucial in bringing forward technologies that can contribute to a reduction in climate emissions. – But neither we nor the growing CCS industry are on target. Our common challenge and task is to further reduce the costs of capturing CO₂. We can achieve this together with the industry through continous investment in innovation, development and verification of various technologies.