– TCM has taken the industrial lead

This says Matthew Campbell from Canada, whom has been working for TCM for four years and now helds the position as our Technology Manager.

– What was the background for your interest in CO₂ capture? 

 – When I was in university studying chemical engineering, it was always important for me to find a way to help the environment and give back to society. Fortunately, my first job out of university was in the field of sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide removal and these propelled me into the CO₂ capture industry at a fairly young age. It’s quite nice to see now that the CCUS industry is picking up momentum and I am hopeful that many full-scale projects are realized.

 – How was your first meeting with TCM?  

– My first meeting with TCM was many years ago, around 2014. At this point I was representing a company which was trying to test and develop a commercial CO₂ capture technology. My first impression of TCM was excellent, during this meeting I was very clear of the needs for testing and the TCM experts from different parts of the organization provided very relevant feedback, that made me feel confident that testing would be a success.

  – How would you describe your job as Technology Manager?  

– Now I would say the Technology Manager role is a quite a broad role covering wide areas of importance for TCM. Firstly, to ensure that test campaigns have proper time for planning, preperation and excectuion phase to ensure each test is a success. Secondly, to support knowledge transfer of all our learnings from 11 years of operation, this is done through publications, conferences and our recently developed Advisory Services group. 

 – What will you highlight as the most rewarding and interesting work you have taken part in at TCM? 

– It is hard for me to differentiate the most rewarding work I have participated at TCM as there are so many fruitful activities. I would say I find it very exciting to have the opportunity to facilitate open-source testing campaigns that allow for publications and knowledge sharing, which will help the greater CCUS industry. Of course it is also quite rewarding to support proprietary technology vendors test and surpass some final hurdles needed before technology commercialization. 

– What would you say has been particulary demanding in the work with capturing CO₂? 

 – In general for amine based post combustion CO₂ capture, all technologies and future commercial scale projects can have challenges related to amine emissions, amine degradation, CO₂ capture efficiency and energy demand requirements. Over the years at TCM strong focus has been put on these area and to ensure best possible de-risking can be put in place to allow large scale commercial projects to be successful.

 – In general, looking back since the start in 2012, what do people that worked at TCM, or are still working there, have reason to be proud of? 

 – I think TCM has taken the industrial lead in demonstrating CO₂ capture technologies at scale (~12 MW). TCM has taken initiative to take the lead in solving major technology challenges that are applicable to the whole industry. Some examples are:

1. Work performed in establishing an emission permit process
2. Efforts to find a solution for capturing CO₂ from RFCC flue gas with high concentrations of aerosols
3. Performing testing that mimics dispatchable operation for CCGT (combined-cycle gas turbine) power plants with a CO₂ capture plant.

– In regards to CCS, capturing CO₂ is considered the most technically complicated and demanding part of the process. In Norway, two capture facilities are now being built, one in Brevik and one at Klemetsrud in Oslo. Have you thought about how TCM can help these projects succeed? 

 – TCM does have dialogue with both projects to support as needed along the respective project development timelines. I think a lot of the learnings from the 11 years of operation have already been taken into consideration by these projects. Also, our experience related to emission monitoring and permitting will be extremely valuable for both projects moving forward. Lastly, I believe as these plants begin to approach start-up some evaluation and tests at TCM can be deemed quite valuable for troubleshooting unexpected issues at these plants.

 – TCM have solved several challenges related to amine technology by MEA campaigns, for example amine aerosol emissions, continuous measurements of amine to air, etc. What other technical topics do you think are still lacking testing and good solutions, and how can TCM play an important role in this? 

 – I believe there will always be advancements to CO₂ capture technologies, either to resolve new issues or further develop more optimized solutions for existing issues. A good example is that many projects will be looking for advanced instruments and analyzers, which can be used to improve the efficiency for the capture plant operation. I think TCM would be the best place to evaluate these instruments before considering full scale deployment. Additional work can also be planned to help optimize a newer open-source solvent called CESAR1. Currently, the plan is to test a modified composition of CESAR1 in the amine plant in 2025 to see if the technology can be improved further as compared to MEA. I would also think that more dispatchable and transient capture plant testing would provide very valuable insights for the industry.

 – What is your wish for TCM in the years to come? 

 – My wish would be for a sustainable future for TCM, where we first continue to support the first phase of commercial projects for amine-based CO₂ capture, while in parallel putting more and more resources for developing our site for emerging technologies. This can allow us to quickly test new technologies and assess if any can be potential gamechangers to reduce the cost of CO₂ capture. I believe moving forward we will need a distribution of capture technologies that can help meet the worldwide demand for CCUS projects.