24 November 2022

Equinor and Breeze Ship Design continue their efforts to build CO2 transport and storage infrastructure

Efforts to build the infrastructure for CO2 transport and storage are continuing with Equinor and Norwegian design firm Breeze Ship Design, who are launching a collaboration to develop a CO2 carrier with direct offshore injection capabilities. Other efforts so far have focused on CO2 capture and transport moving the material for storage to a processing plant as opposed to direct injection. “Equinor believes that the direct injection concept is an interesting way to implement ship-based transport and injection solutions for CO2. We need to make sure the technical risks are reduced to an acceptable level and that the business case is sound,” said Elisabeth Birkeland, VP for carbon capture and storage solutions at Equinor. Equinor and Breeze envision a vessel that will operate in Northern Europe and Scandinavia transporting CO2 to discharge locations in the North Sea. Propulsion for the vessel will be based on ammonia dual fuel to provide green operations.

Maritime Executive

Innovative solution reduces InfinityWEC's power production costs

Ocean Harvesting's InfinityWEC wave power plant has been upgraded with an innovative solution. The solution uses hydrostatic pressure to provide a constant power output/PTO bias, thereby reducing size, weight, complexity and ultimately the cost of electricity production (LCoE). This results in a 30% increase in annual energy production compared to power control adapted to sea conditions. Ocean Harvesting is preparing a 1:3 scale sea trial of InfinityWEC off the west coast of Sweden. The sea trial project will take place between February 2023 and June 2025 to verify performance in a real marine environment. The results will be used to further develop and improve the full-scale system in terms of energy production, efficiency, availability and ultimately profitability. On 14 November, Ocean Harvesting received a EUR 2 million grant from the Swedish Energy Agency for the project. To complete the project financing, the company is now making a new issue of EUR 3 million at a company valuation of EUR 7 million. 

Press Release 

Green NortH2 Energy receives €2.3 million R&D loan from Business Finland to develop green hydrogen and ammonia production

Elomatic Oy's project development company, Green NortH2 Energy, is developing a scalable production concept for the production of green hydrogen and ammonia. To facilitate this, Business Finland has provided the company with EUR 2.3 million in research and development funding. The company has signed an intent agreement with Turun Seudun Energiantuotanto Oy as well as with Wärtsilä and Meriaura. The aim of Green NortH2 Energy is to establish the first production plant in Naataliin that focuses on green ammonia.

Press Release

Spinnova receives award from Times Magazine

Times Magazine has named the start-up Spinnova’s textile fibre as the best sustainable fashion innovation of 2022. The fibre uses 99% less water than cotton to produce and contains no harmful chemicals. It is already used by major fashion brands such as Adidas and Marimekko.

Goodnewsfinland

Finnish scientists use microbes to break down faulty plastics

Scientists at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have made progress in their research into the use of microorganisms to break down plastic waste into biodegradable materials. Although the research has succeeded in identifying enzymes capable of breaking down plastics, the decomposition process is still slow due to the inherent properties of the plastic and the additives used to improve it. VTT is therefore investigating various pre-treatment methods to enhance the enzymes' ability to digest plastics. For example, oxidation could improve the mixing of plastics in water and make the process faster, and VTT scientist Kari Koivuranta says we could be using oil-based materials to make biodegradable and biocompatible materials in just five to ten years.

Goodnewsfinland

What we're reading

• EU gas price cap would deliver $33bn blow to market, says ICE (Financial Times)
• Uniper reveals near-doubling of bailout cost to €51bn (Financial Times)
• Cemex announces raft of carbon capture projects (Global Cement)
• Downsize your wardrobe: (Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable)

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