A project conducted by ION Engineering, and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), has successfully concluded a 6‑month testing campaign at the Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) in western Norway, the world’s largest facility for testing and improving carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture. The testing of ION’s novel carbon-capture system successfully achieved all research objectives and represents significant progress toward its commercialization.

ION began evaluating its proprietary Advanced Liquid Absorbent System in October 2016. Testing focused on refinement and validation of its CO₂ absorption system using industrial flue gas to simulate coal-fired power generation conditions. Compared to conventional liquid CO₂ absorption technologies, ION’s novel system provides a more energy-efficient process with high CO₂ capture capacity and reduced water usage.

ION’s system successfully captured more than 90 percent of CO₂ from the flue gas during steady-state testing with CO₂ product purity greater than 99 percent. Approximately 14,000 tonnes of CO₂ were captured during testing—the equivalent of removing nearly 3,000 vehicles from the road per year. The solvent system was first successfully tested at small pilot scale (1 MWe) at the DOE-funded National Carbon Capture Center in Alabama, and the TCM project scaled up this effort to 12 MWe.

DOE and the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy have a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding covering fossil energy–related research to leverage each country’s investments in carbon capture, utilization, and storage. The ION project is the first from DOE’s Carbon Capture program to conduct testing at an international host site.

This project is supported by significant contributions from DOE and TCM, and other project partners: SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, the Nebraska Public Power District, Sulzer Chemtech USA, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the University of Alabama, Optimized Gas Treating, and ION Engineering.