Preem lets contract for Lysekil refinery

March 4, 2019
Swedish refiner Preem AB, a wholly owned subsidiary of Corral Petroleum Holdings AB, Stockholm, has let a contract to Aker Solutions ASA to perform tests and studies of carbon-capture technology at its 228,900-b/d refinery at Lysekil, on the west coast of Sweden.

Swedish refiner Preem AB, a wholly owned subsidiary of Corral Petroleum Holdings AB, Stockholm, has let a contract to Aker Solutions ASA to perform tests and studies of carbon-capture technology at its 228,900-b/d refinery at Lysekil, on the west coast of Sweden.

Aker Solutions will conduct a feasibility study of the technological and economic impact of implementing carbon capture of major emission sources the refinery, which is Scandinavia’s largest, the service provider said.

The scope of work also includes pilot testing of carbon capture from the refinery’s flue gas in industrial conditions.

Aker Solutions’ mobile test unit—a complete, small-scale carbon capture plant—will be engaged in a 9-month test campaign at the refinery, the purpose of which is to learn more about the carbon capture process performance on refinery gas.

Parameters such as solvent degradation rate, energy efficiency, and percentage of carbon dioxide captured will provide important information for possible later design and implementation of a large-scale capture plant, Aker Solutions said.

The feasibility study also will include design of a full-scale carbon capture plant for the refinery’s hydrogen production unit.

The project comes as part of Preem’s next steps in the transition to sustainable operations, as the Lysekil refinery is one of the largest emitters of CO2 in Sweden and a potential candidate for carbon capture and permanent storage of CO2, Aker Solutions said.

The service provider revealed neither a value of the contract nor a specific timeframe for when the carbon capture, utilization, and storage demonstration project will begin.

Preem said in a Nov. 5, 2018, news release that it aims to build a full-scale carbon capture plant at the Lysekil refinery to reduce CO2 emissions by one-third by 2025 following the demonstration project, which is scheduled to run from 2019 to 2021.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].