With this plant, SINTEF Process Technology Centre is provided with a unique arena for testing and developing technologies that benefits both industry and the climate, more specifically the conversion of captured CO2 into new products, also known as Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU).
The idea behind the new demonstration facility emerged from the EU-funded European Green Deal project PYROCO2 and the need for validating its technology on a larger scale. The PYROCO2 project aims to convert CO2 and green hydrogen into the industrial chemical acetone and subsequently into a range of other valuable products.
PYROCO2 is an example of the growing demand for research-based pilot activities at Tiller. For more than 40 years, SINTEF at Tiller has played a key role in piloting and scaling up of industrial processes. Here industry gains access to unique infrastructure and multidisciplinary expertise for development and testing, under safe HSE conditions, before solutions are commercialized.
With the new pilot plant, SINTEF will be even better equipped to meet the demand for testing and validation of new green and circular solutions.
“When developing and testing technologies, strong research support is crucial. The location at Tiller, close to research environments at SINTEF and NTNU, provides clear advantages. It allows technologies to mature before industrial deployment,” says Vice President Research, Duncan Akporiaye.
Innovative solutions for Carbon Capture and Utilization
For decades, SINTEF has worked closely with industry to develop solutions for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), building extensive expertise and infrastructure to demonstrate technologies across the entire CCUS value chain.
“There is no doubt that carbon capture and storage is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, to move toward a more circular and sustainable industry, we must increasingly adopt solutions that utilize captured CO₂ as a resource,” says Akporiaye.
New methods for capture, use, and storage of carbon from carbon-intensive industries can both reduce emissions and make use of part of the carbon released.
“Through biotechnological processes, captured carbon can be converted into new products, and many industries are already leveraging biotechnology to move away from processes based on fossil carbon,” he adds.
Interest in alternative, sustainable feedstocks such as biomass and CO2 is growing. However, adopting these raw materials requires green value chains, innovative technologies, and new processes. SINTEF has long focused on such bioprocesses, and advanced industrial biotechnology is already gaining ground in Norway.
The new pilot facility will provide further opportunities to demonstrate gas fermentation for producing new chemical, plastic and fuel products – a potential game changer for high-emission industries.
“By converting CO2 into valuable products, industry can meet increasingly strict climate requirements while maintaining competitiveness and contributing to a sustainable circular bioeconomy,” says Chief Scientist Alexander Wentzel.
Up to 300 tonnes of acetone per year
PYROCO2 is currently the only technology platform of its kind using gas fermentation to produce acetone from CO2. The new Tiller facility will have the capacity to produce up to 300 tonnes of acetone annually from 700 tonnes of industrial CO2 and renewable hydrogen. It will also generate important research data for further scaling of the technology, for example at Herøya Industrial Park and other industrial clusters in Europe. The goal is to enable reductions of up to 17 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents by 2050.
Running a CO2-based gas fermentation processes at this scale also requires a large electrolyser. The US company Power to Hydrogen (P2H2) will supply an electrolysis system for the new facility. Using only renewable power, it will split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen and the captured CO2 will be converted to acetone by the bacteria in the bioreactors. Delivery of the system is planned for the fourth quarter of 2026.
“The electrolysis system is designed to operate on renewable electricity, making it completely emission-free. It is also built for rapid adaptation to variable renewable power, fluctuating hydrogen demand, and long operational life - making it well suited for projects like PYROCO2,” says Duncan Akporiaye.
