BECCS Kirkenær

Carbon Centric is a Norwegian CCUS developer originating from the renewable energy sector. The company is building a portfolio of carbon capture projects across the Nordic region, developing projects in partnership with existing emitters. Our main shareholders are the municipally owned renewable power companies Østfold Energi and Vardar, together with the investment management firm Obligo.

The BECCS Kirkenær project represents Carbon Centric’s first project dedicated to permanent geological carbon removal. The carbon capture facility will be integrated with Solør Bioenergi’s existing combined heat and power (CHP) plant, located approximately 130 km north of Oslo. The plant operates under a permit to incinerate treated wood waste and supplies district heating to municipal buildings, commercial customers and local industry. The feedstock primarily consists of end-of-life wood materials, such as demolition wood and treated railway sleepers.

Carbon Centric’s carbon capture plant will treat flue gas from the site’s largest boiler, capturing approximately 32,000 tonnes of biogenic CO₂ per year. The CO₂ will be processed using amine technology and conditioned to meet required purity specifications. It will then be prepared for transport and delivered to a licensed storage operator for permanent geological storage. Once stored, the CO₂ will remain isolated from the atmosphere over millennia. The project will generate durable carbon removals supported by robust monitoring and data management systems designed to ensure transparency and verifiability.

By assuming technological and financial risks and providing essential resources, Carbon Centric enables the implementation of carbon capture while allowing the incinerator to focus on its core business. BECCS Kirkenær demonstrates how modular carbon capture can be deployed efficiently at an existing bioenergy facility under a “build, own and operate” model.

The implementation of a carbon capture plant supports the development of critical technology for a net-zero pathway, and thus contributes to decarbonization and long-term climate mitigation. Carbon Centric’s carbon capture process enhances the environmental benefits of an already socially valuable facility that handles biowaste and supplies district heating (Solør Bioenergi CHP plant). We adhere to the Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle and ensure that our activities result in a net positive impact.

The BECCS project may help secure the emitter's long-term operations by enabling them to continue delivering their services with a reduced climate footprint. The Solør facility performs an essential societal role by managing wood waste. By integrating Carbon Centric’s carbon-capture plant, the overall operation becomes more sustainable by preventing the release of CO₂ to the atmosphere, and instead creating permanent removals. By increasing the sustainability of Solør operations, implementation of carbon capture may enhance job security for existing workers at the Solør plant. In addition, the capture project will increase the demand for labour, particularly during the construction phase.

Furthermore, a carbon capture plant functions as an additional flue gas treatment system. Modern carbon capture technology is highly sensitive to flue gas impurities and can degrade quickly without effective pre-treatment. While the incinerator already has a flue gas treatment system, a pre-treatment step is added to remove much of the remaining fly ash, SOₓ, and heavy metals before the CO₂ capture process begins. As a result, the solution lowers overall emissions.

Carbon capture activities enhance energy efficiency at the Solør CHP plant. Since the plant incinerates biogenic waste, we can use sustainable electricity and steam generated on-site, while also returning excess heat from our capture process back to the Solør plant. This form of heat integration prevents negative impact on heat production and delivers mutual environmental and operational benefits.