Our plant in Sauda had the pleasure of welcoming Anita Fossdal and Ståle Kvernrød from Enova. We showcased how the financial support allocated in 2022 has been utilized.
Eramet Norway has, on several occasions, applied for and received project support from Enova to develop and implement many projects at our smelting plants. Among the major initiatives they have been involved in are the project for partial replacement of fossil coke with biocarbon as a reducing agent in our smelting processes, the shore power facilities installed at all three of our plants, as well as the energy recovery unit (ERU) in Sauda, and now the latest pilot plant for carbon capture (CCS), also in Sauda.
Anita and Ståle visited the plant on Tuesday, February 24, to get an update on the status of the ERU and CCS pilot plant. Enova decided in 2022 to support the projects with over NOK 130 million.
‘We greatly appreciated Enova taking the trip to Sauda to see our new facilities! It was a big milestone for us to get both of these facilities operational by 2025,’ says Camille Fleuriault, project manager for CCS.
In addition to Camille, plant director Rune Dolmen and technical director Egil Aarebrot from Eramet Norway Sauda participated. Sauda Energi provided an overview of their work to utilize surplus energy in the best possible way for the local community.
‘It’s good to see that the funds we decided to allocate to your projects are being well used, and it’s great that both the ERU and CCS pilot are up and running. Additionally, it’s valuable for us to gain insight into your situation, both in terms of market conditions and operations, as well as the challenges you are working on to develop economically viable energy and climate projects,’ says Ståle.
Large investments
Enova works to contribute to accelerating the development and dissemination of climate and energy solutions that particularly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, Enova works to contribute to an efficient energy system and strengthen the power and energy balance through increased innovation that enables an effective climate and energy transition in line with the low-emission society.
During the visit, we also took the opportunity to present the progress of the projects we are working on to meet future challenges.
Carbon capture projects require large investments and are highly complex. Eramet Norway is still far from being able to justify these projects economically, so it is very important that the support system understands the scope of the projects and is able to adapt its support programs.
‘We will continue to work to create as much benefit as possible, both in terms of energy recovery and utilization and knowledge about carbon capture that can contribute to developing a cost-effective full-scale solution. We are also pleased that Enova is committed to developing new support programs that give us hope of realizing the major projects we believe are necessary to secure our long-term position as a leading producer of refined manganese alloys for the global steel industry,’ says Camille.