Hafslund Celsio Leads World’s First Carbon Capture Retrofit

Hafslund Celsio, Norway's leading energy supplier, will become the first to implement the world's first-ever carbon removal retrofit at a waste-to-energy plant in Oslo. The pioneering move has the potential to transform carbon removal activities in Europe, showing a cost-efficient and scalable way to lower emissions while making full use of existing infrastructure.

The facility, which processes approximately 350,000 metric tons of sorted residual waste annually, plays a crucial role in converting waste into heat and electricity for Oslo’s residents. With the planned retrofit, it will be equipped to capture up to 350,000 tons of CO₂ per year. This captured carbon will be permanently stored at the Northern Lights facility, a large-scale carbon storage site. The emissions that are being trapped are divided equally between biogenic CO₂, which comes from organic waste, and fossil CO₂, which comes from non-renewable substances.

The need for carbon removal has grown more apparent as worldwide efforts to achieve climate goals escalate. Retrofitting current waste-to-energy facilities with carbon capture technology might be a game-changer, with research showing that such a strategy could eliminate up to 400 million tons of CO₂ per year by 2050. This would be a huge addition to global decarbonization efforts, especially in Europe, where there are hundreds of waste-to-energy plants in operation.

Frontier, a carbon removal project funded by large corporate buyers such as Stripe, Google, Shopify, and JPMorgan Chase, has provided major support to the project. Frontier has secured an offtake deal valued at $31.6 million for the removal of 100,000 tons of CO₂ in the period from 2029 to 2030. This investment reflects serious private sector participation in scalable carbon removal solutions and a trend of setting precedent for other projects in the industry.

Hannah Bebbington, Frontier's Head of Deployment, stressed retrofitting waste-to-energy plants with carbon capture technology. She has referred to the solution as a "no-brainer solution" for treating pre-sorted, residual waste, underlining how it allows for the production of carbon-free energy while, at the same time, taking CO₂ out of the air. Bebbington further noted that Hafslund Celsio’s initiative could serve as a blueprint for the approximately 500 waste-to-energy facilities across Europe, potentially enabling the removal of tens of millions of tons of CO₂.

Jannicke Gerner Bjerkås, Director of CCS and Carbon Markets at Hafslund Celsio, expressed pride in leading the way with this innovative project. She noted that Frontier customer support not only enables the launch of the initiative but also proves a model that can be scaled up. By proving the feasibility of carbon capture retrofits on waste-to-energy plants, Hafslund Celsio is working towards creating a greener future for waste management in Europe.

The waste legislation of the European Union already prefers waste-to-energy plants over landfills because of their reduced environmental footprint. Such regulation places carbon capture retrofits in a vital position as part of Europe's decarbonization effort. Waste-to-energy facilities offer a safe disposal method for non-recyclable waste, in addition to the production of electricity and heat, and therefore fit well as part of the circular economy.

Norway's Energy Minister, Terje Aasland, welcomed the project, citing how the voluntary carbon removal market is starting to tackle hard-to-abate sectors such as waste incineration. He emphasized that this public-private collaboration is key to creating an effective carbon removal market that can drive the development of additional projects at national and global levels.

The project comes at a time when the waste-to-energy industry is becoming more concerned with sustainability. Other European energy utilities are also acting to cut emissions from waste treatment. For instance, Italian utility A2A recently announced a $120 million investment to improve the sustainability of its waste-to-energy facilities. The increased interest in carbon capture retrofits is part of a larger trend towards seeking effective means of cutting emissions from existing assets instead of waiting for new projects.

Hafslund Celsio's ground-breaking project highlights the value of forward-thinking climate solutions in addressing global emissions. Blending waste management and carbon capture, the project is a landmark achievement in both environmental responsibility and energy efficiency. If emulated on a large scale, the model has the potential to be instrumental in meeting global climate targets while ensuring that vital waste management services remain operational.

By having the backing of corporate buyers and regulatory systems that accommodate sustainable waste solutions, Hafslund Celsio's carbon capture retrofitting has the potential to set the standard for the future of waste-to-energy plants globally. With more governments and corporations investing in the same, the globe might be closer to mass-scale carbon removal, which would eventually lead to a low-carbon and more sustainable future.