Carbon dioxide capture technology developed by RTI International will be tested in Norway through a pilot project at a Norwegian cement plant.
RTI is partnering with Norcem, part of HeidelbergCement Group, on the $15 million project. The three-year project will be done at Norcem’s cement plant in Brevik, Norway. RTI, which is contributing about $2 million toward the total project, is still developing the sorbent-based carbon dioxide capture technology.
The RTI carbon capture technology is currently being developed for coal-fired power plants. The pilot project with Norcem will incorporate it into a cement plant. The technology will first be tested at RTI’s Energy Technology Development Facility on RTI’s Research Triangle Park campus. Cement plants are large producers of carbon dioxide emissions. RTI says that if the project is successful, the technology could offer the cement industry a viable option for mitigating carbon dioxide.
The RTI technology has been in development for nearly a decade. The research, intended for applications in coal-fired power plants, has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The technology is being developed in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University as well as a cooperative agreement with the DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. Masdar, a United Arab Emirates-based renewable energy company interested in the technology’s potential application for natural gas-fired power plants, has also contributed funding.
“We are excited to see industry interest in our technologies at a global level,” Markus Lesemann, director for business development at RTI, said in a statement, “Together with our ongoing efforts and collaborations focusing in coal and natural gas power plants, this collaboration with Norcem will result in a comprehensive assessment of RTI’s CO2 capture technology across industry sectors.”
