THURSDAY 4 JUNE
CO2 projects, facilities, value chain
Moderator: Javier Alfonzo, Kent Energies
Feeding the Northern Lights Project
Speaker: Pronit Lahiri, SLB Capturi
Authors: Pronit Lahiri and Simon Crawley-Boevey, SLB Capturi
The Northern Lights CO₂ storage site is a cornerstone of Europe’s carbon management strategy, providing a dedicated offshore storage hub in the North Sea with an initial injection capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ per year, scalable to 5 million tons. CO₂ is shipped from multiple industrial facilities and injected into saline aquifers 2,600 m beneath the seabed, ensuring permanent and secure storage.
SLB Capturi is deploying Advanced Carbon Capture™ (ACC™) technology across three major European industrial sites to supply CO₂ to Northern Lights. At Heidelberg Materials’ Brevik cement plant, SLB Capturi has delivered an amine-based post-combustion carbon capture plant designed to capture 400,000 tpa of CO2 – representing one of the first full scale capture plants in a hard-to-abate sector. A similar solvent based system will operate at Hafslund Celsio’s energy from waste facility in Oslo, capturing up to 400,000 tpa of CO₂ from municipal waste incineration. Both facilities form key capture pillars within the Norwegian Longship full value chain CCS project. In Denmark, the Ørsted Kalundborg CO₂ Hub will deploy modular ACC™ units across two biomass fired plants with a combined design capacity of 500,000 tpa.
Together, these projects demonstrate a scalable, cross border CCS value chain that integrates proven chemical absorption technology with robust marine transport and offshore injection infrastructure—accelerating Europe’s path to industrial decarbonization.
Designing The Blowdown Systems in CO2 Handling Facilities to Efficiently Manage Overpressure Protection, Depressurization Requirements and Solids Formation
Speaker: Paolo Cari, Saipem SpA
Authors: Paolo Cari, Subject Matter Expert (SME) CO2 Technologies, Sustainable Natural Gas Technologies, Saipem SpA
As the global natural gas industry accelerates its efforts towards decarbonization, the requirement for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) facilities is becoming essential. Either as additional to any industrial plant or as stand-alone (i.e. hubs), the CCUS facilities are meant to provide the most effective and efficient way to collect, treat, store and utilize or dispose of the CO2-rich streams.
While designing CO2 handling facilities, the starting point is the main process facilities, which should be properly designed to efficiently and flexibly achieve the required plant performance; however, similarly to any other industrial plant, safety is of utmost importance and all relevant implications shall be carefully evaluated. With this regard, all the considerations shall eventually converge towards the proper design of the venting and blowdown systems usually associated with these process units.
During this process, several additional challenges are posed due to the peculiar nature of the fluid and to the combination of high pressure and/or low temperature conditions which are usually encountered, thus requiring the design engineers to carefully consider possible causes for overpressure and asset integrity; by assessing the credibility and likelihood of these scenarios, the venting and depressurization requirements are defined, together with the relevant design implications.
In addition, at given pressure and temperature, CO2-rich gas streams normally have a higher saturation water content than natural gas, which directly affects the hydrate formation conditions: the capacity of prediction of such conditions via reliable and accurate tools becomes key to assess, quantify and possibly mitigate the risk of solid formation (i.e. blockage). At the same time, the proximity of the critical point of the mixture to the typical operating parameters of the units may result in phase transition within the operating envelope and during transients (i.e. depressurization), affecting fluid behavior and physical properties: temperature drops upon expansion are heavily dependent on the starting point, and so the likelihood of solid CO2 (dry ice) formation in the process units.
It is therefore evident how the peculiarities of the CO2 pose additional issues, such as dry ice formation (with associated blockage risk) and relief of the process fluid to atmosphere (with possible associated contaminants which may or may not be released). These additional challenges to the process design imply that conventional venting and blowdown systems such as ignited flares are not practical or not adequate at all. Also, the capacity of prediction of such inherent phenomena is crucial to define safe operating conditions or to find mitigations, if needed.
Starting from case studies developed by SAIPEM experience gained in executing several CCUS projects as EPC Contractor, this paper presents a thorough analysis of the process design considerations in evaluating and defining the overpressure protection and depressurization requirements in CO2 handling facilities, with some specific focus on overpressure and asset integrity scenarios identification, depressurization requirements, prediction and management of solids and implications on the design of the dedicated blowdown systems.
Defining the Gold Standard for CO₂ Specification Across the CCUS Value Chain
Speaker: Stephen Florence, Wood
Authors: Stephen Stokes, Hooman Haghighi, Chris Phillips, Wood
Objectives/Scope:
The presence of impurities in captured carbon dioxide (CO2) adversely affects the material integrity, operation and injectivity in carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) chains. Therefore, impurity concentration limits are set to create safe and effective CCUS chains. A ‘CO2 specification’ represents the maximum tolerance to impurities within a CO2 stream that emitters must meet to gain entry to a common transportation and injection network.
Setting the CO2 specification requires an understanding of the impact of impurities across the entire CCUS value chain. A Joint Industry Project (JIP) was therefore formed to collate the current leading knowledge surrounding impurities and to create guidelines to support industry when setting a CO2 specification for their CCUS projects.
Methods, Procedures, Process:
The JIP brought together 12 Operators and 6 leading industry and research institutions, with additional support from multiple licensors and equipment suppliers.
The paper will introduce the suite of 12 work packages which have been created to address the full value chain, from capture of industrial sources of CO2 and transportation via different options through to geological storage. Together, the work packages constitute the gold standard in industry guidance to accelerate the development of CCUS projects.
A key outcome was the development of a holistic and logical approach that can be followed to determine the optimum CO2 specification and impurity risk management strategy for a given project. The approach accounts for impurity impacts across the CCUS chain and directs to the relevant work packages for more detail at each step.
Results, Observations, Conclusions:
A worked example of the specification approach will be provided for a CCUS hub based on agreements with four emitters to enter a common transport infrastructure. Based on the emitter classification (combustion type and fuel/gas type) an initial list of possible impurities expected is determined. The worked example will show the development of a specification accounting for reactions that may form new impurities, hub configuration, safety, technical, integrity and economic impacts.
The paper will demonstrate how a robust and implementable specification can be iterated to achieve the most cost effective and sustainable results for a given CCUS chain. A key benefit of the approach is to avoid an overly restrictive specification that would potentially dissuade CO2 sources (emitters) connecting to the network.
Novel / Additive Information:
Collaboration is key to maturing the CCUS industry. These JIP guidelines have therefore been made publicly and freely available to support the growth of the CCUS industry by providing an understanding of the required CO2 conditioning to meet safety, environmental, technical and operational requirements of the entire chain.
Hydrogen & AI
Moderator: TBC
Dynamic Modelling of Hydrogen Value Chains: The Role of Flexibility
Speakers: Ricky Agus Supriyadi and Chris Burden, Equinor
Authors: Ricky Agus Supriyadi, David Grainger and Chris Burden, Equinor
Hydrogen value chains, consisting of production units (blue and green), pipelines, storage, and off-takers, are expected to play a critical role in the decarbonization of certain hard-to-abate industries. Yet intermittent hydrogen production, material limitations on pipeline operational regimes, lack of storage, and demand matching remain well-known challenges in these value chains. Our findings confirm that line pack and storage are essential for system balancing, meeting off-taker demand, and avoiding excess hydrogen production. Linepack, whilst limited in availability, can be utilised as a short-term storage, almost instantly available buffer to provide high-flex offtakers with the flexibility they need, even when blue hydrogen plants have slower ramp rates. Through rigorous system analysis and dynamic modelling, we demonstrate how flexibility, storage, and line pack can make hydrogen value chains feasible and resilient with proper design.
Safe Design and Optimization of Hydrogen Liquefaction Systems: The Critical Role of Accurate Thermodynamic Modelling
Speaker: Athar Hussain, Siemens
Hydrogen liquefaction is essential for efficient storage and transportation, offering high energy density that benefits sectors such as automotive, aerospace, and aeronautics. As industries transition from petroleum-based fuels to sustainable alternatives, liquid hydrogen emerges as a strong candidate due to its thermodynamic advantages.
Digital tools like process modeling and simulation play a critical role in designing and optimizing liquefaction systems, requiring accurate thermodynamic models. Hydrogen exists as two spin isomers—orthohydrogen and parahydrogen—with distinct thermal properties. Orthohydrogen has a higher energy state, releasing heat during conversion to parahydrogen. In liquid hydrogen, this exothermic process can cause evaporation losses, impacting storage and transport. Maintaining a high parahydrogen concentration (≥95%) minimizes losses, extending storage time and transport range.
Designing efficient liquefaction systems involves optimizing refrigeration and ortho-para conversion while reducing energy consumption. Although lower temperatures favor conversion to parahydrogen, the process is rate-limited. Traditional models often neglect this phenomenon, leading to thermodynamic prediction errors of up to 15%, which compromise process accuracy.
This session introduces a thermodynamic and process model that incorporates ortho-para conversion dynamics, including rate limitations. By accounting for these effects, the model enables improved component sizing and operational strategies, enhancing liquefaction efficiency and reliability.
Enhancing Gas Quality Measurements with AI
Speaker: Alejandro Martin-Gil, TNO
Authors: Alejandro Martin-Gil; Huib Blokland and Arjen Boersma, TRO
Gas quality sensing is essential in the energy transition. The accurate detection of complex gas mixtures in the gas grid remains a significant challenge. This study explores several ways that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can significantly improve the performance and long-term reliability of gas quality sensors.
This is especially relevant for the low-cost sensor technology that was developed by TNO. This sensor uses an array of specially coated electrodes that measure changes in capacitance when exposed to gas mixtures. Each coating reacts uniquely to different gas components.
This study shows how AI is used to make the mapping from sensor measurements to the final gas compositions more accurate. We focus on a mixture of five gases. We compare how well our state-of-the-art machine learning methods perform against the existing (non-AI) techniques currently in use.
In addition, we demonstrate the use of Explainable AI (XAI) to figure out which individual sensors provide the most important information for detecting particular gases, an insight that is crucial for optimizing future hardware and coating material design. Finally, we will present how AI can be applied to fix one of the biggest problems in sensor operation: signal drift over time. This work offers a powerful, data-driven approach for creating next-generation gas quality sensing devices.
Reference: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.221
FRIDAY 5 JUNE
LNG
Moderator: TBC
Decarbonisation: Targeting Retrofits within LNG Facilities
Speakers: Nicholas Annett, McDermott
Authors: Nicholas Annett, Martin Mayer and Rich Aspinall, McDermott
Advancements in process technology have resulted in a reduction in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions across the energy industry. Many Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities that were built several decades ago may be challenged to reduce their overall emissions. Retrofitting existing facilities with modern technologies could be a cost-effective means of achieving environmental targets. These retrofits can help in the reduction of Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (indirect) GHG emissions.
The case study evaluates the impact of replacing a conventional gas turbine drive with an electric motor drive within an LNG facility refrigeration circuit including the impact on the overall energy balance. The concept behind the retrofit is to reduce overall GHG emissions - primarily exhaust emissions - while minimising impact to operations during the retrofit. The application of an electric motor drive is well documented, but their use has been associated with greenfield LNG projects rather than integration into existing LNG facilities.
Considerations will be made with respect to the practical implications for the retrofit, production impacts, relative costs and additional options that may be employed to further reduce emissions in typical LNG facilities.
Marsa LNG: Reducing GHG emissions of an LNG Plant and its bunkering activities from Design to Operation
Speakers: Gines Petit and Julien Bellande, TotalEnergies SE
Marsa LNG showcases TotalEnergies’s ambition of being a responsible player in the energy transition and the support and commitment of the OQ Exploration and Production SAOG company “OQEP” towards this transition and the reduction of CO2 emissions. From day one, it was decided that the project will be 100% electrically driven and supplied with solar power to reach a super low carbon intensity of about 5 kgCO2eq/boe at end of FEED while the average of liquefaction plants is above 30 kgCO2eq/boe.
The partners were convinced that reducing emissions of an LNG plant requires more than electrifying compressor drivers with green energy by also addressing hard-to-abate emissions. Remaining emissions are of different nature: generation of heat, presence of methane in different streams to the atmosphere, and flaring either during emergency or start-up. Hence, before the Investment Decision, studies were conducted to eliminate any avoidable CO2 emissions to make this new Plant a flagship with an intensity below 3 kgCO2eq/boe. Significant efforts are also made on the marine side of the project with innovative emissions reduction initiatives embedded in the design and the way to operate the dedicated bunker vessel of Marsa LNG.
The paper will showcase first how the use of Best Available Technologies and optimized operational procedures allow tackling emissions from heat generation, methane emissions and minimize flaring and second how the logistic emissions are reduced thanks to optimized bunker vessel design and operation.
These means enable Marsa LNG to be a virtuous example for the industry to bring cleaner LNG to the LNG bunkering business and the overall LNG market.
Gas Treating
Moderator: Philip le Grange, Axens
COS Paths in Natural Gas Processing
Speakers: Céline VOLPI and Renaud CADOURS, TotalEnergies
Natural gas processing is facing an increasing challenge with producing more complex sour gas and complying with more stringent regulations in terms of residual emissions to the atmosphere. In these conditions, the definition of the basis of design is key and detailed attention must be dedicated to all sulfur species: H2S, but also the mercaptans and the carbonyl sulfide (COS). Surprisingly, if the routing of RSH is well understood, the way of COS remains today uncertain.
Recent projects dealing with sour gas containing mercaptans and COS have to select specific configurations to ensure product sweetening and compliance with local environmental regulations, with additional OPEX and CAPEX. The selection was mainly driven by the COS routing through the different steps, for example within the AGRU, with impact for the design of the overall plant including NGL extraction and sweetening units, sulfur recovery units with or without CO2 reinjection. However, laboratory test results and feedback from operating units indicate that the COS routing seems definitively not clearly understood.
This paper presents a review of the COS chemistry, in particular its behaviour in amine solvents. Pilot data and plant data will be used to describe the COS reactivity in the amine process. Then impact on the plant design will be discussed.
Groundbreaking Rate-based Simulator for Sulphur Removal in Liquid Treaters – Validation and Simulation Study
Speaker: Justin Boudreaux, Optimized Gas Treating, Inc
Authors: Prashanth Chandran, Simon A. Weiland, Justin Boudreaux & Ralph H. Weiland, Optimized Gas Treating, Inc.
Liquid extraction is widely used for the removal of sulfur compounds, mainly H2S, COS, and mercaptans, from LPGs and NGLs using amines and caustic soda. Historically, the best possible computational approach to understanding these units has been the ideal-stage, augmented with anecdotal, experience-based estimates for tray efficiencies and HETP values. The situation is more complex than this because such an approach takes no account of how the treater’s actual internals, phase inversion, solvent and raffinate flowrates, or the composition and temperatures of the streams feeding it affect performance. Performance remains unpredictable.
Sieve-tray efficiencies for H2S removal are typically in the range of 5–25% and HETPs are 2–5 metres. Parameters in these ranges call into question the very relevance of an ideal stage. Nevertheless, ideal stages augmented by unreliable rules-of-thumb are all engineers have ever been able to call upon, until now.
This contribution reports on the game-changing development of a mass transfer rate-based simulator for amine treatment of LPG and NGLs, motivated by the complete lack of commercial analytical methods. The paper presents a series of case studies to provide direct, quantitative understanding of the effect of solvent choice, concentration, flow rate, and tray parameters such as sieve hole size as well as packing characteristics on sulfur removal from liquid hydrocar-bons.
A Comprehensive Review of Tray Damage in Amine Stripping Columns: Causes, Diagnosis, a Mitigation
Speaker: Muhammad Tariq, Aramco
Amine stripping columns are widely used for amine solution regeneration in gas sweetening units. However, tray damage can lead to significant operational costs. Damage can result in significant financial implications, particularly if it leads to a full shutdown or reduced production. These costs include not only the direct expenses of dismantling and repairing the column but also the loss of production during downtime.
A review of multiple incidents involving amine regeneration column tray damage has identified common causes. In addition to exploring the causes and preventive measures for tray damage, the challenge of diagnosing the actual condition of the column is also examined in detail. This is crucial because symptoms like foaming can be misleading, as they may indicate tray damage or plugging. Column instability caused by variations in rich amine inlet, lean amine outlet, or pressure disturbances can also mimic damage-related behavior, making diagnosis more challenging.
Accurately identifying the root cause of column issues is essential, since the solution can vary from a simple adjustment to a costly repair. The findings in this paper will offer valuable insights and actionable recommendations for operators and engineers aiming to improve the reliability, safety, and efficiency of amine sweetening units. Recommendations are also provided for instrumentation and control strategies to maintain column stability and support accurate diagnosis.
Innovation
Moderator: Samantha Nicholson, Fluor
Advancement of Hybrid Membrane-Amine Gas Sweetening for the Cost-Effective Development of Highly Sour Natural Gas Resources
Speaker: Faiz M. Almansour, Aramco
Authors: Faiz M. Almansour, Garba O. Yahaya, Sebastien Duval, Feras Hamed and Ahmed Ameen, Aramco
The development of highly sour natural gas resources containing elevated concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) remains technically and economically challenging due to the high energy demand and carbon intensity of conventional gas sweetening technologies. Standalone amine absorption systems, while widely deployed, require substantial thermal energy for solvent regeneration, leading to large equipment footprints, high operating costs, and increased CO₂ emissions.
This study presents a Hybrid Membrane–Amine Absorption Technology (HMAT) that integrates membrane separation upstream of amine gas treating to reduce acid gas load and overall energy consumption. The hybrid configuration enables bulk removal of acid gases prior to solvent treatment, significantly lowering the regeneration duty of the downstream amine system. The technology employs Saudi Aramco’s patented aromatic polyimide membranes designed for stable operation under harsh sour gas conditions, including high H₂S concentrations and elevated feed pressures.
Performance evaluation was conducted for highly sour natural gas streams with H₂S concentrations exceeding 20 vol% and CO₂ levels above 7 vol%. Results show that the membrane stage can remove approximately 70% of the acid gases upstream of the amine unit, reducing inlet acid gas concentrations to levels that can be treated using a smaller and more energy-efficient solvent system. This integration results in reduced amine circulation rates, lower reboiler duty, and decreased equipment size compared to conventional standalone amine absorption processes.
In addition to economic benefits, HMAT offers meaningful environmental advantages by reducing fuel consumption and associated CO₂ emissions linked to solvent regeneration. The technology is progressing through demonstration scale validation, with industrial scale membrane module production and planned field deployment in a gas processing facility.
The results demonstrate that hybrid membrane–amine gas sweetening provides a practical and scalable pathway for reducing energy intensity and carbon footprint in the development of highly sour natural gas resources.
Reducing Equipment Emissions with Welded Plate Kettle Type Solutions
Speaker: Valtteri Haavisto, Vahterus Oy
Not only must we focus on reducing the CO₂ footprint of our processes, but we also need to address emissions from the equipment itself. Kettle-type reboilers and vaporizers have long been standard in industries where low operating pressures and design constraints prevent the use of vertical thermosyphon systems. Traditionally, these units employ a TEMA K-shell with a U-shaped tube bundle—a proven design, but one that comes with challenges: large footprint, high material usage, significant service space requirements, and tube vibration risks.
To overcome these limitations and improve sustainability, Plate and Shell type heat exchangers have been introduced for kettle applications. This design integrates a round, fully welded plate pack into an eccentric shell, similar to how a tube bundle fits into a K-shell. Over three decades of operational experience confirm benefits such as reduced footprint, lighter weight, tighter temperature approaches, and improved reliability. These advantages translate directly into lower material consumption and reduced CO₂ emissions compared to traditional shell-and-tube designs. Case studies show up to 50% reduction in shell length without compromising performance—making Plate and Shell kettles an ideal solution for industries seeking efficiency, space savings, and environmental responsibility.
Start-Up And Operation of a New Thiopaq O&G Unit for Flare Gas Recovery in Oman
Speaker: Rieks de Rink, Paqell B.V.
Authors: Rieks de Rink 1, Paqell B.V., Maitham Shidi, PDO, David Street, SLB and Jan-Henk van Dijk, Paqell B.V.
In 2025, a new gas sweeting unit for the recovery of sour flare gas from oil production has been put in operation at an existing production station of PDO in Oman. To remove H2S, PDO selected the Thiopaq O&G (TOG) process, supplied and licensed by SLB and Paqell. This environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative to conventional physico-chemical desulfurization processes utilizes naturally occurring bacteria to convert toxic H2S to reusable elemental biosulfur.
The TOG unit in Oman is designed for a total gas flow rate of 365,000 Sm3/day, combining 3 sour flare gas streams. During start-up, it appeared that the CO2 and mercaptan concentrations were significantly higher than anticipated at the design. Built-in process margins allowed for the successful treatment of the gas. Furthermore, by including several measures in the design, the solution temperature can be maintained successfully <40 °C despite Oman’s hot climate.
Four months after initial gas intake, the TOG unit achieved near-design gas flow rates, demonstrating very stable and robust operation without process upsets. Chemical consumptions are well within design parameters. The 72-hour Site Acceptance Test for the facility was successfully completed and gas is being exported to the South Oman Gas Line.
