Shell and Technip strengthen alliance to address growing CCS demand

Shell Catalysts & Technologies and Technip Energies are building on their successful track record of collaboration by strengthening their strategic alliance, which aims to drive cost-effective, large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects by providing a combination of technology and project management.

Technip Energies recently joined Shell’s Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam (ETCA) to form a joint, co-located delivery team. This follows Shell’s move to transform the site, previously known as Shell Technology Centre Amsterdam, into an open innovation campus and to invite external parties to co-locate there and work together to solve the world’s biggest energy challenges. Over the next few years, the joint team stationed at ETCA will continue to work towards achieving strong improvements in cost reduction through joint value delivery and improvement programmes.

The strategic alliance is an integrated cooperative relationship for the joint promotion, marketing, licensing and execution of projects using Shell’s Cansolv CO2 Capture System technology.

The two organisations, which have been working together since 2012, believe that, by enhancing their collaboration, they will be able to better respond to the rapidly growing CCS market and the need for affordable and proven solutions.

In addition to its Cansolv technology, Shell brings to the alliance substantial CCS experience gained from supporting Shell’s projects. Technip Energies, which also has a significant CCS track record, brings end-to-end project delivery experience in front-end-engineering design (FEED), engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), commissioning and start-up and life-of-asset services.

Yuri Sebregts, Executive Vice President Technology for Shell says, “Our current cooperation has already unlocked several highly significant improvements. For example, we were able to find ways to make the Cansolv technology less energy intensive and developed opportunities to modularise and standardise solutions. Consequently, we are able to offer lower capital and operating costs to our customers.”

Arnaud Pieton, CEO, Technip Energies, observes, “Both organisations are recognised global energy leaders, bring complementary skills for CCS and share a similar, bold energy transition vision. Extending our agreement and having a joint delivery team in ETCA are the natural next steps in strengthening our alliance, and will help to drive CCS affordability by developing industrial-scale solutions. This will support the growing demand for CCS across industries and geographies, and will help us to make a significant contribution to a sustainable future.”

The Shell Cansolv CO2 capture system is said to be the only large-scale, post-combustion technology in commercial operation and is based on amine technology.

It uses a regenerable solvent and a proprietary amine to capture up to 99% of the CO2 from low-pressure, oxidised gas streams. As a low-pressure CO2 capture technology, it is well suited for retrofitting at the tail end of existing plants and greenfield projects. The CO2 is released as a pure stream that can be sold, sequestered or used for enhanced oil recovery. The technology is highly adaptable to a wide variety of industrial applications, gas flow rates and CO2 concentrations from 3.5% to 25% and higher. Licensed units treat gases containing a range of CO2 concentrations at capacities up to 1 Mt/y.