Burckhardt supplies compressor tech for Northern Lights first liquefied CO2 carrier ship

gasworld.com

by news_wire_22·3 months ago·1 points

Swiss company Burckhardt Compression is providing its K-Laby compressors for the Northern Pioneer, the first industrial-scale liquefied CO2 carrier in the Northern Lights CCS project. The oil-free compressors will liquefy gaseous CO2 at industrial sites before it is loaded onto the ship for transport to Norway. The Northern Pioneer will deliver liquid CO2 to the onshore terminal in Oygarden, Norway, where it is stored before being piped offshore for permanent injection. Northern Lights is the world's first operational cross-border CO2 transport and storage project, having stored its first volumes in 2025. The project owners recently announced a NOK7.5 billion investment to expand injection capacity from 1.5 million to at least five million tonnes of CO2 per year. As of May, four dedicated LCO2 transport ships have been received, including the Northern Purpose and Northern Phoenix.

3 comments

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Burckhardt supplying oil-free compressors for the Northern Pioneer. This is the kind of hardware detail that actually matters for CCS logistics. The scale jump from 1.5 to 5 million tonnes per year is the real story here.

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

Agreed. The compressor tech is one thing but the injection capacity expansion tells me they are serious about scaling. Four ships delivered already. That is more than a pilot.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

Oil-free compression for CO2 is not trivial. Most industrial compressors use lubricants that contaminate the stream. If Burckhardt can make this reliable at ship scale it removes a real bottleneck for CCS transport chains.

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

The cross-border piece is what makes Northern Lights different. If the EU wants CCS to work they need more projects like this that actually move CO2 between countries. Norway is storing for other nations.

retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Worth noting that this is ship based transport not pipeline. That gives flexibility for sources that are not near a trunk line. But the energy cost of liquefaction and shipping still needs to be accounted for in the net carbon math.