The foundation for new industries

By Ole Jørgen Marvik, Special Adviser at Innovation Norway.

Many people think of hydrogen primarily as an energy carrier, but it is also an essential industrial raw material and part of Norway's proud industrial heritage. For many years, Norsk Hydro produced ammonia for fertiliser production by combining nitrogen with hydrogen made through the electrolysis of water. Over the past 50 years, hydrogen for fertiliser production has been produced from natural gas, but the recommendations from Process21 for making Norwegian fertiliser production sustainable take us back to our roots: water electrolysis powered by renewable energy. Emissions-free ammonia has also gained renewed relevance as a fuel, particularly in shipping, and several Norwegian projects see significant opportunities in the global market for ocean transport.

However, hydrogen's significant new potential in the green transition lies in carbon recycling. As we phase out fossil feedstocks such as oil, gas and coal, the key question is whether there is enough renewable feedstock – biomass – to make all the carbon-based products that cannot be electrified or replaced in other ways.
The challenge is that the world needs both more food and an alternative to fossil carbon in chemicals and materials. In all these products, carbon is chemically bonded to hydrogen. Recycling carbon using hydrogen can therefore reduce the pressure on biomass production and help reconcile key sustainability goals such as climate action, food security and reduced deforestation.

Process21 identifies CCU (Carbon Capture and Utilisation) as a significant industrial opportunity for Norway. In fact, Norwegian industrial gases contain more carbon than Norway's annual forest loss. CO2 in flue gases is therefore a valuable raw material, and Norway has an international advantage thanks to its potential to produce hydrogen using affordable, emission-free energy.
Projects such as Longship will also establish CO2 logistics for both Norwegian and international sources. CCU and CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) will therefore share a common industrial infrastructure. These opportunities have not gone unnoticed, and our Invest in Norway team regularly receives enquiries from international companies considering sustainable production in Norway.

In principle, recycled carbon can be used to make all kinds of carbon-based products. In Norway, ingredients for feed production are particularly important, and their availability is a barrier to further growth in salmon farming. Nutreco, one of the world's largest animal nutrition companies, and its Norwegian subsidiary Skretting plan to establish large-scale protein production in Norway using microorganisms that feed on CO2 and hydrogen. The same process can also produce building blocks for biodegradable plastics (PHA) with promising functional properties.

A similar process using slightly different microorganisms can produce ethanol or propanol, which are important feedstocks for chemicals and conventional plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene. They can also be refined into fuels, including aviation fuel. The technology was developed by the US company Lanzatech, and commercial plants are now being built in several locations around the world. In Norway, NORCE and Equinor are conducting a feasibility study.

The projects mentioned above are based on biotechnological methods, but the chemical processing industry also has established technology for producing hydrocarbons from CO2 and hydrogen, usually using methanol as an intermediate product. Icelandic company Carbon Recycling International is working with the Finnfjord ferrosilicon plant and Statkraft to explore potential methanol production. An industrial consortium comprising Germany's Thyssenkrupp and Switzerland's Swiss Liquid Future is considering similar methanol production based on CO2 from Elkem's plant in Mo i Rana. In Southern Norway, Nordic Blue Crude and Norsk e-Fuel are both developing plans to produce fuel for road transport or aviation, initially using CO2 and hydrogen feedstocks from the industrial cluster at Herøya. Norsk e-Fuel is backed by German technology company Sunfire and major Luxembourg-based engineering company Paul Wurth.

In a future world where fossil carbon sources have been phased out, we will need sound management of limited carbon resources for the benefit of society. Biological production from agriculture and forestry must be used where it is best suited, while recycled carbon, including the chemical recycling of solid waste, will be essential to prevent the overexploitation of biological resources.
Norway has a unique opportunity to take an international lead in carbon recycling. This could generate wide-ranging benefits for a new supplier industry, creating synergies with hydrogen as an energy carrier and our ambitions for carbon capture and storage. As it was 100 years ago, renewable energy is the foundation for new industrial production and exports in Norway. It could support continued growth in salmon farming and play an important role in transforming Norway's process industry, including petrochemical operations, in line with the recommendations from Prosess21.