Preem CCS

The Preem CCS project at the Lysekil refinery in Sweden began as a pilot and feasibility effort to evaluate capturing CO₂ from refinery units. Early work starting around 2019 included a collaboration with Aker Solutions to define the capture system, integration, and transport options, with SINTEF Energy Research and other partners involved in technical studies. The objective was to test CO₂ separation from process and flue gas streams to feed into emerging Scandinavian CCS export infrastructure such as the Northern Lights project. Aker’s work focused on preliminary capture design, heat integration, and cost assessment tied to full-scale CCS deployment. The pilot study captured small volumes of CO₂ from the refinery’s hydrogen production unit to gather data on capture performance, energy use, and integration challenges under real operating conditions. These results fed into larger CCS planning and helped clarify the technical and logistical chain for potential full-scale capture, conditioning, export shipping, and storage offshore. Based on this work, Preem identified that a full-scale system at Lysekil could capture roughly up to about 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, which would represent a meaningful portion of the refinery’s emissions if paired with offshore storage. While early capture engineering work was advanced, Preem did not proceed immediately to installing a full commercial carbon capture unit at Lysekil. Instead, the refinery has prioritized other decarbonization projects, such as awarding a FEED contract to Worley for a renewable diesel and SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) expansion.