LedaFlow Technologies Forms a Carbon Capture and Storage Research Consortium

LedaFlow Technologies has formed a research consortium with energy companies ConocoPhillips, TotalEnergies, Equinor, and ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering, as well as sub-suppliers Kongsberg Digital, SINTEF Industry, and SINTEF Energy Research, to enhance its multiphase transport simulator technology for transport and injection of CO₂.

The consortium, called CO2Flow project, aims to analyze opportunities for safe transport and injection of CO₂ both with and without impurities to accelerate carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology development. The consortium also aims to contribute to accelerating the global deployment of CCS, as the partners can put project results into industrial use and benefit from the improved functionalities through more optimal design and reliable operation.

Accurate simulations will enable reduced design margins and decreased investment costs of CO₂ transport and injection systems while maintaining operational safety. Precise predictions are also essential for energy and cost-efficient operations and will help minimize risk through simulations of various operational scenarios.

Building on Kongsberg Digital’s commercialization model success which has been in place for LedaFlow since 2010, Kongsberg Digital will deliver world-class industrial software in a secure, user-friendly, and reliable way which can also be deployed on digital twins to operate assets.

The consortium’s research partners SINTEF Industry and SINTEF Energy Research will provide access to world-class resources and information regarding multiphase flow modelling as well as experimental facilities with CO₂ flow competence. Equinor, TotalEnergies and SINTEF Energy Research have been collecting experimental well data for CO₂ injection in the DeFacto flow loop since 2016. The experimental data has been shared with the consortium for model improvement.

By harnessing the resources and data available through the four participating energy companies, LedaFlow Technologies gains access to a vast range of organizations with net zero ambitions.

“Together, our aim is to qualify LedaFlow technology for industrial use by securing simulation accuracy and robustness. The goal is to drive down the design and associated costs for CCS operations and accelerate its broader implementation within the energy mix. This contributes to make cleaner energy more affordable,” says Jan Gerhard Norstrøm, Managing Director at LedaFlow Technologies DA. 

LedaFlow Technologies’ mission is to utilize the expertise of its partners to ensure the continuous development of LedaFlow products and bring to the industry the best available tool for multiphase flow simulation.

LedaFlow development was initiated in the early 2000s by ConocoPhillips, TotalEnergies, and SINTEF with the ambition to develop a simulator closer to actual physics for oil and gas applications. Since 2017, under the leadership of TotalEnergies, thanks to the CO2FACT JIP (a CLIMIT Demo project), the CO₂ transport module has been developed bringing LedaFlow at the forefront of CO₂ research. It is now providing industry with the simulator software needed to make CCS a reality.

The project is supported by the CLIMIT Programme - Norway’s national program for research, development, and demonstration of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

Source: https://ledaflow.com/