Alfa Laval has been selected by engineering contractor Saipem to supply critical heat transfer equipment for Stockholm Exergi’s large-scale bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project — a facility designed to capture and permanently store up to 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year.
The project, one of Europe’s largest bioenergy carbon capture facilities, is expected to begin operations in 2028. At full capacity, it will capture, liquefy and permanently store an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to roughly 1% to 2% of today’s total global carbon capture capacity.
The facility is being built at Stockholm Exergi’s biomass-based combined heat and power plant in Stockholm and is designed to deliver net-negative emissions by capturing CO₂ generated from the combustion of biogenic fuels.
Alfa Laval’s heat transfer technology will be central to the process, helping recover energy and improve the efficiency of the carbon capture system.
"Carbon capture at this scale is one of the most demanding thermal engineering challenges in the energy transition and effective energy recovery is what ultimately makes it commercially viable," says Thomas Møller, President of the Energy Division, Alfa Laval. "Stockholm Exergi is setting a new standard for what net-negative emissions can look like at industrial scale, and we are honoured to contribute to this landmark project with our heat transfer solutions."
The project will require significant amounts of energy to separate and liquefy CO₂ from flue gas. Recovering that energy will be critical to the facility’s overall efficiency and its ability to deliver additional climate benefits.
"The plant will require a lot of energy to capture the CO2 from the flue gas and liquify it, but with the high quality Ziepack heat exchangers from Alfa Laval, we will be able to reclaim the energy used. This energy will go back in our existing district heating system, which contributes additionally to our carbon removal targets," says Egil Nybakk, Director BECCS at Stockholm Exergi.
Under the equipment package selected by Saipem as part of its EPC contract, Alfa Laval will supply its Ziepack gas-gas interchanger, along with multiple process plate-and-frame heat exchangers.
The equipment will support heat recovery across the capture process, helping maximize system efficiency while integrating recovered energy into Stockholm’s existing district heating network.
Stockholm Exergi’s project is part of Sweden’s broader push toward climate neutrality and aligns with the European Union’s climate strategy. Once operational, the facility is intended to rank among the world’s largest plants for capturing and permanently storing biogenic CO₂.
For Alfa Laval, the contract puts its heat-transfer technology at the heart of one of Europe’s most ambitious industrial carbon-removal projects.
