Carbon Centric is gearing up for growth and gets Obligo and Vardar on the ownership side. With a growing project portfolio and international ambitions, Carbon Centric has established itself as one of Norway's leading project developers for carbon capture in the industry.
Now they are strengthening their ownership side with both industrial and financial expertise.
In total, Carbon Centric is raising more than NOK 120 million for further development. The capital comes from Obligo and Vardar, who joins the existing and largest owner Østfold Energi. As part of the financing, the company has also secured a substantial green loan from DNB, as well as support for one of the projects through ENOVA.
Kenneth Juul (left), Chief Commercial Officer of Carbon Centric and Fredrik Häger (right), CEO.
International ambitions
"The timing was right to strengthen the company with both expertise and capital, and we are thrilled to have Obligo and Vardar on board. This shows that our projects are attractive to both investors and banks," says Fredrik Häger, CEO of Carbon Centric.
Obligo, a fund manager, is the largest investor in this financial round and makes the investment from its climate fund.
"We are impressed by how Carbon Centric has quickly established itself as one of the leading players in carbon capture in the Nordic region. The investment is made from our 'climate impact fund', where we invest in sustainable infrastructure and where all initiatives will contribute to reducing the carbon footprint in society," says Christian Dovland, CEO of Obligo Investment Management AS
Will build the world's first full-scale carbon capture plant for waste incineration
Since start-up in 2021, Carbon Centric has spent the time developing a strong project portfolio. Everything is now in place to build the planned carbon capture plant in Rakkestad, which will be the first of its kind.
While we wait for CO2 storage to become available and profitable, we are turning recycled carbon dioxide into a raw material which can be used for new products such as e-fuel. Fredrik Häger, CEO, Carbon Centric
Photo: 3D model of the carbon capture plant that will be built next to Østfold Energi's waste incinerator in Rakkestad.
The company has announced three Norwegian projects in its portfolio with an annual capture capacity of up to 170,000 tonnes of CO2 from 2025. The company has significant international ambitions and recently announced an agreement with Iceland's only incineration plant.
"There is a large market with a huge capital requirement to build up capture capacity throughout Europe. In order to finance the projects we are actively working on, we will raise well over a billion kroner. While we wait for CO2 storage to become available and profitable, we are turning recycled carbon dioxide into a raw material which can be used for new products such as e-fuel," concludes Häger.
The company is now working to establish carbon capture plants at several locations, and sees opportunities totalling more than 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year from 2027. This corresponds to more than the total annual emissions from the City of Oslo.
Will hire more Carbon Centric's office is located in Grålum, together with the majority owner, Østfold Energi. In order to develop a growing portfolio of projects, and at the same time rig the company for operation of its own carbon capture plants, many appointments will be made in the future. Over the next twelve months, they will hire 8-10 new employees, preferably recruiting locally.
"We need expertise in project development, process and thermal energy systems, economics and finance, logistics, and technical sales, to name a few," concludes Häger.
Østfold Energi, the largest owner, is very pleased with the development Carbon Centric has had since the start.
"Now they have really taken the step from an internal spin-off to an industrial scale-up," says Martin Vatne, director of strategy and business development in Østfold Energi.
Facts
Carbon Centric was established to accelerate carbon capture and help solve the climate crisis.
The company specializes in developing climate-positive projects with carbon capture from waste and bio-incineration. They sell turnkey capture plants and provide carbon capture as a service, based on licensed technology.
The technology partners are KANFA Group and Slåttland Mek. Industrial workshop
The company was established in 2021 by carbon capture entrepreneurs Kenneth Juul, Fredrik Häger and power producer Østfold Energi.