With green ambitions, he has demolished half a cement factory.
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Now the job of rebuilding it in a whole new way begins.
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With Norwegian technology and billions of kroner, gray cement production will turn green.
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Billions of kroner have been spent on trial and error to capture CO₂ from Norwegian factory pipes. The first system is now finally being installed.
The phone he will never forget arrived at half past twelve on a Monday in September 2020.
– A moment, then you will have the Minister of Petroleum and Energy, said a voice at the other end.
– Bleach?
In a cramped office in Lysaker stood a completely unprepared Per Brevik. Ever since he became project manager for carbon capture in the Norcem Group, he had felt that he was fighting headwinds. Tests, reports, tiring political processes and several long stays.
His goal was always clear: to build a plant that removes CO2- emissions from the cement factory.
The problem? It was too expensive and too difficult.
He ran across the hall and picked up the boss. Something big was going on, the then Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tina Bru (H) confirmed on the phone.
– I call to say that the government will present the strategy for CO capture and storage. You become a catch operator. It will happen at a press conference in half an hour, she said, according to Brevik.
Twenty years of work were behind the dry conversation. Or, it started really as a distant idea. The first time Per Brevik heard about carbon capture was in a meeting with the managers at the cement factory in Grenland. It is high under the roof in the industry, he explains, but he does not end meetings in this way:
– You, what did you really smoke this weekend?
CO2-catch? What were they raving about every day? He’s laughing at it now. The idea matured slowly. First with him, then frustratingly slow with others.
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