Sarens recently had a hand in moving the Norwegian carbon capture and storage project, Northern Lights, forward by handling 12 carbon dioxide tanks on behalf of Aker Solutions.

The Northern Lights project is part of the greater Norwegian carbon capture and storage initiative, Longship. The goal of the project is to capture carbon dioxide from industrial sources and ship it, in liquid form, to a subsea location in the North Sea for permanent storage.

Executed on site in Kollsnes, Norway, the transport operation called for 24 axle K24ST self-propelled modular transporters and two Maxi power pack units (PPUs). All the equipment was mobilised to the site via four trucks and required a half day of rigging to prepare for transport. The SPMTs arrived in mid-November and will remain on-site through mid-April.

Roll Group handling the shipping

Roll Group was involved in the Northern Lights projects, transporting all 12 CO2 storage tanks.

In the first voyage the company’s vessel, RollDock Star, loaded seven tanks in Aviles and transported them to Kollsnes. In its second trip, the vessel transported the remaining five tanks.

Careful planning

Sarens knew that load capacity would be critical at the site and that it was crucial to stay below 5T per square metre. Sarens SPMTs transported each tank from the quayside to the storage area, a distance of approximately 600 metres.

Each of the 35-metre long, 230-tonne tanks was moved along two lines of 12-axle SPMTs with two power pack units. The tanks had to be transported at a certain height to get into the jobsite, Energiparken Rogn, through fixed entry gates. For this reason, high cribbing on the trailers was required.