The reduction of greenhouse gases is a global and fundamental concern to ensure a quality future for all. Efforts to reduce carbon emissions have become increasingly recurrent and essential for companies that aim to be aligned with sustainable strategies and initiatives.

In this regard, WEG is providing a slip ring motor solution for an important carbon capture project at a cement plant in Norway. This is a large-scale carbon capture plant, an innovative initiative that will contribute to the promotion of a more sustainable industrial operation and aims to capture around 400,000 tons of CO₂ per year starting in 2024. This will be half of the plant overall emissions.

The captured gas will be compressed and then liquefied for underground storage. The main compressor will be driven by a WEG slip ring motor and the model selected for this application was a water-cooled MAW, frame 800 with a rated power of 10,400 kW and voltage of 10 kV, operating at 1,500 rpm.

The original design required motors with direct-on-line starting (DOL), but this option was not viable due to the weak on-site power supply grid, with low short-circuit capacity.

The solution fed by variable frequency drive (VFD) could have been an option, but the WEG slip ring motor with brush lifting device presented the best cost-effective solution for this application as it uses a liquid rheostat to smoothly accelerate the motor. In addition, the company has proven history in slip ring motors, which was essential for WEG to be selected for this project.