Ramboll engineer wins prestigious sustainability award

Since 2020 Jesper Stuhr Andersen has supported client Statkraft develop an innovative carbon capture and storage project at their energy-from-waste plant in Trondheim, Norway. The project aims to capture more than 220,000 tonnes of carbon annually from waste incinerated at Heimdal Varmesentral, which would make the plant climate positive – meaning it takes more emissions out of the global cycle than it emits.

For his efforts managing this state-of-the-art decarbonisation project, Jesper Stuhr Andersen, 31, Thursday won Future Leader of the Year in the Impact on Climate & Biodiversity Category at the European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations’ annual conference in Madrid, Spain.

“Successful completion of a CCS project is a comprehensive, challenging, and innovative undertaking which requires multidiscipline coordination, involvement of several contractors and internal and external stakeholders,” says Bjørn Hølaas, Director for CCUS at Statkraft, and praises Jesper Stuhr Andersen’s expertise at a young age:

“Jesper understands our project and challenges, possesses excellent communication skills, and works consistently in a highly effective and structured manner, giving us certainty in the project’s quality and services. Taking Jesper’s age into account we are impressed with his technical level and his ability to manage a complex project and a team of engineers covering many different disciplines, ages, and backgrounds.”

Paving the way for CCS at scale

Jesper Stuhr Andersen says he is proud to win the award and hopes the learnings from Heimdal Varmesentral can help the CCS industry develop further.

“In Europe there are almost 500 Energy-from-Waste plants, which on average treat about 200,000 tonnes of waste annually, roughly similar in size to Heimdal Varmesentral. These plants are critical for modern society to function and are responsible for significant CO2 emissions which can be mitigated with CCS,” he says.

“I hope the CCS industry can benefit from our learnings, paving the way for similar projects to replicate the project format and engineering solutions to achieve large reductions in CO2 emissions,” he adds.

EFCA works to promote the European engineering consultancy industry and has members across 28 European countries. Candidates to the Future Leaders competition were selected from the top-ranking national entries across EFCA’s member organisations. Jesper Stuhr Andersen also got a first place in the Danish competition organised by the Danish Association of Consulting Engineers in March 2024.

About Jesper Stuhr Andersen

Jesper Stuhr Andersen has an M.Sc. in Sustainable Energy (Thermal Energy) from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Since joining Ramboll’s Copenhagen office in 2018 he has worked on more than 10 carbon capture projects in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and the UK.