Europe's First North Sea Carbon Storage Project Advances

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Europe's first ever trial of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the North Sea will be trialed later this year following an agreement between the Belgian and Danish governments.

The Greensand project, jointly led by INEOS Group AG (London, England) and Wintershall (Ludwigshafen, Germany) will allow for carbon dioxide (CO2), captured by INEOS from its Zwijndrecht refinery in Belgium, to be shipped via the port of Antwerp to INEOS' Nini West oil platform 200 kilometers (km) off the west coast of Denmark, where it will be injected as a liquid into the former oil field, 1.8 km below the seabed surface. Greensand involves a consortium of 23 specialized companies, research centers, institutions and logistics partners and has the goal of storing 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2025 and up to 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030. INEOS said that it has worked with two companies over the past 12 years capturing CO2 emissions from its ethylene oxide process, which is then purified and liquefied at the refinery.

Industrial Info is also tracking plans by Project Greensand consortium member Aalborg Portland Cement which is aiming to build a CCS system at its Rordal, North Jutland, cement plant. Captured CO2 will be transported to Greensand storage sites.

"The development of new methods to reduce carbon emissions is vital for the future of our planet, said Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgian Federal Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the North Sea: "The sea can play a key role in this. Not only has it always been very important for regulating our climate, but it also offers opportunities for carbon capture, recycling and storage. Our Belgian industry is very much involved in this. The Greensand project is one of the leading CO2 storage projects in Europe. This is a promising technology. We have signed an agreement with Denmark to cooperate on this so that we can store our captured CO2 in their empty oil and gas fields."

"We are very pleased that the Danish Minister of Climate, Energy and Energy Supply and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of North Sea of the Belgian government as well as the Flemish Minister of Justice and Enforcement, Environment and Energy have concluded this groundbreaking agreement. It has been the subject of many and lengthy negotiations - and we would like to acknowledge their great efforts. This is an important step forward to continue Project Greensand, which is making an important contribution to the green transition in Denmark," explained Søren Reinhold Poulsen, project director of Project Greensand.

Late last year, the Danish Energy Agency (EUDP) awarded Project Greensand 26 million euro (US$25 million) to develop and demonstrate CO2 storage in the North Sea. CO2 will be stored in the Siri Trench off the Danish coast which the developers stated is "ideally suited for the pilot project because the seabed is very hard and there is virtually no seismic activity in the bottom." ​The Nini West field is suitable for the injection of 0.45 million tonnes of CO2 per year for a period of 10 years, and that the subsea reservoir can safely store the CO2.

Jacques Vandermeiren, chief executive officer of the Port of Antwerp Zeebrugge, added: "Seeing is believing. This project will demonstrate very tangibly that the storage of CO2 under the North Sea is technically possible and can also be carried out safely. I'm delighted to work together with INEOS as part of the Greensand project, carrying out this pilot from the port of Antwerp as a first mover, giving us a front row seat to support it. CCS is an indispensable intermediate step in our transformation to a sustainable port."

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