INEOS Backs Scotland's First Major Carbon Capture Project

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Scotland's first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project has gathered two major backers in the shape of INEOS Group AG (London, England) and Petroineos (Grangemouth, Stirlingshire), owner's of the largest refinery and petrochemical complex in Grangemouth.

The deal will see the construction of a post-combustion carbon capture plant that will cover the entire Grangemouth refinery and petrochemical site--considered to be Scotland's industrial heartland. The project is worth approximately US$40 million.

The companies, which own and operate the refinery and associated businesses, said the plant will enable the capture and storage of approximately 1 million tonnes a year of CO2 by 2027--a third of the site's total emissions--with the scope to capture further "significant volumes beyond this date." Captured carbon will be handled by the Acorn CCS project, which is in the first phase of development. By 2025, this will see around 300,000 tonnes per year (t/yr) of existing CO2 emissions from the St. Fergus gas terminal captured, dried, compressed and sent through the Goldeneye pipeline to be injected into the Acorn CO2 Storage Site--a very large volume of sandstone rock, found over 2.5 kilometers (km) under the seabed, approximately 100 km offshore from the terminal. St. Fergus is the first landing point for around a third of all the natural gas used across the U.K..

Acorn CCS is being developed by Storegga, Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS-A) (The Hague, Netherlands) and Harbour Energy (Aberdeen, Scotland), the U.K.'s largest independent oil and gas company. It has the backing of the European Union (EU), the U.K. government, and a growing number of businesses in the Scottish Cluster of heavy industrial emitters.

"As one of Scotland's largest manufacturers and employers, we acknowledge that we are operating a CO2-intensive industry and we have a significant role to play in helping Scotland reach its Net Carbon Zero target by 2045," said Andrew Gardner, chairman INEOS Grangemouth. "Once operational, the carbon capture and storage system will provide an essential route to permanently and safely capture and store CO2 emissions for large industrial emitters throughout Scotland with significant positive impact for Climate Change and the country."

Nick Cooper, chief executive officer of Storegga, the lead developer of the Acorn Project, said: "The Acorn Project partners (Storegga, Shell and Harbour Energy) are delighted that INEOS and Petroineos have entered into an MOU with Acorn, which is a really significant step in managing Scotland's industrial emissions. The Acorn CCS and hydrogen project is advanced, highly scalable and has clear visibility of a large CO2 customer base."

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