Rotterdam investigates CO2 capture system

A feasibility study for the possibility of storing the substance in empty oil and gas fields in the North Sea seabed is expected to finish around the end of this year.

The Port said that the project’s partners are currently talking with several companies in the chemical and refineries industries about the capture and supply of CO2.

The project’s partners plan to take an investment decision regarding the infrastructure concept in 2018, enabling the system to become operational by 2020.

Their target is to store 2m tonnes of CO2 per year from that year onwards, a figure that will increase to 5m tonnes annually by 2030.

“The point of departure for Gasunie, the Port Authority and EBN in this study is a robust basic infrastructure for transport and storage (a ‘backbone’) that various companies can use to dispose of their CO2,” the Port of Rotterdam said.

“Realising this loop pipeline (or ‘backbone’) and the associated storage infrastructure as a ‘collective facility’ will create significant economies of scale.

“This is also expected to have a favourable effect on the local business climate, since in the near future, Rotterdam’s industrial production will have a smaller CO2 footprint than production at other locations.”

The project’s partners will wait to implement the required infrastructure until it becomes evident that companies will make use of the proposed system.

As well as storing CO2 in the North Sea seabed, the partners also plan on supplying a greater volume of the gas to horticultural companies, and may in the future supply to other industrial users.

Alco and Shell already supply the substance to greenhouses in the Netherlands’ Westland region, with the horticultural companies using it to quicken crop growth.

The process of carbon capture and storage (CCS) that is being examined is already successfully used at locations around the world, with most of them positioned outside Europe. Previously, similar ventures in the Netherlands were cancelled.

In 2015, Rotterdam’s industrial sector emitted a combined total of almost 30m tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.