An expensive experiment aimed at eliminating a small fraction of Europe's pollution is underway in Norway.
Europe is desperate to reduce its carbon footprint and among the solutions being considered is the storage of carbon dioxide underground.
Among these efforts is a costly experiment underway in Norway that aims to wipe out a small fraction of Europe's industrial pollution.
Part of a $2.6 billion network, the facility in Blomoyna, Norway, is to draw carbon dioxide from European factories and deposit it in a pristine saline aquifer deep beneath the seabed. The first injections could start as early as 2025 paving the way for a new international trade in industrial emissions.
This is if the pollutant can be captured in smokestacks, if it can be legally transported through an unchecked transit network, and reliably stored on a significant scale. Those are big ifs, but Germany's desperation to support manufacturers is helping to fuel consumption.
" Offshore storage in the North Sea is inherently more expensive than onshore," Jens Burhardt, a partner at Berlin-based Boston Consulting Group, told Bloomberg. "The solutions currently being discussed threaten to make the technology prohibitively expensive."
European carbon capture and storage network
However, this has not deterred proponents of a European carbon capture and storage (or CCS) network, including Germany. Germany emits more emissions than the next two countries combined – it is now counting on technology as its industrial base struggles with challenges from high energy costs to Chinese competition.
Abandoning previous objections, the Berlin government is now throwing its weight behind the initiative on the condition that it be used only for industrial sectors such as cement, fertilizers and steel and not for increased use of hydrocarbons.
While Germany may want to limit the technology to justify a political reversal, the European Union supports wider use. According to the bloc's executive arm, up to 450 million tonnes of CO2 per year should be sequestered by 2050 to reach zero targets.
Amid issues of cost and feasibility, current plans are not even close to these volumes. This makes the project in Norway an important experiment, with implications for Germany as well as the global oil and gas industries.
The technology involves complex systems that sequester CO2 from factory emissions. The pollutant is then compressed, dried and cooled to a liquid state so it can be loaded onto a ship or sent via pipeline to a storage terminal like the one in Blomoyna.
Plans for 30 large-scale engagement hubs worldwide
Around the world, there are plans for about 30 large-scale carbon capture hubs that offer transportation and storage, according to Bloomberg. Most are associated with fossil fuel companies and only a few are under construction or in advanced development.
Norway's 27 billion kroner ($2.6 billion) Longship project is set to be the first CCS hub in operation. The receiving terminal at Blomoyna will hold the carbon dioxide in 12 tanks, each capable of holding 8,000 cubic meters. The liquefied gas will then be transported via pipeline to a reservoir 2.6km below the North Sea floor.
Norwegian authorities returned to the plan after failing to successfully deploy the technology at two natural gas facilities a decade ago.
Controlled by Equinor ASA, Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE, the transport and storage component of the CCS Northern Lights hub aims to connect the Blomoyna terminal and its North Sea reservoir via ship to industries across Europe. The first of the four ships is due to be delivered next year.
At Blomoyna, work is 90% finished. In March, the last leg of a 100-kilometer transmission pipeline will be laid in the reservoir.
However, the field is littered with failed initiatives, and cost to users remains a major hurdle. Still, some manufacturers are ready to take the plunge. Early last year, the UK's INEOS Group Holdings SA and Germany's Wintershall Dea AG were the first to move coal across national borders — from Belgium to Denmark.
If all goes well, Norway expects to be at the center of a self-sustaining market within a decade, and Europe's industrial polluters will have a lifeline for the low-carbon era.
source: ot.gr
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