Today, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark officially initiated a world first with the safe injection of carbon dioxide from Belgium into a spent oil well in the Danish North Sea.
Project Greensand, shows for the first time the feasibility of CO2 storage from being captured at an INEOS Oxide site in Belgium, to being transported cross-border and finally safely and permanently stored in the INEOS operated Nini field in the Danish North Sea.
(read more below video)
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission said, This is a big moment for Europe’s green transition, and for our clean tech industry. The first ever full value chain, for carbon capture and storage in Europe. You are showing that it can be done. That we can grow our industry through innovation and competition, and at the same time, remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere, through ingenuity and cooperation. This is what Europe’s competitive sustainability is all about.
The First Carbon Storage event to celebrate the achievement was held at in Esbjerg, Denmark today and hosted by INEOS and Wintershall Dea, lead partners in the Project Greensand consortium.
By 2030, Project Greensand aims to store up to 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year in this area while continuing to make significant contributions to our understanding and growth of carbon storage technology.
The European Commission estimates that the EU will need to capture and utilise or store between 300 and 640 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2050to meet its climate goals.
Project Greensand is a consortium of 23 organisations with expertise in Carbon Capture and Storage, including business, academia, Government and start-ups. It is supported by the Danish state through the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program (EUDP). CCS is considered a key technology in reaching the Danish 2045 net zero target.
The CO2 injected into the Nini field is stored at a depth of about 1,800 metres below the seabed and will be closely monitored.
Hugo Dijkgraaf says, INEOS and Wintershall Dea are leveraging two decades of experience from oil production in the Nini West field and have extensive knowledge of the reservoirs being used.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe adds, This important milestone firmly demonstrates that CCS is a technology that can deliver on a global scale. The task at hand for the industry and policymakers is now to support the continued development and deployment of CCS as an essential tool to mitigate climate change.
From Antwerp to Denmark by ship
INEOS's ethylene oxide site at the port of Antwerp was the obvious candidate for participation in the pilot due to the immediate availability of high-quality pure CO2.
The production of ethylene oxide releases CO2 as a by-product in a high concentration. This CO2 has been captured for decades and, since 2010, also valorised through a cooperation contract with two industrial partners who use the CO2 for the production of carbonated drinks, greenhouse cultivation and dry ice, among other things. A limited tonnage (around 15 000 tonnes) of this purified and liquefied CO2 was reserved in function of the demonstration project.
Once liquefied, the CO2 will be transported by ship, the Aurora Storm. The Aurora Storm has been adapted so that the ship can safely transport containers of liquid CO2. In time, another type of vessel, known as CO2 carriers, will be used for large volumes.
Storing CO2 safely in the North Sea
The Danish subsoil is suitable for CO2 storage. According to The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), it is estimated that there is a potential of storing 22 GT CO2 in the Danish subsoil – corresponding to approx. 700 years of Danish CO2 emissions on current levels.The sandstone fields of the larger Siri Fairway that holds the Nini field in the Danish North Sea are located at an optimal depth of 1.5-2.2 kilometres. It is geologically extremely stable and has retained gas and oil for more than 10 million years, constituting a very safe permanent storage site for CO2.
About Project Greensand
- The primary objective of Project Greensand is to store CO2 safely and permanently, potentially up to 8m tons of CO2 per annum from 2030 in the INEOS operated Siri area.
- The storage potential will contribute significantly to Denmark’s 2030 overall emissions reduction target.
- Project Greensand is supported by the Danish state through the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program – EUDP.
- September 29 2022 , Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgian Federal Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the North Sea, Flemish Minister for The Environment and Energy Zuhal Demir and the former Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Energy Supply in Denmark, Mr. Dan Jørgensen, entered into a ground-breaking agreement to enable captured CO2 to be shipped across borders and stored geologically – thus paving the way for Project Greensand to initiate First Carbon Storage.
- December 6 2022, The Danish Energy Agency granted Project Greensand permission to store CO2 in the Danish subsoil as part of the pilot-phase.
- February 6 2023 INEOS and Wintershall Dea received the first full-scale CO2 storage permit in the Danish North Sea issued by the Danish Ministry of Climate,- Energy,- and Utilities.
- The FID for a full-scale project will commence after proof of concept, planned FID in second half 2023, and will have an estimated delivery duration of around 24 months after which carbon storage could be operational from around 2025.
About the Project Greensand consortium
The consortium comprises major Danish companies, international companies with expertise in carbon capture, international research institutes and universities, as well as small Danish start-ups with ground-breaking ideas on monitoring technologies.