Gasunie Says Dutch CCUS 'Feasible'

Dutch state gas infrastructure operator Gasunie said April 9 that a joint study with two partners has found that storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂) beneath the North Sea is technically and economically feasible.

The Port of Rotterdam Authority, state energy holding EBN, and Gasunie launched the initiative last year, named 'Porthos', to study whether CO₂ could be stored in the Rotterdam port area (shown above). The trio have now  completed a feasibility study which, according to Gasunie, shows that capturing and transporting CO2, and storing it deep under the North Sea is not only technically feasible but is also a cost-effective way to help to achieve the government's climate goals.

'Porthos' stands for Port of Rotterdam's CO₂ Transport Hub & Offshore Storage. The concept for this carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) scheme consists of a pipeline system collecting CO2 across the Port of Rotterdam area. Some of the CO₂ is then distributed to greenhouses in the province of Zuid-Holland, but the vast majority goes by subsea pipeline to a depleted gas field some 25 km offshore. There, the CO2 is then pumped into the deep subsurface under the seabed, in the closed reservoir of sandstone where previously natural gas was present.

The expectation is that for this project in Rotterdam, 2 to 5mn metric tons of CO₂ can be stored annually, said Gasunie.

To date, there has been limited worldwide development of CCUS projects, except perhaps as an aid to oil extraction, with costs seen by both the oil and gas industry and governments as a hurdle.  The low price of carbon in Europe also does not make it economic. Some projects to store CO2 from oil and gas streams have been developed by Statoil, Shell and the Gorgon LNG venture, among others, adding greatly to the costs.