Categories: Environment and Renewables, EuropePublished On: 09.03.2022410 words2.2 min read

Working towards a climate-neutral port

Port of Antwerp together with seven players in the chemical and energy industries on the way to innovative CO 2 reduction

The EU has a clear climate objective: to reduce practically all greenhouse gas emissions to below the 1990 level by 2050. Port of Antwerp together with its partners is working towards a climate-neutral port. It strongly believes that CO2 capture, re-use and storage for industry is an important weapon in the fight against global warming. Port of Antwerp is therefore teaming up with various partners in the energy and chemical industries to take further practical steps in this direction

Antwerp@C: capturing half of CO2 emissions by 2030

The port of Antwerp is home to the largest integrated energy and chemical cluster in Europe. This makes it the ideal location to set up new collaboration and find innovative ways of cutting CO2 emissions. For this purpose Air Liquide, BASF, Borealis, ExxonMobil, INEOS, Fluxys, Port of Antwerp and Total joined forces at the end of 2019 to set up the Antwerp@C project. This collaborative venture will investigate the technical and economic feasibility of building CO2infrastructure to support future CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilisation & Storage) applications.

 

Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) and eventually also Carbon Capture & Utilisation (CCU), i.e. capturing CO2 and using it as a raw material for various industrial processes, are seen as important avenues in the transition to a climate-neutral port.

This project has the potential to capture half of the CO2 emissions in the port (18.65 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2017) by the year 2030.

How will Antwerp@C reduce CO2 emissions?

  1. By capturing CO2.
  2. By transporting CO2 locally by pipelines: building a “backbone” pipeline along the industrial zones on either side of the Scheldt, along with various shared processing units, a shared CO2 liquefaction facility and interim storage of CO2.
  3. By exporting CO2 internationally: cross-border transport of CO2 by pipeline to Rotterdam or by ship to Norway.
  4. By storing CO2 permanently in depleted offshore gas fields or underground aquifers.

“This promising project will enable us to effectively realise our pioneering role. It demonstrates once more that collaboration is key to amplifying the cluster effect and creating innovative, operational added value.

If this shared infrastructure can be realised, it will benefit the entire industrial community in the port and make a useful contribution towards attaining the Flemish, Belgian and European climate objectives.”

– CEO Jacques Vandermeiren

Source” Port of Antwerp website