It’s a world first to bury imported CO2: Denmark on Wednesday inaugurated a carbon dioxide storage site 1,800 meters under the North Sea, seen as an essential tool to curb global warming.
‘Today we have opened a new green chapter for the North Sea,’ welcomed Prince Frederik as he launched the pilot phase of the ‘Greensand’ project in Esbjerg (southwest).
The project, led by British chemical company Ineos and German energy company Wintershall Dee, makes it possible to save up to 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030, equivalent to 1.5% of French emissions or 10% of Danish emissions. This CO2 graveyard is ironically a former oil deposit that contributed to the emissions.
Collection and storage
Still in its infancy, and very expensive, carbon capture and storage (‘CCS’) captures and then traps CO2, the main cause of global warming. More than 200 projects are currently in operation or under development worldwide.
Greensand’s special feature: unlike current sites that sequester CO2 from nearby industrial facilities, it brings in carbon from afar.
“This is a European victory in terms of cross-border cooperation: CO2 is captured in Belgium and soon in Germany and loaded onto ships in the port of Antwerp,” noted European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen. “This project is good for our industry and good for the climate,” he added.
The gas is transported by sea to the Nini West platform on the Norwegian water’s edge and injected into a 1.8 km deep reservoir. For Danish authorities, who are aiming for carbon neutrality from 2045, it is “an essential tool in our climate toolbox”.
Danish soil has the potential to store the country’s emissions, making it possible to store foreign carbon there as well.
Advantages of the North Sea
Home to numerous gas pipelines and geological reservoirs that have been empty after decades of oil and gas exploitation, the North Sea is a geologically vulnerable area.
“Lower oil and gas fields have many advantages because they are well-documented and already have reusable infrastructure,” says Morten Jeppesen, director of the Center for Offshore Technologies at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
Near Greensand, French company Total Energies will explore the potential of more than two kilometers of subsea land with the aim of trapping five million tonnes annually by 2030.
A pioneer of CCS, neighboring Norway will welcome liquefied CO2 from the old continent in a few years. The country is a major producer of hydrocarbons in Western Europe and has the largest CO2 storage capacity on the continent.
Correct solution
The amount saved is small compared to the emissions. The European Union, according to the European Environment Agency, will emit 3.7 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020, a year weighed down by the pandemic.
Long considered a technically complex and expensive solution, CCS is now considered essential by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency. However, this is not a miracle solution.
According to Australian think tank IEEFA, the energy-intensive, CO2 capture and storage process emits the equivalent of 21% of the captured gas. And the technique is not without risks, the research center warns, citing the risk of spills with catastrophic consequences.
“CCS should not be used to maintain current levels of CO2 production, but to control CO2 in the atmosphere,” assures Mr Jepsen.
Among defenders, the technology is not unanimous. “It doesn’t solve the problem and perpetuates harmful structures,” criticized Helen Hagel, Energy Manager at Greenpeace Denmark. ‘This method will not change our deadly habits’.
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