CO2 must be stored to protect the climate: Aalborg Portland will be part of an ambitious CO2 storage project at Port of Hirtshals
One of the most visionary CO2 storage projects in Northern Europe, Greenport Scandinavia, has now brought Aalborg Portland on board. Annually, the cement producer will potentially be able to send significant amounts of CO2 to Port of Hirtshals, where the CO2 is stored temporarily and sent on to storage sites in the North Sea. Aalborg Portland's support of the project underlines the concrete plans of making Port of Hirtshals a hub for intermediate storage and shipping of CO2.
The cement producer Aalborg Portland is now joining the project Greenport Scandinavia, which aims to capture and store CO2 to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. The project thus makes a significant contribution to the fight against climate change. CO2 capture and storage will, for example, play a significant role in achieving the European Commission's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions with at least 55% by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest. Those goals cannot be achieved solely through reductions.
The visionary CO2 storage project Greenport Scandinavia is now welcomming the cement producer Aalborg Portland as a partner.
Aalborg Portland will reduce the company's climate footprint significantly and has a goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The company has committed to a cap on emissions of maximum of 600,000 tonnes annually in 2030 which corresponds to a reduction of 73% compared to 2021. Here, CO2 capture plays a decisive role, and with the agreement with Greenport Scandinavia, Aalborg Portland will potentially be able to deliver significant amounts of CO2 annually to the facility at Port of Hirtshals.
- We have joined Greenport Scandinavia because it is essential for Aalborg Portland to engage in an ambitious project that is already off the ground and ready and able to build a strong Danish CCS infrastructure and deliver a reliable, safe and cost-effective CO2 handling solution as soon as possible, says CCO Michael Lundgaard Thomsen from Aalborg Portland.
Aalborg Portland and the other partners in Greenport Scandinavia, INEOS Energy, Wintershall DEA, Port of Hirtshals, Biocarb Solution, Evida and Greenport North are collaborating to establish facilities to handle CO2 all the way from the emitters to permanent storage. It includes the establishment of pipelines and temporary storage facilities at Port of Hirtshals, from where there is easy, geographical access to permanent storage locations.
Greenport Scandinavia wants to make Port of Hirtshals a hub for intermediate storage and shipping of CO2.
Steen Hintze from Port of Hirtshals' business development company Greenport North emphasizethat the project under Greenport Scandinavia has grown significantly because Aalborg Portland is now part of the collaboration.
- Since the beginning of 2022, we have been working with the industry towards establishing a full CCUS value chain infrastructure from emitter to permanent storage. With Aalborg Portland on board, we are now at significant scale, says Steen Hintze.
Optimal location of CO2 hub
CEO Per Holm Nørgaard, Port of Hirtshals, stress that Aalborg Portland's support of the project is an underlining of the great perspectives in making Hirtshals a hub for intermediate storage and shipping of CO2 from both Danish and foreign CO2 emitters.
- Port of Hirtshals is ideally located in relation to storage fields in the North Sea. It is an important part of our strategy to make Port of Hirtshals one of the largest CO2 hubs in Europe and in that way contribute to solving the climate challenges, and we are working purposefully to expand the port, says Per Holm Nørgaard.
Transporting the large amount of CO2 requires the establishment of a pipeline from Aalborg to Hirtshals. Evida will be in charge of that part of the project. Phase 1 is a pipeline from Aalborg to the hub in Hirtshals, which makes it possible to send CO2 safely and cost-effectively to permanent storage in empty oil fields in the Danish part of the North Sea.
One of the other partners in the project, Wintershall Dea, will establish the export of significant amounts of CO2 from Germany to Denmark in cases where the CO2 cannot be stored in Germany.
The agreement with Aalborg Portland builds on another CO2 storage project under the auspices of Greenport Scandinavia. Shipping of CO2 from Hirtshals to storage in the North Sea is expected to begin in 2026, when local biogas plants, represented by project partner Biocarb Solution, begin transporting CO2 to the hub.