Page 9 - DMEA Week 46

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Equinor’s Northern
Lights project.

NZT and ZCH also comprise sub-projects to both storage and use in enhanced oil recovery
produce blue hydrogen from gas arriving from (EOR).
the North Sea. Similar developments are also “This critical piece of infrastructure supports
underway in Merseyside in England and St Fer- significant future emissions solutions, new uti-
gus in Scotland. There are also preliminary plans lisation pathways and innovation in the carbon
to capture CO2 at the Isle of Grain terminal in capture space,” ACTL operator Wolf Midstream’s
Kent in southern England, and in south Wales. president of carbon, Jeff Pearson, said in June,
Another key project is Porthos in the Nether- after the pipeline came fully online. “The future
lands, where gas grid operator Gasunie is leading of energy and a lower-carbon economy relies on
a consortium that aims to store some 2.5mn tpy key infrastructure like the ACTL.”
of CO2 in the North Sea from industries in the More CCS initiatives are underway in Can-
Rotterdam area. Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMo- ada, aided by recently unveiled government
bil, Air Liquide and Air Products, expected to support at both the federal and provincial lev-
be Porthos’ first customers, signed joint devel- els. And with Canada increasingly being touted
opment agreements (JDAs) on the scheme in as a potential leader in the development of blue
December last year. hydrogen – produced through methane steam
Porthos is vying for €102mn ($118mn) in reforming alongside a CCS component to mini-
financial aid from the EU’s Connecting Europe mise emissions – further opportunities for CCS
Facility, and the Dutch government has also developments are expected to arise. However,
pledged to subsidise some of the cost of CCS. as with all emerging technologies, developers
This will be vital, as Porthos estimates that stor- will need to balance costs with local and federal
age and transport costs alone will come to €30 emission reduction goals.
per tonne. South of the border, meanwhile, CCS has
been less visible in the US. However, CCS initia-
North America tives are underway there too – having struggled
Both the US and Canada are seeing a handful of to gain traction initially because they had been
new CCS proposals, with more likely to come designed with EOR in mind, but came as the
as decarbonisation efforts gather momentum. shale revolution lowered demand for such tech-
However, it will likely be some time before niques. Now, though, the concept of capturing
any new CCS projects are developed in North CO2 purely for the sake of lowering emissions
America. is starting to take off, bolstered by a federal tax
Canada considers itself a leader in CCS credit introduced in 2018.
thanks to existing schemes that notably include For example, at least two proposed LNG pro-
the Quest project, which captures and sequesters jects on the US Gulf Coast include a CCS compo-
CO2 from a bitumen upgrader. Another particu- nent as they try to position themselves as being
larly prominent project is the Alberta Carbon the most environmentally friendly projects of
Trunk Line (ACTL) – the largest pipeline in the their kind. Neither NextDecade’s Rio Grande
world for CO2 emitted from human activity with LNG nor G2 Net-Zero LNG’s proposed facility
a capacity of up to 14.6mn tpy – which became have yet reached the FID stage, however. Indeed,
fully operational in June. CO2 transported via NextDecade has suggested Rio Grande could
the pipeline is delivered to Central Alberta for reach FID in 2021 if it secures enough offtake

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