Port of Antwerp-Bruges, partners net $152mln EU funding for CO2 transport project

Air Liquide, Fluxys Belgium and Port of Antwerp-Bruges have been granted €144.6 million ($152 million) for the construction of shared CO₂ transport and export facilities on the Antwerp port platform.

The project is the first phase of Antwerp@C, an initiative gathering Air Liquide, BASF, Borealis, ExxonMobil, INEOS, TotalEnergies, Fluxys and Port of Antwerp-Bruges with the ambition to halve the CO₂ emissions in the Antwerp port area by 2030.

In this first phase, Air Liquide and BASF will be the launching customers of the export hub through their joint CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) project Kairos@C.

The Antwerp@C CO₂ Export Hub is set up as an open-access infrastructure to transport, liquefy and load CO₂ onto ships for onward permanent offshore storage. CO₂ captured on industrial player’s sites on the Antwerp port platform will be collected and transported via an intra-port open-access pipeline network.

A shared liquefaction and export terminal will be built, including a CO₂ liquefaction unit, buffer storages and marine loading facilities for cross-border shipping.

The Antwerp@C CO₂ Export Hub will have an initial export capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), with the ambition to reach up to 10 Mtpa by 2030.

This project will be among the first and largest multimodal open-access CO₂ export facilities in the world, according to the companies. It will pave the way for future CCS initiatives in the region by providing scalable and modular infrastructures accessible to all industrial players, according to the companies.

The partners have won funding from the EU Commission under the Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF-E) funding program.

“Alongside the use of renewable energy, carbon capture technology is essential to achieve in a short time frame massive CO₂ reductions and carbon neutrality objectives namely for hard-to-abate sectors,” Pascal Vinet, Senior Vice President and a member of Air Liquide’s Executive Committee, supervising notably Europe Industries activities, said.

“Antwerp@C CO₂ Export Hub is an integral part of the full-scale Fluxys CO₂ approach, offering emitters in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, in Belgium and beyond, the opportunity to convey their captured CO₂ through a backbone,” Pascal De Buck, CEO Fluxys, added.

Furthermore, Air Liquide and Fluxys intend to form a joint venture for the construction and operation of the CO₂ liquefaction and export terminal.

Specifically, the joint venture aims to benefit from Air Liquide’s knowledge in CO₂ liquefaction and handling and from Fluxys’ experience in terminalling activities.

Air Liquide will provide its proprietary technology for the CO2 liquefaction plant, which will be a first-of-a-kind in its scale and design, according to the company.

The Port of Antwerp-Bruges reserved a plot of land for the terminal on a strategic location inside the port, and will build new quay infrastructures for the mooring of CO₂ ships.

“Port of Antwerp-Bruges has been committed from the very start in the Antwerp@C project in order to reduce the CO2 emissions on the Antwerp port platform by 50% in 2030. The fact that we have been awarded this CEF-E subsidy today, which means we can now start building a joint CO2 infrastructure, makes us particularly proud,” Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO Port of Antwerp-Bruges, said.

“It strengthens us in our conviction that as a port authority we must continue to fully assume our role as community builder in order to achieve a climate impact that reaches far beyond the boundaries of the port platform.”

Source: World Maritime News