European Prospects of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage for Climate Change

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) refers to a climate change mitigation technology that has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial and energy-related sources.

CCS generally refers to the process whereby CO2 emissions from large point sources, such as power plants or industrial facilities, are captured, transported, and stored in onshore or offshore underground geological reservoirs. Carbon capture (CO2 capture) and storage (CCS), along with carbon capture and utilization (CCU), are recognized as potential pathways to combat global climate change. CCS can play a unique role in the path to decarbonization by improving the resilience of a network with high renewable penetration, supporting the beneficial use of carbon, and providing services that enhance the reliability of the electric grid.

What are the key concerns around CCUS?

High cost is perhaps the most commonly cited drawback of CCUS. CCUS facilities are capital-intensive to deploy and energy-intensive to operate, making them particularly expensive when energy costs are high. There are also risks and uncertainties surrounding the technological performance of CCUS operations. Given tightening climate targets and increasing carbon prices, reducing emissions is not optional. Therefore, the cost and risks of CCUS should be compared with alternative decarbonization pathways, rather than with ‘doing nothing’.

Limiting the availability of CCUS is likely to increase reliance on technologies that are currently more expensive and at earlier stages of development. For instance, incorporating CO2 capture into steel production raises estimated costs by less than 10%, but approaches based on hydrogen produced from renewables can raise costs by 35–70% compared with conventional production methods. The cost of CCUS will continue to fall as the market expands and technologies develop. For example, the cost of CO2 capture in power generation was reduced by 35% from the first to the second large-scale CCUS facility in that sector.

Costs should also be assessed in terms of wider economic benefits. CO2 leakages from storage sites could lead to possible environmental damages and the reversal of intended emissions savings. Strong regulations for project selection, management, and monitoring of storage sites are already in place and being developed. Furthermore, many of the potential storage sites being considered are well-understood geological formations that have already stored gas and CO2 naturally for millions of years, suggesting that leakage risk overall is relatively small.

The Promising Role of Carbon Capture and Storage to Combat Climate Change

The growing concerns about global warming have led various jurisdictions to initiate CCS initiatives in an attempt to combat climate change. Despite numerous climate change mitigation efforts, CO2 emissions from energy sectors increased by 1.7% in 2018 compared to the previous year, reaching 33.1 billion tonnes. To limit global warming to 2°C, global emissions need to be reduced at a rate of 3% per year to reach net zero by 2050.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Application in the Netherlands

The option of CCS has been discussed in the Netherlands for a long time, with several large CCS demonstration projects proposed since the early 2000s. However, none have been implemented to date (2023 status). In the past, the deployment of CCS was hindered by a combination of shifts in political support, a lack of viable business cases, insufficient legal and governance frameworks, and a lack of societal support.

Initially, ambitions for CCS focused on applications involving onshore CO2 storage in depleted natural gas fields. Onshore demonstration projects were proposed near the town of Barendrecht (CO2 capture at a refinery, transport via pipelines) and in the north of the Netherlands (CO2 capture at coal-fired power plants, transport via pipelines), but these were canceled in the early 2010s. Following these cancellations, the Dutch government excluded onshore locations as possibilities for CO2 storage. The period from August 2017 to July 2019 was covered in the study.

Another proposed CCS project, the ROAD project (CO2 capture at a coal-fired power plant, transport via pipelines, and offshore storage in depleted natural gas fields), was canceled in September 2017. After a period of waning enthusiasm for CCS, the installation of a new Dutch government in October 2017 put CCS back on the policy agenda. The government committed to developing CCS as part of its effort to reduce CO2 emissions.

During the time covered in the study, negotiations for the Dutch National Climate Agreement took place, announced in June 2019. This agreement was negotiated by over 100 societal partners representing five sectors in the Netherlands: industry, the built environment, mobility, agriculture and land use, and electricity.

Since then, ambitions for CCS have shifted towards applications in industry rather than power generation, with a focus on storing CO2 emissions in offshore depleted natural gas fields. The Dutch government has set a target of reducing industrial CO2 emissions by 14.3 million tons annually by 2030, to be achieved in part through large-scale CCS deployment. New financial policy instruments, such as a carbon tax for industrial emissions and a subsidy scheme, were proposed to support these goals.

During the time period, several industrial CCS projects were in preparation, including the Porthos project in the Port of Rotterdam area and the Athos project in the North Sea Canal area. The most likely applications of CCS in the Netherlands involve CO2.

Conclusion

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) refers to a suite of technologies that enable the mitigation of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from large point sources such as power plants, refineries, and other industrial facilities, or the removal of existing CO2 from the atmosphere. CCUS is expected to play a crucial role in meeting global climate targets. Leading organizations, including the International Energy Agency (IEA), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), have all produced long-term energy outlooks that rely on the rapid expansion of CCUS to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C.