King Frederik X of Denmark has officially opened a carbon dioxide storage facility under the seabed in the North Sea, DPA reported. Organizers have described it as the first site in the European Union for industrial storage of the greenhouse gas, BTA reported.
The “Greensand“ project is located on the site of the decommissioned “Nini West“ oil field and was officially opened in the port city of Esbjerg.
The site has been undergoing carbon dioxide storage trials since 2023, with around 15,000 metric tons of liquefied carbon dioxide stored annually during the pilot phase at a depth of around 1,800 meters. meters.
In normal operation, up to 400,000 tonnes a year will be transported to the abandoned oil platform and stored under the seabed.
The technology is known as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and is based on capturing carbon dioxide - for example from industrial processes, transporting it to an underground storage facility and storing it there permanently.
Experts consider the method safe, although environmentalists fear that the technology encourages the removal of harmful greenhouse gases, rather than reducing their emissions in the first place.
An industrial CO2 storage facility is already operating off the coast of Norway. In the project in the North Sea off Denmark, British chemicals group „Ineos” (INEOS) is working together with „Harbour Energy” (Harbour Energy) and the state-owned Danish company „Nordsøfonden” (Nordsøfonden).
European Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen described the new facility as „an important milestone for Europe“. He said the project shows industry a way to continue its transition to a low-carbon future while preserving production, investment and jobs on the continent.
The facility can store between 4 and 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. But even that is „unimaginably small“ from a European perspective, said Brian Wad Mathiesen, a professor at the Department of Sustainable Development and Planning at Denmark”Aalborg University.
„If we want to become climate neutral, we depend on storing CO2 in one way or another”, the expert said. Some emissions are considered almost inevitable – for example in cement industry.
However, the technology is limited by its high cost, Matthiessen said. He said it is still too expensive for more companies to use it and capture CO2 to improve their carbon footprint. He said there are much cheaper alternatives.