Air Liquide will build, own and operate a world-scale carbon capture unit, leveraging its proprietary Cryocap technology. The new unit will be installed at the Group’s hydrogen production plant located in the port of Rotterdam and will be connected to Porthos.
Porthos is one of Europe’s largest carbon capture and storage infrastructure aiming at significantly reducing CO2 emissions in Rotterdam’s large industrial basin.
Air Liquide will capture the CO2 from its existing hydrogen plant using Cryocap, a technological solution for CO2 capture using a cryogenic process. Captured CO2 will then be transported through the Porthos infrastructure, which is currently being developed, and permanently stored in depleted gas fields in the North Sea, approximately 20 kilometres off the coast.
The carbon capture unit will be operational in 2026. Through this project, Air Liquide will be able to supply hydrogen that will be significantly decarbonised.
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2.5 million tonnes of CO2
The Porthos infrastructure overall will enable to reduce emissions by 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year – equivalent to around ten per cent of the current Rotterdam industry CO2 emissions. The European Union has recognised Porthos as a major cross-border infrastructure project, contributing to the achievement of energy and climate policy objectives, and has included Porthos to the list of Project of Common Interest.
Emilie Mouren-Renouard, member of Air Liquide’s executive committee and CEO of the Europe Industries Hub, says: ‘We are pleased to take another concrete step to contribute to the decarbonisation of one of Europe’s largest industrial basins while participating in the development of Porthos.’
Picture by Air Liquide.
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