The Port of Gothenburg is part of a collaborative venture, CinfraCap, which is seeking to create a joint infrastructure for the transport of liquefied carbon dioxide extracted using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
The focus of the project, which also includes Göteborg Energi, Nordion Energi, Preem, St1 and Renova, is to transport captured carbon in ‘a climate-smart, cost-effective way’.
‘We must speed up the process if we are to achieve our climate goals and collaboration is the best way forward. We expect to be able to transport two million tonnes of captured carbon dioxide per year from our quayside facility and to do so we must have an efficient infrastructure,’ explained Elvir Dzanic, Gothenburg Port Authority chief executive.
The CinfraCap (Carbon Infrastructure Capture) project partners are looking to develop proposals for an industry-scale logistics infrastructure that could support CCS. With such in infrastructure in place, the aim would be for the system to become open access, thereby expanding its potential user base.
The Swedish Energy Agency climate initiative Industrial Evolution (Industriklivet) has agreed to cover half the cost of funding a pre-study phase, which is being conducted by consulting company COWI.
The pre-study, which began this month with completion slated for Q1 2021, will focus on optimising the means of collecting captured carbon from each company involved in the project, transporting it to the port, providing intermediate storage prior to loading, the securing of permits, risk identification and the presentation of a business model.
‘We are starting up CinfraCap in western Sweden although the ultimate aim is to share our experience and the business model behind the carbon capture infrastructure with the rest of Sweden and the world,’ said Karin Lundqvist, Business developer, Preem AB.
‘We are joining forces with other partners to ensure the requisite resources are in place to rapidly reduce the climate impact of companies and contribute to a sustainable future.'
The CinfraCap initiative is intended to complement a number of other ongoing research and development projects, including Preem CCS, ZEROC, and Northern Lights, which is a full-scale carbon dioxide repository project being run off the west coast of Norway.
