SINTEF Energy Research to coordinate Horizon 2020 project on connecting CO2 from sources in Europe to a central storage site in the North Sea

Co-blogger: Jens Hetland 

GATEWAY is a project under the European Research and Innovation program Horizon 2020 and according to the competitive low-carbon energy call, LCE-19, emphasis will be placed on accelerating a shift towards deployment of CCS. Notably by developing a model case aimed at commencing an initial cross-border gateway connecting available CO₂ sources and possible sinks.

GATEWAY is one of two new Horizon2020 project we are coordinating: SINTEF Energy Research to coordinate Horizon 2020 project on CO2 capture for a low-emission cement industry.

In the current economic situation in Europe, it seems impossible to create a bankable business case for CCS. The reason is that commercial uncertainty prohibits investments to be made to initiate building of an infrastructure for CO₂ transport, let alone a single gateway. Main reasons are limited or insufficient data on sinks for CO₂ storage (i.e. capacity, availability and suitability), and extensive lead time for enabling new sinks (typically 7-10 years for a greenfield project, according to the IEA RM 2013).

In the current economic situation in Europe, it seems impossible to create a bankable business case for CCS.

The question is how to accelerate the infrastructure deployment under known and unknown uncertainty. It seems evident that significant public investments are needed to unlock the situation, and to incentivise enterprises to make progress on CO₂ capture.

As CCS per se is not profitable under the current energy regime, CCS will depend on the regulatory framework, incentives, and the future cost of emissions. For this reason, CCS is seen as a policy issue, thereby aligned with international harmonisation efforts. CCS is also associated with a perpetual liability for the stored CO₂. Therefore, law and policy issues are central components to be addressed in cost-benefit analyses of CO₂ transport systems.

As CCS per se is not profitable under the current energy regime, CCS will depend on the regulatory framework, incentives, and the future cost of emissions.

In GATEWAY, efforts will be made to attract key players. Different sources of private and public funding will be assessed as to how these sources can be arranged to work together. Subsequent research actions will be aligned with the European Industrial Initiative for carbon capture and storage, launched under the SET-Plan, thus allowing for a timely start of infrastructure planning and development at a European level, in line with the foreseen commercial deployment of CCS technology beyond 2020.

Partners in the project include SINTEF Energy Research (Norway – Coordinator), TNO (Netherlands), Forschungszentrum Julich (Germany), University of Leeds (UK), Progressive Energy Limited (UK) and Ecofys (Netherlands).

On March 24^th, GATEWAY was presented in a Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) meeting in Brussels.

Read more on CCS Value Chain at sintef.no