While the whole world is doing its best to cut CO2 production, Rotterdam wants to collect as much of the greenhouse gas as it can.

 And a new idea by the Rotterdam Climate Initiative may kill two birds with one stone: European industry will get the chance to dump its surplus CO2 at reduced prices and that, in turn, will provide the port of Rotterdam with a new line of business expected to generate billions.

According to Maarten de Hoog, a director of the Rijnmond Environmental Agency and the project manager of the Rotterdam Climate Initiative, the chance to earn money from CO2 is reason enough to put some weight behind the idea. But it certainly isn't the only reason: if it is shipped to Rotterdam, then greenhouse gas isn't going into the atmosphere.

Mr De Hoog wondered where it could be stored, and found the answer:"In empty gas and oil fields. We're thinking of beginning by using the fields in the North Sea. They're just about exhausted, and they offer a more than adequate capacity."

Network
The plan also proposes that a network of pipelines be laid in the North Sea to connect the Dutch, English and Norwegian oil and gas fields. That would make the storage capacity even greater. More than enough to store the carbon dioxide output from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany for tens, possibly even hundreds, of years.

The layers of earth under the sea are, says de Hoog, ideal for permanent storage. "Natural gas was stored in those fields for millions of years, and always under high pressure. So any gas put back in would definitely stay there. Of course, CO2 has different characteristics to natural gas, which means that we would need to exercise caution. That's why we're carrying out a demonstration project to show that undersea storage is safe."

That said, he states that the idea of CO2 storage is not at all new. Practice tests in Norway and Algeria have already shown that gas stored in this way does not come back to the surface.

   The port of Rotterdam © Willemien Groot                

Lucrative
De Hoog is a real Dutchman. Perhaps even more than that, a real Rotterdammer. Which is why he doesn't want to lose sight of the profitability of this project. The fact that it could generate income speaks, as far as he's concerned, for itself.
The European authorities set a substantial price tag on the emission of CO2, by means of 'emission rights'. But if companies could store CO2 for less money than the market price of emission rights, it would make more sense, believes de Hoog, to choose storage. That would save companies money and boost their good image for them. And if they could display 'CO2-free' on their products, that would be even more of a plus.

Infrastructure
The Rotterdam Climate Initiative is brimming with self-confidence and sees no drawbacks in laying a pipeline network from, for example, the Ruhr region in Germany and Antwerp in Belgium all the way to Rotterdam. But laying a network of pipes with a diameter of at least one metre would require an initial investment of approximately 400 million euros. And that leads immediately to the question of how long it would take recoup such a massive investment.

Marten de Hoog believes it would take a few decades. "But remember," he says, "such a network isn't going to stay in the ground for just ten years. It's going to be there for decades. In fact, it'll probably be there for as long as the installations it's connected to. So to make such a concept affordable, we'll ask for extra CO2 from our neighbouring countries. And the more that's delivered, the cheaper it'll be."

The realisation of the Rotterdam dream now lies mainly with the European Commission. If the emission ceilings for CO2 are strict enough and the emission rights expensive enough, then industry will more than likely choose storage. Simply because it's cheaper. As Marten de Hoog notes: "If we want CO2 storage to be affordable, then we need a serious climate policy."

By Thijs Westerbeek van Eerten*

*RNW translation (ng)

 5 June  2008

[Copyright Radio Netherlands 2008]