It is still very expensive to capture, transport and store the carbon dioxide so this is as much Research & Development at scale as it is a real solution.
From ESG News, June 18:
- Global CCS Breakthrough: Norway’s Longship becomes the first operational end-to-end CCS project, setting a new standard for industrial emissions reduction.
- Major Public Investment: Backed by NOK 22 billion in state funding, the project is Europe’s most significant climate tech investment to date.
- Scalable, Open Infrastructure: Northern Lights, part of Longship, offers open-access CO₂ storage and has already secured international commercial contracts.
Norway has launched Longship, the world’s first full-scale value chain for carbon capture and storage (CCS), marking a global milestone in industrial decarbonization. The project integrates carbon capture, ship-based transport, and permanent geological storage in a single, scalable system.
“Longship demonstrates that it is possible to cut emissions from the industry and waste in a safe and effective way. This is a technological breakthrough and a milestone in Norway’s climate efforts,” said Minister of Energy Terje Aasland.
A Model for Global Industry
Longship currently includes:
- A CO₂ capture facility at Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik (400,000 tonnes/year).
- A planned facility at Hafslund Celsio’s waste-to-energy plant in Oslo (350,000 tonnes/year by 2029).
- Transport of liquefied CO₂ by ship to Øygarden terminal, where it will be injected 2.6 km under the North Sea.
The Northern Lights component, operated by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, enables open-access CO₂ storage and has signed agreements with emitters in Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
“This is not just an important moment for Norway, it is a breakthrough for carbon capture and storage in Europe,” Aasland added.
Scaling for Impact
In Phase 1, Northern Lights will store 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ annually. The Norwegian Ministry of Energy has approved Phase 2, which will expand storage capacity to over 5 million tonnes per year. The EU has designated it a “Project of Common Interest,” unlocking €131 million from the Connecting Europe Facility....
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The cement from Heidelberg's plant was sold forward and initally may have been under-priced:
The cement industry is a natural as a target. In 2007 when China was using as much cement as the rest of the world combined, fully one in 20 molecules released into the atmosphere was from the process of making cement: "Cement: 5% of Global Carbon Dioxide"
That percentage contribution to total release continued to rise until covid exposed what China was doing with the fake economy based on property and construction. Here's a self-reverential post from April 2021:
"Fresh recipes for low-carbon concrete take out $20-million XPrize"
Over the years we've looked at the issues surrounding concrete and the cement that binds it, most recently in March 17's "More On China And Their Fetishization of Sand":
Because the cement in concrete releases CO2 from both the chemical process—decomposition of calcium carbonate (solid) to calcium oxide and carbon dioxide (gas): CaCO3(s) → CaO(s) + CO2(g)
and because this reaction needs fairly high heat to occur (~850 °C) you get a double whammy, 4% of world CO2 production from the calcination and 4% of the world's CO2 production from creating the heat source.....MORE
