The EU Commission announced it will grant Air Liquide, Fluxys Belgium and Port of Antwerp-Bruges €144.6 million for the construction of shared CO2 transport and export facilities on the Antwerp port platform.
The project, named “Antwerp@C CO2 Export Hub”, is set up as an open-access infrastructure to transport, liquefy and load CO2 onto ships for onward permanent offshore storage.
CO2 captured on industrial players sites on the Antwerp port platform will be collected and transported via an intra-port open-access pipeline network.
A shared liquefaction and export terminal will be built, including a CO2 liquefaction unit, buffer storages and marine loading facilities for cross-border shipping.
This project will be among the first and largest multimodal open access CO2 export facilities in the world. The final investment decision is expected in 2023.
As part of the project, Air Liquide and Fluxys intend to form a joint venture for the construction and operation of the CO2 liquefaction and export terminal.
The joint venture will benefit from Air Liquide’s expertise in CO2 liquefaction and handling and from Fluxys’ experience in terminalling activities.
Air Liquide will provide its proprietary technology for the CO2 liquefaction plant. The Port of Antwerp-Bruges reserved a plot of land for the terminal on a strategic location inside the port, and will build new quay infrastructures for the mooring of CO2 ships.
The project is the first phase of Antwerp@C, an initiative gathering Air Liquide, BASF, Borealis, ExxonMobil, INEOS, TotalEnergies, Fluxys and Port of Antwerp-Bruges with the ambition to halve the CO2 emissions in the Antwerp port area by 2030.
In this first phase, Air Liquide and BASF will be the launching customers of the export hub through their joint CO2 capture and storage (CCS) project “Kairos@C”.
The Antwerp@C CO2 Export Hub will have an initial export capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), with the ambition to reach up to 10 Mtpa by 2030.
