Port of Antwerp takes next step towards halving CO2 emissions

February 22, 2022, by Ajsa Habibic

Antwerp@C project, which aims to cut CO2 emissions within the Port of Antwerp’s perimeters by 50% by 2030, has entered its engineering phase with a final investment decision expected by the end of 2022.

The engineering studies follow the completion of a feasibility study in 2021 and will investigate the construction of a central “backbone” within the port, along the industrial zones on both banks of the river Scheldt.

The studies will also look into a shared liquefaction unit for the interim storage of the CO2 along with marine loading facilities for cross-border shipping.

Fluxys, Air Liquide and Pipelink, a subsidiary of Port of Antwerp, have invited all the companies operating within the port area to register their interest in the services that will be provided by Antwerp@C. The responses will help determine the scale of the final investment.

Once complete, Antwerp@C will cost-effectively collect CO2 for offshore sequestration or to make it available for reuse.

This cross-border carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) project is said be among the first and world’s largest multimodal open access CO₂ export facilities.

Launched in 2019, the project is a joint initiative of seven chemical and energy companies to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of building CO2 infrastructure in the port.

The consortium consists of Air Liquide, BASF, Borealis, ExxonMobil, INEOS, Fluxys, the Port of Antwerp and Total.

The current work is partly funded by a Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) grant, by subsidies from the Flemish government and by contributions of all consortium participants.

Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO of Port of Antwerp, said: ” We are very keen to move on to this next phase of engineering studies as this project will contribute to the Flemish, Belgian and European climate goals and to the increased EU 2030 targets for emission reduction to at least 55%.“

Chairman of Antwerp@C Wouter de Geest added that the decision to start the engineering of the project reconfirms the commitment of all partners towards their climate ambitions.