Key takeaways on carbon capture projects announced by the Innovation Fund:
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First Onshore CO2 Storage in the EU: The Danube Removals project in Hungary marks the first onshore CO2 storage project supported by the Innovation Fund in the EU, as well as Hungary’s first commercial-scale CCS project. The project aims to deliver carbon removals through the capture of biogenic CO2 from the fermentation process at the biorefinery. This is a significant milestone in expanding CCS across new geographies and developing potential carbon removal capacity in Europe.
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Offshore CO2 Storage Innovation: Offshore CO2 storage continues to be a priority with several projects selected, including the innovative StarFish project in Norway, which introduces floating injection and storage technology, helping to clear bottlenecks in Europe’s storage capacity.
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Expanding Carbon Capture beyond the North Sea: The Innovation Fund is helping to address the geographical imbalance in access to CO2 storage in Europe, with new projects in the Mediterranean. In Italy, two funded capture projects will likely support the development of the Ravenna CCS project by providing CO2. Spain is also particularly interesting, as it marks country’s first commercial-scale CO2 storage project, the TarraCO2 project. Spain has vast geological storage potential but has been falling behind in developing CCS until now.
“The Innovation Fund’s support for CO2 storage projects beyond the North Sea will greatly aid in decarbonising European industry, helping to address the geographical imbalance in access to storage. The selection of a Spanish project is particularly important, given the country’s large cement and lime industries, for which we urgently need CO2 storage solutions,” said Codie Rossi, Policy Manage Europe, Carbon Capture Program at CATF.
Under this call of Innovation Fund projects, 6.6 Mt of CO2 captured and destined for permanent storage will supply 13% of the Net Zero Industry Act’s target of achieving 50 million tonnes of CO2 injection capacity by 2030. Combined with already funded projects from previous Innovation Fund calls, 37%, or 18.6 Mt/CO2yr of that target is set to be met. This shows there is plenty of CO2 for the obligated entities under the NZIA to store, and that this target is achievable.
“The selection of an onshore storage project in Hungary is a first for the Innovation Fund. This project should offer invaluable lessons for future onshore storage efforts across Europe which could unlock cost savings and further balance storage access,” Rossi added.