Wintershall, Fluxys investigate CO2 transport system expansion

Wintershall Dea and Fluxys agreed to cooperate on a cross-border CO₂ pipeline network connecting southern Germany and Belgium. CO₂ emissions from industrial clusters in southern Germany are to be transported to the German-Belgian border via the planned pipeline network, Wintershall said in release Mar. 7.

The CO₂ will be transported via the CO₂ network in Belgium developed by Fluxys to Zeebrugge on the Belgian North Sea coast, and subsequently to North Sea carbon capture and storage (CCS) sites.

Fluxys is constructing a CO₂ hub in Zeebrugge as a collection point for the onward transport of industrial emissions to storage sites under the seabed of the North Sea. Wintershall Dea is also planning a CO₂ hub—CO₂nnectNow—in Wilhelmshaven on the German North Sea coast.

As part of their cooperation, the companies also will assess joint development of an offshore transport system, starting from Zeebrugge and Wilhelmshaven, to CO₂ storage sites in the North Sea.

There are legal hurdles to transporting CO₂ to storage sites outside Germany, but policymakers are reviewing CCS potential, Wintershall said. In an evaluation report on the Carbon Dioxide Storage Act, Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) recognized that the country would have to safely store up to 73 million tonnes/year of CO₂ to achieve net zero by 2045.