Copenhagen Port Participates in Carbon Capture and Storage Project

The port of Copenhagen, Denmark announced its participation in an innovative carbon capture project, which can contribute to making the city of Copenhagen CO2 neutral by 2025. According to the Copenhagen Malmö Port (CMP), the Danish-Swedish joint venture that operates the ports of Copenhagen and Malmö, Sweden, it will contribute to the project, storing and distributing captured CO2 contributing to the city of Copenhagen’s goal of becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral capital city.

The project, which will be the first of its kind in Denmark, focuses on developing a facility for the capture of CO2 emissions from the Amager Resource Center (ARC). Located adjacent to the port of Copenhagen, that facility processes the waste from the nearly 650,000 inhabitants and 68,000 businesses in the Copenhagen metropolitan area. The facility emits 560,000 tons of CO2 annually. The project calls for the capture of 90 percent of the annual CO2 emissions or 500,000 tons, which corresponds to approximately one percent of Denmark’s total emissions.

Copenhagen Malmö Port (CMP) role in the project will be to store and distribute the captured CO2 to ships that will transport it to storage in the old oil fields in the North Sea. Once the CO2 is captured at Amager Bakke, it will be transported via a short pipeline to special tanks at CMP’s nearby terminal on Prøvestenen. From there, the CO2 will be pumped aboard ships, which sail it out to the North Sea, where it will be stored in the drained underground oil reservoirs.

“For CMP, this is an excellent example of how the port can play an active role in the green transition and be part of new pioneering climate, technology, which can hopefully serve as inspiration for similar projects with CO2 capture not only in Denmark but also abroad,” said Barbara Scheel Agersnap, CEO, Copenhagen Malmö Port. “I hope that we get a positive response from the EU as a first step on the way to realizing the project.” 

At the end of October, ARC in collaboration with CMP will submit an application to the climate action EU Innovation Fund to receive funding for both the establishment of the facility, which is scheduled for completion in 2025, and its operations. The amount of financial support being applied for is in the range of $80 to $160 million, which will finance up to 60 percent of the costs of the establishment of the facility and its operations for the first ten years.