What is happening in the carbon capture and storage market in Europe and Poland?

This article was originally published in Magazyn Biomasa

Poland, thanks to its strategic location and significant carbon storage potential, can become a leader in the development of carbon capture and storage technologies. However, the time has come to accelerate activities in this area.

According to information gathered by CATF, there are 41 commercial carbon capture and storage projects in the United States, Europe, and Africa, as well as countries in the Middle East. Nearly 400 more are under development. 

Counter-intuitively, however, the numbers cited above are not impressive, and the rate of deployment of carbon capture and storage technology is alarmingly low, given the stated goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius. Many more carbon capture and storage projects will be needed if the world is to meet its climate goals.

Carbon capture in Europe and Poland

CCUS, short for carbon capture, utilization, and storage, is a set of technologies aimed at mitigating climate change. These technologies involve “capturing” carbon dioxide by separating it from CO₂-rich emissions produced by industrial plants. Carbon dioxide can be permanently stored so that it does not enter the atmosphere and contribute to climate change, by injecting it into deep rock formations. Captured carbon dioxide can also be used to replace CO₂ from fossil fuels, whether in the production of goods or in industrial processes. 

In Europe, CCUS projects are moving forward, and the momentum is definitely growing. Construction has already been completed on the Northern Lights project in Norway, which is ready to receive captured CO₂ from across Europe. It will be the world’s first cross-border carbon dioxide transport and storage project. It assumes that emitters in Europe will capture CO₂, transport it to Øygarden, and then store it safely in the North Sea under the seabed. 

In the Netherlands, on the other hand, the Porthos project is under construction, which will transport captured CO₂ from emitters near Rotterdam to offshore storage. And in the UK, the government has just unlocked £21.7 billion in funding for two carbon capture and storage clusters.

Poland’s opportunity

Poland, as a country with one of the largest CO₂ storage potentials in Europe, is also one of the leading candidates for CCUS deployment today. And not only because of its storage potential, but also because there are many heavy industries that will need CCUS to decarbonize their operations and avoid paying higher carbon prices in the future. By leveraging its storage resources, Poland can ensure greater economic competitiveness, energy security and significant reductions in carbon emissions. It is clear that in order for Polish industry to remain competitive and for the economy to become net zero-carbon, CCUS must be implemented on a large scale.

Poland is beginning to develop its infrastructure dedicated to CO₂ capture. One of the key projects is the GO4ECOPLANET project, supported by the EU Innovation Fund, which aims to completely decarbonize cement production at Lafarge’s Holcim cement plant in Kujawy. Using Air Liquide’s cryogenic carbon capture technology, the project aims to capture and liquefy about 1 million tons of CO₂ per year, which will then be transported to storage facilities in the North Sea.

By 2027, the GO4ECOPLANET project is expected to capture 10% of the cement sector’s emissions in Poland and create about 250 jobs along the value chain, eliminating 10.2 million tons of CO₂ during the first decade of operation. This will be possible through cooperation with Air Liquide, PKN Orlen, Lafarge and the Port of Gdansk. CO₂ exports, in turn, will be handled within the framework of the ECO2CEE project, recognized as an EU Project of Common Interest. In the first phase until 2030, the goal will be to transport by rail 3 million tons of CO₂ per year to the export terminal – 1 million tons each from the Lafarge plant, the Orlen refinery in Plock, and from other local emitters. Phase two, after 2030, aims to achieve the capacity to transport 9 million tons of CO₂ via pipelines. 

Available funding

Currently, the flagship initiative driving cutting-edge low-carbon technologies in Europe is the Innovation Fund. With a budget of around €40 billion for 2020-2030, financed by auctioning EU ETS emissions allowances, the program supports solutions such as CCUS, low- and zero-carbon manufacturing, innovative renewable energy and energy storage. The Fund aims to position Europe as a leader in clean technologies by supporting innovative projects and funding up to 60% of their total investment and operating costs. Projects are selected based on criteria such as innovation and technological and financial preparedness. Grants are flexibly disbursed according to the financial needs of the project, and funds are released based on key milestones achieved in the project’s life cycle. The Innovation Fund supports several CCUS projects across the EU, including 16 in the last round, which together add up to almost 19 million tonnes of CO₂ to be captured a year.

One of the outstanding projects supported by the Innovation Fund is ANRAV in Bulgaria, which is expected to be the first full-fledged carbon capture and storage project in Eastern Europe. The initiative, which is scheduled to take off in 2028, aims to capture CO₂ emissions from the Devnya cement plant and transport them by pipeline to storage in the depleted Galata gas field in the Black Sea. During the first decade of operation, the ANRAV project is expected to prevent 95% of the plant’s emissions from entering the atmosphere, resulting in a total reduction of 7.8 million tons of CO₂ – about 0.8 million tons per year. This corresponds to almost half of the emissions of the cement sector in Bulgaria. 

ANRAV has received 190 million euros from the Innovation Fund. Poland should also learn from Bulgaria’s example as a country with storage capacity and plans to use it in decarbonization.

The future of carbon capture in Poland

The interest that CCUS is generating shows that the potential of these technologies in transforming industries and meeting climate goals is enormous. With the support of programs such as the Innovation Fund, Europe is taking bold steps toward decarbonizing the most difficult to neutralize sectors. However, the pace of development must be faster if we are to meet the ambitious targets in the global climate agreements. The time has come for large-scale action and Poland, with its potential and proposed projects, has an opportunity to play a leading role in this process. With its strategic location and significant carbon storage potential, it can become a leader in the development of CCUS technologies. Projects such as GO4ECOPLANET and ECO2CEE are paving the way toward a net-zero-emissions future, and the Innovation Fund is providing the necessary resources to accelerate the deployment of these solutions. The future of Polish industry and its ability to compete in global markets therefore depends on the rapid development of CCUS technology.