Wintershall Dea teams up with German terminal operator to develop CO2 hub
German gas company Wintershall Dea has signed a memorandum of understanding with the country's biggest independent liquid bulk terminal operator HES Wilhelmshaven Tank Terminal to develop a CO2 hub in the port of Wilhelmshaven.
The CO2onnectNow hub will receive CO2 captured from German industry, for shipment, and later pipeline delivery, to geological formations in the Norwegian and Danish North Sea for storage. The pair have launched a study on the project's feasibility that they expect to be ready in 2023.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) needs to be developed for Germany to meet its climate goals, Wintershall Dea's senior vice president for carbon management and hydrogen, Klaus Langemann, said in a statement.
"The North Sea, especially Norway and Denmark, offers enormous potential and Wilhelmshaven is perfectly located in north Germany," he said.
Wintershall Dea is striving to build up a hydrogen and CCS business capable of abating 20-30mn metric tons/year of CO2 by 2040. It formed a partnership with Norway's Equinor in August on building a 900-km CO2 transport pipeline linking Germany to underground storage sites off Norway. The pipeline is expected to have a transport capacity of 40mn mt/yr by 2032. It also secured its first CO2 storage licence off Norway earlier this month.
On the hydrogen front, Wintershall Dea recently unveiled plans for the BlueHyNow blue hydrogen project at Wilhelmshaven – a port where Norwegian gas feedstock is brought ashore via pipeline. The plant is envisioned to produce 5.6 TWh of hydrogen annually.