Shell, TotalEnergies in liquid CO2 infrastructure project in Rotterdam

The CO2next project, which is building a liquid CO2 terminal at the Maasvlakte in the port of Rotterdam, that can be used by customers not connected to a CO2 pipeline to ship liquid CO2, has achieved a major milestone by entering a new project phase. European energy firm Gasunie and Royal Vopak have welcomed on board the project petchem firms Shell and TotalEnergies as partners to this partnership, which to date has been led by Gasunie and Vopak.

The terminal will be a critical piece of CO2 infrastructure which can be leveraged as part of the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) chain. The technical feasibility and development of such CCS chain is jointly explored with the Aramis CCS project, to which the terminal will be connected.

The project has also entered the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase with the FEED contract awarded to engineering and technology group Sener.

During the FEED phase the design, the realisation schedule and the cost of the proposed CO2next terminal will be further defined, the relevant permits can be received and customers will be contracted in preparation for the Final Investment Decision (FID) currently planned for 2025.

With the CO2next project, the project partners aim to build an open access liquid CO2 terminal at the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam with jetties foreseen in the Yangtze Canal. The terminal will be able to receive and deliver liquid CO2 via vessels and will be connected to depleted gas fields in the North Sea via the Aramis trunkline for storage. It can also be leveraged as a part of other CCS chains and a potential future Carbon Utilisation Industry.

CO2 infrastructure as foreseen with the proposed CO2next terminal is critical in the context of the Dutch climate agreement and the European Green Deal. The CO2next terminal also contributes to the infrastructure and facilitates CO2 reduction for the industry in Northwest Europe and a CO2-neutral port in Rotterdam by 2050.

Potential customers for the CO2next terminal have been approached in 2022, which to date has led to several customers who are keen to leverage the open access terminal for their decarbonisation needs. The terminal has a launch capacity of approximately 5.4 million tonnes/year, and a potential to grow its capacity to approximately 15 Mtpa, depending on market demand and the development of the Aramis project and other CCS chains.

Following the FID planned for 2025, subject to permits being granted by relevant authorities, the CO2next terminal is currently foreseen to commence commercial operations in 2028.

The CO2next project is subject to customary competition clearance, which the project partners will perform before FID in due course.

Gasunie, Vopak, Shell and TotalEnergies are investigating the development of CO2next, an open access terminal for liquid CO2 on the Maasvlakte in the Port of Rotterdam. Such infrastructures are important in the context of the Dutch climate agreement and the European Green Deal. The independent hub terminal will be able to receive and deliver liquid CO2 via ships (potentially railcars in future) and will be connected to the depleted gas fields in the North Sea, offering transport for substantial volumes of CO2 in the near future. This open access system will make the necessary infrastructures available to all market parties, including parties that do not have a direct connection to a CO2 pipeline. In addition, this planned terminal can be an important catalyst in the creation of a market for the reuse of CO2 as a raw material.