What is
Project
Greensand?
Project Greensand is working towards enabling Denmark to use CO2 storage as part of the solution to the climate challenges.
The consortium consists of 23 Danish and international partners who contribute with expertise from transportation, storage and monitoring of CO2 in the subsoil. The consortium's members include everything from Danish and international companies, research institutes, universities, and start-ups.
The project
We are already underway with a green transformation of Denmark. Solar cell panels are being installed, offshore wind farms are being built, and we are replacing petrol and diesel cars with electric cars. These are all steps in the right direction - but it is not enough. If we are to solve the climate challenges and achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement, we must also capture CO2 from emissions and store it.
The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) points to CO2 capture and storage as an effective tool for rapidly reducing our CO2 emissions, and in Denmark we have decided that CO2 storage must be a key part in achieving our climate goals. Project Greensand is the most mature project for storage of CO2 in Denmark with the possibility of storing up to 1,5 million tonnes of CO2 per year in 2025/2026 and up to 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year in 2030. This corresponds to emissions from approximately 725.000 Danes a year - or more than 13% of Denmark's annual CO2 emissions.
Project Greensand is supported by the Danish state through the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program - EUDP.
The goal
The goal for Project Greensand is to help establish a value chain for transportation and geological CO2 storage offshore in Denmark in 2025/2026. The project is currently in the pilot phase, which is called phase 2. Here the project is developed and demonstrated. The first CO2 to be stored in the North Sea will be sailed from Antwerp in Belgium to the Nini platform in the North Sea. Here it is sent underground via the existing offshore platform and a dedicated well for the purpose. The final stop for the CO2 is in a sandstone reservoir 1800 meters below the seabed, where it is permanently stored.
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Geological and production data on the Nini field have been collected for more than 20 years. This means that the consortium's leading partners INEOS and Wintershall Dea know the structures of the underground extremely well. All this data is important knowledge when the CO2 is to be sent underground - and subsequently monitored carefully to ensure efficient and secure storage.
2021-2023
Pilot Project - Nini West
The CO2 for the pilot project comes from the Ineos Oxide factory in Belgium, where CO2 is already being captured. It is made liquid and sailed in special containers for the Nini West platform in the North Sea. Here the CO2 is sent down through an existing well dedicated for the injection of CO2. 1.800 meters below the seabed, the CO2 reaches a reservoir of sandstone, where it is stored permanently.
Timeline
2022-2025/2026
Full scale – Nini West + Main – storage capacity up to 1,5 million tonnes CO2/year
The storage area is extended to the Nini Main field. Here, the CO2 is transported on special ships that can transport more CO2 than the containers in the pilot project. The CO2 is transferred via a pumping system to the Nini platform and then pumped into the sandstone reservoirs through newly established CO2 injection wells.
2025/2026-2030
Siri Fairway Expansion Project - storage capacity up to 8 million tonnes CO2/year
In this phase, the storage areas will be expanded to include the so-called "Siri Fairway". It includes the remaining fields in the Siri area, so the storage capacity potentially reaches up to 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
The consortium behind
Project Greensand
The consortium behind Project Greensand consists of 23 different Danish and international partners, all of whom work to make a significant contribution to the green transition in Denmark. The members of the consortium contribute with expert knowledge on all parts of the process when CO2 is to be stored underground.
The entire process of CO2 storage is represented in the consortium. This means that some consortium members carry out initial studies or transport CO2 while others have built up in-depth knowledge in CO2 storage or in monitoring and measuring the process.
