CO2 capture project in Belgium will reduce industrial emissions by 15%

A Carbon Hub at the port of Ghent will help fill tankers with liquefied carbon emissions. The latter will then be sent to where they originally came from – under the ground

Yesterday, authorities in the North Sea Port in Ghent, Belgium, announced a new project for creating a massive carbon capture facility. The aptly named Carbon Hub should capture CO2 from port industry, liquefy it and store it in giant silos.

Then, port authorities would use it to fill up tankers and send them back to countries that produce natural gas, like the Netherlands or Norway. These countries would then pump it back into the ground, returning the carbon from where it came from.

According to an official statement from authorities at the North Sea Port, the Carbon Hub should be completed by 2027 and will be able to remove 6 million tons of CO2 from the industry. This amounts to roughly 15% of Belgium’s total industrial emissions.

Decarbonising Belgium’s Industry

One of the challenges around decarbonising Ghent’s port is that a portion of it is located in the Netherlands. The Rostijnegeleed canal that feeds the city’s waterways ultimately runs into the mouth of the river Shelda, across the border.

This, authorities say, could lead to some difficulty in financing the project, as it will need to have infrastructure both on the Belgian and Dutch sides. However, they point to a similar carbon capture project in the port of Antwerp, which was able to secure 350 million euros in EU funding.

Additionally, estimates put the total CO2 emissions from port industry at about 22 million tons. The new facility would be able to capture around 6 million tons on the Belgian side and an additional 3 million on the Dutch side, as port facilities there are much smaller. This amounts to around 15% of Belgium’s total industrial emissions.

Port authorities have now launched a feasibility study, to determine the best locations and technology, as well as a more concrete timeline for the project’s implementation.

Daan Schalck, CEO of North Sea Port, was quoted in a press release, examining that the port aims to be climate neutral by 2050 and to halve its emissions by 2030, making this project extremely important for Ghent’s maritime industry.