The EU will give Repsol €205 million for a CO2 storage facility off the coast of Tarragona.
The project, still "in a very early phase," would help reduce emissions by 30%.
TarragonaThe European Commission has made public the aid it grants to 77 projects that are committed to decarbonization, one of the chosen ones being the storage of CO2 that the energy company Repsol is considering opening underwater, in a cavity located 50 kilometers from Amposta. In total, the European Union Innovation Fund will provide Repsol with €205 million if it decides to move forward with the storage facility. However, first, the State must grant the company a research permit—which has already been requested—and the conclusions of this research, which could last up to four years, must be favorable both for the environment and for the return on investment that it would represent for the company. "We are very pleased and proud to receive this European support for the TarraCO₂ project," stated Javier Sancho, director of Repsol's industrial complex in Tarragona, although he made it clear that "the project is still in a very early phase." Sancho also stated that "without technologies such as CO₂ capture and storage, key sectors such as petrochemicals, steel production, and cement are at risk of relocation."
The European Union has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, and year after year the cost to be paid increases based on the amount of pollution. Some sectors, such as the chemical and cement industries, are struggling to achieve these goals because the industrial process itself already emits a lot of CO.2Faced with this situation, both the European Commission, which will award a total of €4.8 billion in aid under this call, and the affected sectors are investing in what are known as CCUS (carbon capture, transport, storage and utilization) technologies. Basically, these technologies involve capturing CO2 directly from the sites where it is being emitted, transport it through pipelines within the sea, and store it underground, taking advantage of subsoil cavities.
The project in question focuses on a type of natural storage located 45 kilometers from the coast and at a depth of more than 1,000 meters. It has the capacity to store up to 54 million tons of CO2 And the company, according to the project published by the European Commission, plans to inject two million tons, which would represent a 30% reduction in emissions. The natural deposit is located "in an area where there are chemical and cement producers," the project highlights.
A proven method
Although it may seem like a new technology, there are examples of this practice dating back to 1996, when Norway launched the Sleipner reservoir. "One million tons of CO are injected into this reservoir each year."2, and around 40 million tons are stored annually worldwide," explains Victor Vilarrasa, CSIC researcher and author of a study published two years ago in Geophysical Research LettersOne of the conclusions of his research was that CCUS is a very safe option and one of the paths toward decarbonization. As this engineer explains, "with the temperature and pressure in the subsoil, this gas almost becomes liquid, so more can fit." His study observed spaces where CO was already present.2 "naturally trapped" and found that "at depths of more than a kilometer, leaks were minimal." In the event of an escape, "like CO2 It's acidic, so it would lower the pH, but a single leak would be diluted in such a large sea. Furthermore, all these projects require monitoring to ensure that CO2 levels don't rise.2 and if it goes up, you can act," he explains.
In the future, all the CO2 Stored it could even serve as fuel (it has already been done throughout history), although at the moment this practice is very expensive.
