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Welcome to the October edition of Work In Process – Coalesce Management Consulting’s monthly look at the latest developments in the European Process Manufacturing industry, brought to you by our sector experts. 

This month's stories include: 

  • The launch of the Porthos Project
  • Shell and TotalEnergies gain approval for Aramis CO2 storage project
  • Carbon Connect Delta Program is set to go operational
  • Umicore & PowerCo announce JV 

Watch the video below to hear from Consultant Services Associate, Cain van Heyningen, or read on for all the stories you need to know this month:

Porthos Project Takes CO2 From Rotterdam

Port of Rotterdam’s CO2 transport hub and offshore storage project, also known as Porthos. The largest carbon capture storage project within the Netherlands. 

From 2024 and on, the project aims to have a manual storage of about 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 from the surrounding industry. Specifically, the project will transport co2 to a depleting gas field, 20km off the coast, where after it will be stored at a depth of 3-4km under the northern sea bed. 

The construction of this system will take approximately 2 years. And a key portfolio to be constructed exists at an onshore and offshore pipelines, the compressor station and a modification of the offshore platform. 

During this period the companies will construct the capture installations so that the first CO2 can then be stored in 2024. Once the storage becomes fully operational, the Porthos project is projected to reduce emissions of the Rotterdam industry by approximately 10%. Due to this projection and all-around significance of this project, the EU also made available $102 million in subsidies. 

Shell and TotalEnergies gain approval for Aramis CO2 storage project

For our next story, the Netherlands authority for consumers and markets has recently given approval for Shell and TotalEnergies to collaborate on constructing a new path to CO2 storage in empty natural gas fields in the north sea. In what is better known as the Aramis project, the two competitors plan to create the opportunity for a multitude of interested entities to store co2 on a large scale. 

2 other collaborating partners, Gasunie and Energie Beheer Nederland, plan to build a high-capacity trunkline that connects to empty gas fields, among other activities. 

“The development of carbon capture and storage value chains is essential for decarbonizing industries and achieving carbon neutrality in Europe. Developing large-scale CCUS solutions for hard-to-abate industrial emissions in Europe is fully aligned with our Climate Ambition to get to net zero emissions by 2050 together with society. This is a collective effort in which Aramis’ four leading partners are pooling their expertise and ambitions to meet emitters’ needs,” said Bruno Seilhan, Vice President CCUS at TotalEnergies.

Partners behind Aramis are looking to take final investment decision by 2023 with the eventual goal of being operational by 2026 and aiming to create a strategic relationship with Porthos.

Carbon Connect Delta Program is set to become operational sometime next year. A cross-border consortium including Dow, ArcelorMittal, Fluxys and Gasunie aim to capture about 1 million tonnes of CO2 by the end of 2023 and around 6.5 million tonnes of CO2 by the end of 2026. 

The success of this project appears to be rather crucial for the success of other related projects, for example; without the carbon transport and capture bridging option, the implementation of the other transition paths such as the transformation of production installations to hydrogen and electrification will consequently be put on hold as well. Nevertheless, in cooperation with the Aramis project, the consortium still aims to achieve this goal. 

Umicore & PowerCo launch precursor and cathode JV

As promised, our last story of the day is an exciting update from the electric vehicle industry. Umicore & PowerCo recently announced they will engage in a joint venture for precursor and cathode production materials in Europe. 

From 2025 and on, PowerCo's European battery cell factories will be supplied with key materials, which should grant production goals of cathode materials and of precursors for 160GWh of additional cell capacity per year by the end of the decade. 

This should translate itself to an annual production capacity that will power approximately 2.2million full-electric vehicles. 

Umicore CEO Mathias Miedreich stated: 

“This partnership further strengthens and diversifies our exposure to a major player in the EV value chain and marks an important step in the execution of our strategy to set-up value creative partnerships across the battery value.

It is also a strong signal of recognition of our product and process expertise and a testament to the success of our strategy to establish sustainable industrial-scale, closed loop battery materials value chains in key regions.

We are supporting our customers on their path to electrification, right from the start, and are very pleased to partner with PowerCo and support Volkswagen in their fast transformation towards sustainable electric mobility.” 

In addition to Umicore’s delivery of key materials, Umicore and PowerCo will also collaborate on the sustainable sourcing of raw materials and eventually, Umicore will also supply refining materials for PowerCo. 

True Expertise Delivered

If you have an advanced engineering project coming up, CMC provides engineering, construction and project management services to help you deliver your project ahead of schedule and under budget. Learn more by reaching out directly to our industry experts.  

Work In Process with Cain van Heyningen will return next month. Follow us on LinkedIn and Youtube to keep up with all the latest news.