Mark Hughes
COO, NECCUS

I was delighted to be part of the ‘CCUS Sector’s Regional Mission to Germany’ at the invitation of Scottish Government, which took place on 22-24 October.  The purpose of the visit was to discuss opportunities for cooperation between Scotland and Germany in the field of carbon capture, use and storage and involved visiting three German states over the course of three days. It was hectic, fun, very interesting and allowed us to get closely acquainted with the German rail network as we travelled approximately 700 km from north to south in a short period of time! (No, the trains were not on time!)

In addition to Scottish Government representatives (Catherine Reeves and John Hughes), the group included representatives from the following organisations (NECCUS members and partners alike):

CCSA (Rebecca Bell)
CCU International (Francis Doherty)
Centre for Energy Policy (Dr. Antonius Katris)
Crown Estate Scotland (Scott Ross, Jamie Hart)
Net Zero Technology Centre (Iain Martin)
Scottish Development International (Murray Bainbridge)
Storegga (Tom Rawles, Dewi ab-Iorwerth)
The Carbon Removers (Raphael Pfaeltzer)
Veri Energy (Chris Armes)

Background 
Catherine Reeves, (Head of Scottish Government’s Berlin office) pointed out in advance of the trip, that with Germany having recently launched a €6 billion programme to deploy carbon capture at scale, (although the relevant laws are still going through the Bundestag), the mission was an opportunity to demonstrate the exciting activity in the Scottish CCUS sector, and to pave the way for future cooperation between the nations.

For Germany, of course, it is still early days – but it is already clear that cooperation will be beneficial for both sides. Germany is one of Europe’s largest emitters, with a strong base in manufacturing, which is largely made up of sectors that are difficult to decarbonise.

Scotland is a country that wants to use its decades-long tradition in oil and gas production to drive the green transition in Europe. This includes expertise, supply chains, carbon capture technologies, carbon transport experience and, capacity under Scottish waters in the North Sea. Throughout the trip German colleagues were urged to encourage their politicians to work on ensuring alignment of the UK-EU ETS.

Day 1 – Hamburg (@ Hamburg Messe, Carbon Capture Technology World Expo)

Catherine Reeves opened the meeting, and John Hughes introduced the delegation and highlighted the unique selling points of Scotland’s offering as a storage destination for German industry’s CO2 emissions. The key theme of the mission was to promote Scotland’s vast geological storage potential and make German emitters aware of what Scotland can offer – including a world class Supply Chain with extensive capabilities through decades of experience in the North Sea oil and gas industry. In addition, the delegation emphasised that repurposing existing pipeline infrastructure will have a substantially positive impact on both project costs and lead times.

Project developers Storegga, Veri Energy and The Carbon Removers presented details of their CO2 Transport and Storage projects, and the Net Zero Technology Centre discussed outcomes from recent reports from CCSA and Xodus which concluded that sequestering CO2 in the UK North Sea could save European emitters an average of 20% compared to other non-UK storage sites.

This was followed by a round table discussion with key ports in the north of Germany – Hamburg and Bremen – who outlined their plans to be CO2 hubs for not only Germany but other neighbouring countries such as Austria and Poland. The remainder of the day was spent visiting the exhibition in the Conference Halls before departing for Dusseldorf.  I managed to scout out a few NECCUS members such as Shell and Veolia who had a strong presence on their stands.

Day 2 – Dusseldorf (@EUREF Offices – North Rhine Westphalia)

North Rhine Westphalia is an industrial powerhouse, with a population of 18M and over ten thousand companies in the region. Key industries are chemicals, cement/ lime and glass manufacturing. North Rhine-Westphalia aims to become the first climate-neutral industrial region in Europe. To achieve this, the state’s energy and climate protection agency, NRW.Energy4Climate, supports companies and municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia in efficiently implementing climate protection measures and benefiting from them. The goal is to accelerate the transformation across sectors in the four key areas of energy, industry, heating & buildings, and mobility, which together account for more than 90 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in North Rhine-Westphalia.

We spent the day at NRW.Energy4Climate offices in the EUREF campus, just outside Dusseldorf city, again highlighting the key benefits that Scotland can offer through reliable storage solutions, especially in terms of resilience due to the collaboration of the major developers Storegga and Veri Energy. This arrangement ensures that if one storage site is down (e.g. due to planned or unplanned maintenance) then the other store can step in to receive CO2.

NRW presented details on volumes of emissions, and we heard from the German Lime Association which produces 6.7Mtpa of CO2 (from production of 6MT of lime), two-thirds of which comes from the raw material itself. Some pilot projects are underway with major industry players such as Lhoist and Air Liquide (Everest – a carbon capture project a Europe’s largest lime plant: https://www.lhoist.com/en/everest).

OGE who operate the gas transmission system in Germany are looking at building grid infrastructure to transport CO2 (60Mtpa; 50% of which originates in NRW) and are looking to include emissions from countries south of Germany who will need a transit route through the country to get to the North Sea. 

Concerns were raised around infrastructure costs and uncertainty regarding decisions around pipeline construction – to go north to ports such as Hamburg, or west to the Netherlands (Rotterdam) or Belgium (Antwerp)?

The key Scottish developers were invited to present their projects (Veri Energy, Storegga, The Carbon Removers and NZTC) and then all remaining delegates were able to present on their own organisations – so rest assured that NECCUS was duly promoted to the German delegation. Well done Team Scotland – there were excellent contributions from all the Scottish delegates who presented a comprehensive and integrated solution to the German participants.

Day 3 – Stuttgart (@ZSW – Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Centre, Baden-Wurttemberg)

An early start kicked off with an introduction to ZSW, which was established in 1988 by the German state of Baden-Württemberg, together with universities, research institutions, and commercial firms. It is a non-profit foundation with approximately 350 employees and 100 student and scientific assistants and is one of the leading energy research institutes in Europe. Joint ventures and the growing proportion of industry commissions demonstrate the consistent relevance of its work. Key research areas are:

  • Hydrogen technology
  • Electrochemical energy conversion and storage
  • Fuel cell development and manufacturing
  • Renewable fuels and process engineering
  • Energy economy systems analysis

The delegates again expertly presented what Scotland can offer – including a joint presentation from Chris Armes (Veri Energy) and Tom Rawles (Storegga) which reinforced collaboration between the projects and offered a unique selling point for CO2 storage in Scotland.

After the presentations delegates toured the facility and I came into contact with a Direct Air Capture (DAC) unit for the first time and witnessed the extensive test facilities used for testing electrolyser stacks from various manufacturers. There was a sense of strong regional pride and a commitment to local content – some devices were labelled ‘Made in Baden- Wurttemberg’. At least 40% of suppliers and components for the units are from the Baden- Wurttemberg area.

Interestingly, this area was the only location where onshore storge was being considered, despite very strong public opinion which is seriously opposed to this. This is understood to be a short term solution only, utilising depleted reservoirs with limited storage capacity.

Conclusion
This was an extremely worthwhile visit for the Scottish Government and all delegates. The German emitters are now fully aware of the CCS offering in Scotland and the status of the two major projects. There are many opportunities for collaboration and mutually beneficial relationships due to significant emissions on one side and huge storage capacity on the other. I’m sure that future efforts by Scottish Government and Scottish Development International to progress these conversations will be fully supported by all the participating organisations and by Scottish industry in general. The resounding message from the team was that “Scotland is Open for Business”

NECCUS will be ready to lend its weight and contribute where necessary to develop these relationships which will hopefully lead to commercial agreements between the parties.

German Organisations:
Renewable Energy Hamburg; Hamburg Innovativ, NRW.Energy4Climate, Ministerium für Umwelt, Klima und Energiewirtschaft Baden-Württemberg, Baden-Württemberg International (BWI)
Carbon Capture Technology World ExpoMinisterium für Wirtschaft, Industrie, Klimaschutz und Energie des Landes NRWMinisterium für Umwelt, Klima und Energiewirtschaft Baden-Württemberg