Report

CCU market options in the Rotterdam Port Industrial Complex

At the request of Deltalinqs and Uniper a market study was carried out to assess current developments on use of CO2 as an industrial feedstock. The political background is twofold: the sense of urgency about CO2 emissions reduction engendered by the Paris Climate Accord, and the absence of incentives for major investments in such reduction generated by the low carbon price under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Against this background, what is the potential for recasting CO2 as an industrial feedstock? One thing is clear, business cases for new production technologies based on CO2 must not rely on the ETS price for CO2 reduction. On this premise CE Delft collaborated with Deltalinqs and several companies operating in the Rotterdam Port Industrial Complex to critically examine current production processes and short- and long-term market opportunities for using CO2 as a feedstock. This complex emits 25-30 Mt CO2 annually from its production processes. This market study shows that at least 30% of this can be avoided if concerted efforts are made in the coming years to develop pilots and demonstration projects for processes using CO2 as a feedstock.