Partners in the Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project have announced that the Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell will assume the Technical Developer role for the project.
Shell, Harbour Energy and Storegga are partners in the Acorn CCS project, with Storegga taking the lead role through its Pale Blue Dot Energy subsidiary. It seeks to establish carbon capture at St. Fergus and transport the captured carbon through the Goldeneye pipeline for storage about 60 miles away, in sandstone rock more than a mile and a half below the seabed.
This will be accompanied by the Acorn Hydrogen project, which seeks to transform natural gas into hydrogen that burns cleanly, with the carbon dioxide emissions being mitigated by the Acorn CCS network.
The partners behind the projects said:
“These projects establish St Fergus as the hub for the Scottish Cluster as a key enabler in the transition to low carbon energy, and create growth potential for future CO2 transportation and storage.”
Shell, which also produces a range of lubricant products, will leverage its experience and capabilities for major infrastructure projects to plan and execute the technical aspects of the project.
Acorn CCS Phase 1 is expected to become operational in the middle of this decade. It has been specially designed to avoid the considerable capital costs associated with CCS projects by repurposing existing pipeline infrastructure and capturing existing carbon emissions that come from the processing units at the gas terminal at St. Fergus, with additional carbon dioxide being imported later from other sources.
