The major part (60 million Euros) is reserved for a European tender for medium-sized CO2 storage projects with 10 years duration and planned capacity of 0.4 million tonnes of CO2 storage per year. The remaining 20 million Euros will be spent on CO2 capture research projects.

Erik Lysen, coordinator of the Dutch CO2 capture and storage programme (CATO) says: “This budget will allow us to gain experience with large scale CO2 storage in the Netherlands. We will be able to monitor the stored gas, to assess the risks involved and to assess the reliability of the covering geological layers.”

Lysen stresses that it’s mainly storage that the budget is reserved for. He therefore expects parties to apply for the tender who already have access to available CO2 streams. Examples would be refineries or purification projects for natural gas.

The Netherlands is believed to have large storage capacities in aquifers and empty gas fields. The total capacity in onshore gas fields is estimated to be 9,000 megatonnnes, which equals approximately 45 years of current Dutch CO2 emissions.

More information:

CATO-project

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