Crop nutrition company Yara announced the inauguration of its new carbon capture facility at the company’s Yara Sluiskil ammonia and fertilizer plant in the Netherlands.

Capable of capturing and liquefying up to 800,000 tons of CO2 annually from ammonia production, the project marks largest industrial carbon capture facility in Europe to date.

Additionally, with carbon captured from the new facility set to be transported and stored in Norway, the project also represents the first complete cross-border value chain for capturing, transporting and permanently storing CO2.

Svein Tore Holsether, President and CEO of Yara International, said:

“The carbon capture facility in Sluiskil proves that large-scale industrial decarbonization is possible today. As global competition intensifies, Europe must find ways to cut emissions while keeping industry, jobs and critical value chains in Europe. That is exactly what this project is about.”

According to Yara, the new project will enable the company to reduce the carbon footprint of its production and support low-carbon value chains across agriculture, industry, energy and shipping, including providing low-carbon fertilizers to support more sustainable food production, low-carbon ammonia for industrial applications and clean energy solutions, and low-carbon fuels for the maritime sector.

In 2023, Yara signed the first-ever commercial cross-border CO2 transport and storage agreement with Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies joint venture Northern Lights to store 800,000 tonnes of CO2 from Yara Sluiskil. The Northern Lights project was launched in late 2020, as the transport and storage component of Longship, the Norwegian Government’s full-scale carbon capture and storage project. Longship was unveiled in September 2020, with the government describing carbon capture and storage as a prerequisite for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement climate targets.

Under the agreement, CO2 from the plant will be captured, compressed and liquified in the Netherlands, and then transported for permanent storage 2,600 meters under the seabed in the Norwegian North Sea.

Tim Heijn, Managing Director of Northern Lights, said:

“We are proud to start operations together with Yara and to see the agreement signed in 2023 become reality. Together, we are demonstrating that capture and cross-border CO₂ transport and storage is a viable solution for European industry. This is an important step in the development of Europe’s carbon management market and shows what is possible when industry and governments work together to build the infrastructure needed for Europe’s transition.”

The project is expected to capture and store approximately 12 million tons of CO2 over 15 years.