Scotland’s Industrial Heartland Wins A CCS Project

Acorn CCS Project To Partner With INEOS And Petroineos At Grangemouth To Capture And Store Up To 1 Million Tonnes Of CO2 By 2027

Map Of The Acorn Project (Image Courtesy Of Pale Blue Dot Energy)

Storegga, an independent UK company pioneering carbon reduction and removal for a net-zero world, and lead developer of the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Hydrogen Project in North East Scotland, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with INEOS and Petroineos at Grangemouth to work together to develop Scotland’s first CCS system linking Scotland’s industrial heartland to the Acorn CO2 transport and storage hub in northeast Scotland by 2027.

INEOS and Petroineos own and operate one of Scotland’s largest manufacturing sites at Grangemouth. This initiative will cover their entire Grangemouth site and will enable the capture and storage of approximately 1.1 million tons (1 million tonnes) a year of CO2 by 2027, with the potential to capture even more volumes in the future.

The announcement presents a pathway for Scotland to help meet its ambitious climate targets through effective CCS. INEOS and Petroineos are the latest big industrial emitters to join the Scottish Cluster, which makes use of the Acorn Project Infrastructure to enable CCS, hydrogen, and other low-carbon technologies in Scotland and across the United Kingdom.

The Acorn project is currently in the detailed engineering and design phase of development and is planned to be operational by the mid 2020’s, with the potential of achieving more than half of the 10 MT per year of CO2 storage targeted by the UK government’s Ten Point Plan for a green Industrial Revolution by 2030. “The Acorn Project partners [Storegga, Shell, and Harbour Energy] are delighted that INEOS and Petroineos have entered into an MoU with Acorn, which is a really significant step in managing Scotland’s industrial emissions,” said Nick Cooper, CEO of Storegga. “The Acorn CCS and hydrogen project is advanced, highly scalable, and has clear visibility of a large CO2 customer base. Acorn provides critical carbon reduction infrastructure to the growing Scottish Cluster of emitters and to the wider UK.”

“INEOS and Petroineos at Grangemouth recognize the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our industrial processes,” said Andrew Gardner, chair of INEOS. “As one of Scotland’s largest manufacturers and employers, we acknowledge we are operating a CO2-intensive industry and we have a significant role to play in helping Scotland reach its carbon-zero target by 2045. We have already made significant reductions since taking ownership of the site and we are delighted to be taking this further by supporting the Acorn CCS Scottish Cluster bid. Once operational, the CCS system will provide an essential route to permanently and safely capture and store CO2 emissions for large industrial emitters throughout Scotland with significant positive impact for climate change and the country.”