AMSTERDAM, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Europe now hosts its largest carbon capture and storage operation, built by Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara International at its Sluiskil plant in the southern Netherlands.
The launch marks a critical test for a technology the European Union considers essential to meeting its 2050 net-zero target. Industrial processes like chemical manufacturing currently lack low-carbon alternatives, forcing policymakers to bet on carbon removal systems despite years of disappointing results.
From 2026, the Sluiskil facility will capture and liquefy up to 800,000 metric tons of CO2 annually. Northern Lights, a transport and storage operator, will then ship the carbon to Norway and inject it 2.6 km beneath the seabed on the country’s continental shelf. Yara projects roughly 12 million tons of CO2 will leave the site over a 15-year period.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere called the project both scientifically advanced and commercially viable. He pointed to industrial sectors as the core climate battleground, where labor, capital, and technology intersect with energy systems.
But the technology carries heavy baggage. Decades of European CCS initiatives have stalled over cost concerns and fierce opposition from environmental groups. Critics argue the approach gives oil and gas producers a license to keep extracting fossil fuels while dangling future emissions capture as a solution.
The Sluiskil opening arrives as the EU scrambles to scale up carbon removal infrastructure. Whether this facility can overcome the sector’s troubled history remains an open question. Its performance over the next several years will likely shape how aggressively Brussels pushes CCS across other industrial hubs.
