Man supplying compressor trains for North Sea Porthos CO2 capture project

Offshore staff

ZURICH, Switzerland — MAN Energy Solutions will provide three integrally geared compressor trains to the Porthos carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the Netherlands.

This is a joint venture between Port of Rotterdam Authority, Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) and N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie.

Porthos, an acronym for the Port of Rotterdam CO₂ Transport Hub and Offshore Storage project, is targeting annual storage of 2.5 MMt of CO₂ annually in depleted gas reservoirs in the Dutch North Sea.

The CO₂ will come from various industrial groups in the Rotterdam port area, a region said to generate more than 16% of the Netherlands’ overall Dutch CO₂ emissions.

MAN’s integrally geared compressor trains will compress the carbon for onward transport and injection into a sealed reservoir of porous sandstone more than 3 km beneath the North Sea. Over a 15-year period, 37 MMt of CO₂ are due to be injected for permanent storage. 

Porthos has agreements to capture emissions from Air Liquide, Air Products, Exxon Mobil and Shell for feeding through a common pipeline that will run 30 km through Rotterdam’s port area.

MAN will initially supply three RG 28-6 type compressor trains with two more likely to be added at a later stage of the project. They will be located at a station on the Maasvlakte extension to Europoort.

Upon arrival, the CO₂ will be compressed to different discharge pressure levels and up to a maximum of 180 bar, with each compressor accommodating up to 250 t/hour of CO₂.

The work scope includes a dynamic process simulation to enable the compressor system to operate to the max. in terms of process efficiency.

From the compressor station, a 22-km subsea pipeline will transport the CO₂ in gaseous form to the P18-A platform where it will be pumped into the depleted P-18 gas fields 3,200-3,500 m subsurface. The systems should be operational by 2026.

Dr. Marco Ernst, head of sales and project management CCS at MAN Energy Solutions, said, “Our RG compressor design with integrated gearbox and individual stages operating at their own optimized speeds is ideal for CO₂ compression with very high-pressure ratios.”

10.27.2023