This decision clears the way for expected investments of more than $150 million across the Greensand carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain, the partners said.

Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of Ineos, said: "This is a breakthrough for carbon capture and storage. Greensand Future will be the first CO₂ storage facility in operation in the EU supporting both Danish and EU’s climate objectives.”

Greensand Future is a full industrial CCS value chain built on a scalable platform. This platform allows for the gradual expansion of storage capacity as CO₂ volumes increase. It is directly applicable to other onshore and offshore storage projects, contributing to the much-needed global acceleration of CCS deployment.

Mads Gade, head of Denmark at Ineos Energy, added: “With Greensand Future and the establishment of the full value chain we are sending an important message to the Danish and European emitters currently considering large-scale capture projects, that it can be done.”

Greensand Future aims to capture and store 400,000 t/y of CO₂ as a start allowing for the gradual expansion of storage capacity towards 2030 as CO₂ volumes increase with a potential to store up to 8,000,000 t/y of CO₂.

The European Commission has estimated that the European Union will need to establish a carbon storage capacity of 250 million t/y of CO₂ by 2040 to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. CCS is also considered a key technology in reaching the Danish 2045 net-zero targets.

According to the project partners, the CO₂ in the first phase of Greensand Future will be captured and liquified at Danish biomethane production plants, transported to the port of Esbjerg, and then shipped by Royal Wagenborg to the Nini field.

Mads Gade, head of Denmark at Ineos Energy, commented: “Last year we were the first in the world to succeed in developing a value chain for safe and efficient capture, transport and storage of CO₂ across national borders.”

“It is documented and independently verified that Greensand has a well-functioning storage, where large amounts of CO₂ that would otherwise have been emitted into the atmosphere can be stored,” Gade added.