The French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) has selected the France Nord carbon dioxide (CO2) storage project, led by a consortium of French and European manufacturers and research organizations, to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
The project will examine the feasibility of installing, in a sedimentary basin in the north central part of France, a CO2 transportation and storage demonstration infrastructure to be potentially used by several CO2-emitting industries.
The EUR54m France Nord project will be 40%-financed by ADEME from the research demonstrator fund set up as part of France’s Grenelle environmental process and 60% by the other consortium partners.
The consortium comprises six of French manufacturers (Air Liquide, EDF, GDF Suez, Lafarge, Total and Vallourec), three French research organizations (BRGM, IFP and INERIS), and two German research organizations (EIFER in Karlsruhe and GeoForschungsZentrum in Potsdam).
According to Total, the availability of a storage site near CO2-emitting industries in France would make it easier to assess the cost and feasibility of this solution on an industrial scale.
Total said that detailed technical studies will be conducted in order to select a suitable geological site for storing CO2 in deep saline aquifers. The studies will also identify appropriate infrastructure to transport the carbon dioxide from the industrial facilities to the storage facility.
After two years of study, the partners, in cooperation with public authorities and local residents, expect to be able to recommend a site for the demonstration facility.