DecarbonICE

Challenge

Denmark has set ambitious goals for reducing CO2 emissions, which can only be achieved through large-scale implementation of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Ørsted has already received funding for a project capturing and storing 400,000 tons annually from the Avedøre and Asnæs power plants, and the government recently announced two additional major CCS tenders.

Connecting small and medium-sized emitters scattered across Denmark with pipelines is not realistic. It is expected that the state, through Evida, will construct a few main pipelines to storage sites onshore or to ports for offshore storage.

Small and medium-sized emitters will therefore need to transport CO2 directly to onshore storage facilities, hubs connected to main pipelines, ports for offshore storage, or facilities that utilize CO2, such as PtX plants.

Competing solutions plan to transport CO2 in liquid form under high pressure and cryogenic temperatures in specialized tank trucks or ships. However, such vehicles are currently in limited supply, extremely costly, and cannot realistically be produced at the pace required. Additionally, transporting CO2 in liquid form and as a gas raises significant safety concerns. This combination makes the large-scale deployment of CCS unrealistic in the short and medium term, jeopardizing the achievement of green targets.

Solution

Previous CCS initiatives have targeted large emitters but overlooked the vast number of small and medium-sized emitters. Instead of transporting CO2 in liquid form via pipelines or specialized vehicles, we have developed a value chain based on an alternative solution: transporting CO2 in solid form as dry ice in insulated standard containers using conventional trucks or ships. This approach makes our Carbon Capture and Storage as a Service (CCaS) solution highly competitive in terms of cost and scalability while eliminating safety risks.

Our dry ice concept, protected under the trademark DecarbonICE™, provides safe and cost-effective CO2 transport using existing infrastructure, eliminating the need for expensive intermediate storage facilities. We have also identified opportunities for patenting individual components of the solution.

In our service concept, we offer modular, movable, series-produced standard solutions suitable for leasing, unlike large, site-specific installations. These modular products and services are expected to receive general approval for CCS, minimizing bureaucratic processes. The solution will be available as a "plug-and-play" option for future customers.

DecarbonICE has been under development for two years as a technological transport solution that significantly reduces the cost, enhances scalability, and improves safety compared to liquid CO2 transport. As business opportunities have been validated and no other actors have fully embraced the position as a broker, we have decided to establish DecarbonICE as a company.

Our customers will primarily be emitters. For each emitter, we develop a value chain comprising a capture provider, a transport provider, and a storage provider. Based on the offers from these providers, we assemble a package that includes financing and specifies the price per ton of CO2 for the emitter. DecarbonICE takes a premium from this fee as our revenue. We are exploring various servitization models to minimize our risk.

Impact

Significant development and validation work remain, including refining the services within the CCaS concept. A primary focus will be on developing reception facilities for dry ice and scaling/adapting dry ice production machinery to the specific use case of CO2 as dry ice.

This proof-of-concept project aims to validate key aspects of the solution, focusing on the development and testing of the transport and reception facilities for CO2 as dry ice. We will collaborate with the Copenhagen School of Marine Engineering and Technology Management (Maskinmesterskolen København), which offers facilities and expertise for testing and data collection.

The project aims to mature and advance the technology readiness level (TRL) of DecarbonICE in the following areas:

• Advancing technology for CO2 as dry ice from capture to reception facilities from TRL2 to TRL4.
• Market validation of the DecarbonICE business model – Carbon Capture and Storage as a Service (CCSaS).
• Advancing and demonstrating the transport chain from TRL2 to TRL5.

The project will be prepared for an EUDP application, hard funding, and commercial agreements in 2024/2025, accelerating Denmark’s green transition.