World’s first commercial steel CCS project

What has been described as the world’s first commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility on a steel production plant has been launched in Abu Dhabi. 

The Al Reyadah project is the result of a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Masdar, the Abu Dhabi government clean technology arm. It will capture carbon dioxide from an Emirates Steel Industries manufacturing facility, and the gas will be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Once captured, the CO₂ will be transferred to the Al Reyadah plant for compression and dehydration, where it will then be transferred via a 43 km underground pipeline to ADNOC’s NEB and Bab oilfields for EOR purposes.

Masdar describes the scheme as a CCUS project, the ‘U’ referring to the utilisation of the carbon dioxide to get greater levels of oil out of the ground. Al Reyadah could potentially become the first phase of an industrial-scale CCUS network aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the Abu Dhabi economy and supporting the expansion of a low carbon power generation industry, says Masdar.

The Al Reyadah project is expected to capture and utilise around 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, and is the first iron and steel CCS project of its kind in the world, according to the Global CCS Institute. The project started construction in 2013.

Commenting on the news, Global CCS Institute Chief Executive Officer Brad Page said: ‘CCS is the only technology capable of achieving deep cuts in emissions from necessary industrial production processes such as iron and steel, cement, fertilisers, and natural gas processing so the opening of Al Reyadah is a major achievement in reducing emissions for this industry.’