Linde Engineering to Deliver World-Scale Coastal CO₂ Liquefaction Plant to Yara

The Sluiskil project forms a key part of Yara’s clean ammonia initiative, in which each year 800,000 tons of CO₂ will be captured, liquefied, loaded onto special ships, and then subsequently locked away permanently below the seabed off the coast of western Norway. The CO₂ liquefaction plant will be built on-site next to Yara’s existing ammonia plant. After start-up in 2026, it will be a part of one of the first commercial carbon-capture-storage (CCS) ventures in Europe.

Recovering CO₂ and injecting it into deep geological storage repositories is an important measure to reduce global warming caused by fertilizer production, which is inherently hard to abate.

“This collaboration with Yara confirms Linde Engineering’s leading position in terms of technology and execution know-how for projects of this scale. It is also an important step on the path to net-zero for the fertilizer industry. Coastal CO₂ hubs, which load liquid CO₂ into ships for sequestration, are an asset in Europe’s decarbonization strategy with many more facilities in the planning stage,“ says Juergen Nowicki, Executive Vice President Linde plc and CEO of Linde Engineering.

“Yara, as a frontrunner, has found the project to be complex yet incredibly valuable,” states Michael Schlaug, Vice President of Yara Netherlands. “The energy we’ve invested in it is more than worth it because we’re paving the way for CCS as a technology in Europe and giving impetus to a clean hydrogen economy. Additionally, this investment signifies that the parent company sees our Sluiskil plant as a key asset within Europe. The investment also ensures the preservation of ammonia production and technological knowledge, decarbonization of the food chain, thus securing strategic autonomy for Europe.”

The plant to be supplied by Linde will prepare the CO₂ from Yara's ammonia plants for transportation. This will be achieved through processes including compressing, drying and liquefying using a refrigerant. The liquid CO₂ will be stored in horizontal tanks with a total storage volume of about 15,000 m³, before shipping for sequestration. As the CO₂ source is not connected to the final storage location by pipeline, the processing and liquefaction of the CO2 by a corresponding Linde plant make economical transport possible in the first place – in general possible by ship, train, or truck.

Yara’s Sluiskil site has operated since 1929 and is Europe’s largest ammonia and mineral fertilizer production site. It currently produces around 3.2 million tons of CO₂ each year, of which 1.4 million tons finds application in commercial greenhouses, carbonated drinks, and urea for NOx removal in diesel engines. Currently approximately 1.8 million tons each year of CO₂ are emitted to the atmosphere. Linde’s plant will liquify roughly 50 percent of the total CO₂ emissions that are not utilized elsewhere.

About Linde

Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2023 sales of $33 billion. We live our mission of making our world more productive every day by providing high-quality solutions, technologies and services which are making our customers more successful and helping to sustain, decarbonize and protect our planet.

The company serves a variety of end markets such as chemicals & energy, food & beverage, electronics, healthcare, manufacturing, metals and mining. Linde's industrial gases and technologies are used in countless applications including production of clean hydrogen and carbon capture systems critical to the energy transition, life-saving medical oxygen and high-purity & specialty gases for electronics. Linde also delivers state-of-the-art gas processing solutions to support customer expansion, efficiency improvements and emissions reductions.

For more information about the company and its products and services, please visit www.linde.com.

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CO₂ Purification and Liquefaction