A sprawling network of pipelines, terminals, and offshore reservoirs is quietly taking shape in the Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands, laying the groundwork for one of Europe’s most ambitious efforts to decarbonise heavy industry.
While individual carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects like Porthos and CO₂next have grabbed headlines, it is the steady accumulation of infrastructure being installed across the port and beyond that will surely come to define Rotterdam’s role as the continent’s carbon dioxide logistics hub.
Speaking at gasworld’s European CO2 Summit in Rotterdam, Dorus Bakker, Project Manager at the Port of Rotterdam Authority, painted a picture of a region not only retrofitting emitters but reengineering the very foundations of its industrial system.
CCS, hydrogen networks, residual heat systems, and sustainable fuels are all part of a coordinated strategy that sees the port as a gateway for decarbonisation – but not deindustrialisation.
“We believe the Port of Rotterdam is very well-positioned to play a role,” said Bakker, who is also Director of Finance at Porthos. “We’re the largest energy port in Europe, with over 13% of European energy flows coming through here. That provides a very huge and stable basis for decarbonisation.”
The Porthos project, now under construction, is widely viewed as the first realisation of this long-held vision. A 2.5 million tonnes-per-year pipeline will carry CO2 from local emitters to depleted gas fields under the North Sea.
Dorus Bakker, Project Manager at the Port of Rotterdam Authority, speaking at gasworld’s European CO2 Summit
With final investment decision reached in 2023, and a planned operational date of 2026, Porthos represents a turning point after earlier failed attempts to establish CCS in the region. A previous onshore project in Barendrecht was shelved due to public resistance, while a second scheme linked to coal-fired power plants faltered during the 2012 EU ETS crisis, which was a period when an oversupply of carbon allowances caused prices to collapse, undermining incentives for emissions reduction and stalling investment in CCS projects.
The present momentum, however, suggests those lessons have been learned. Porthos’ pipeline and compression station infrastructure are already under construction, and its entire 37 million tonnes of storage capacity has been contracted for, with industrial players including Shell, ExxonMobil, Air Products and Air Liquide signed on.
But Porthos is only one part of the puzzle. Just across the Maasvlakte area, a separate yet complementary project is taking shape. CO₂next, a proposed liquid CO2 terminal being developed by Gasunie, Vopak, Shell and TotalEnergies, will enable captured CO2 to be received from ships and barges and either temporarily stored or else immediately re-exported. Construction is due to begin in 2026.
Unlike pipelines, which are fixed and capital-intensive, CO2 terminals offer a level of flexibility suited to early-stage CCS markets. They can support smaller-scale emitters, accommodate cross-border flows, and serve as intermediate hubs for longer value chains. Gasunie’s Nick van den Boogaart described the terminal as an “open-access gateway” for CCS in Northwestern Europe.
“We are designing the terminal in such a way that CO2 cannot only be unloaded, but also reloaded onto larger ships for transshipment to other CCS value chains or for utilisation elsewhere,” he said.
The vision is not limited to Rotterdam. Longer-term plans call for integration with neighbouring industrial clusters via transnational corridors. The Delta Rhine Corridor project aims to link the port with Germany’s Ruhr region via a CO2 pipeline, while the Delta–Zeeland Connection targets industrial areas around Terneuzen and Antwerp in Belgium. Both projects remain in early development but reflect the growing ambition to create an interconnected CCS network spanning northwestern Europe.
Some elements already exist. The OCAP (Organic CO2 for Assimilation of Plants) pipeline, which has been transporting captured CO2 to greenhouses north of Rotterdam for crop growth for years, provides a rare example of long-standing CO2 reuse infrastructure. In time, it could be connected to new systems such as Porthos or CO₂next.
Building a CO2 superhighway
These growing networks could eventually support not only fossil-based CCS but also biogenic CO2 and carbon dioxide removal technologies, creating a pathway for negative emissions. Bakker added that CCS is not a short-term fix but a structural component of the energy transition, especially in hard-to-abate sectors such as refining, cement, and hydrogen production.
“There is a key role for CO2 to play,” he said. “Whether that’s as a feedstock or for storage. With biogenic CO2, in particular, we could even achieve negative emissions. That’s crucial if we want to reach a climate-neutral industrial cluster by 2050.”
As the infrastructure builds out, coordination between governments, private industry, and infrastructure operators becomes more important. Challenges remain, not least the need for regulatory alignment between jurisdictions and the question of long-term financing. Both Porthos and CO₂next have relied heavily on public subsidies to secure the needed finance.
The 30 km CO2 pipeline in Rotterdam will transport gas at 35 bar (508 psi) through a 108 cm-wide line from Botlek to Maasvlakte, following an existing corridor through the port area. ©Porthos
Yet the projects moving forward today are laying the foundations for what could become a CO2 superhighway across Europe. The choices made now – on standardisation, interconnectivity, and shared infrastructure – are likely to shape how Europe manages its captured carbon for decades to come.
For Bakker and others steering these developments, the end goal is clear: enable deep decarbonisation without undermining industrial competitiveness. “Decarbonisation should not mean deindustrialisation,” he said. “We need to retain production in this part of the world. That means getting the infrastructure right and getting it in place fast.”
