Irish specialist agribusiness group Clonbio is in line for a €48.4 million European Union grant for a pioneering carbon capture and storage project.
Clonbio makes proteins, animal feed, biofuel, ethanol and alcohol from grain in Europe and the US, and renewable gas at a plant in Co Kildare. The group confirmed at the weekend that the EU has chosen it for a €48.4 million grant for Europe’s first large-scale carbon-capture and storage operation.
Clonbio plans to take carbon-dioxide from the fermentation plant at its Pannonia facility in Hungary and inject it deep into onshore wells near its location. The company estimates that this will prevent half a million tonnes of carbon-dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year.
Clonbio is developing the project, dubbed Danube Removals, with Emov, a UK group with expertise in underground exploration. The negative emissions credits will comply fully with the EU’s new certification system.
Carbon-capture involves filtering out the greenhouse gas as it is emitted by industry, transporting it and then storing it deep underground. The gas that Clonbio produces from fermentation is known as “green” carbon as it is produced from processing plants – grains – and not released from burning fossil fuel. However, its impact on the atmosphere is the same.
The EU last year adopted new plans to capture and manage carbon-dioxide emissions as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gas output by 90 per cent by 2040 and reach “carbon neutrality” 10 years later. The European Commission wants to have enough capacity in the bloc to store 50 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide by 2030, boosting that to 280 million tonnes by 2040.
Identifying suitable storage sites is one of the challenges that the bloc faces in carrying out this policy, experts say. Clonbio has suitable underground wells close to its fermentation plant, prompting the Irish company to explore the possibility of adopting carbon-capture and storage.
The EU is awarding the company the grant from its innovation fund. The EU pays for this through the emissions trading system which requires polluters to pay for the carbon-dioxide that they produce. The commission then uses the cash to pay innovation grants to projects geared at cutting emissions and aiding the bloc in reaching its climate goals.
Clonbio has several operations in EU. Its complex in Tolna County, Hungary, is its biggest and manufactures several products from grain grown in the region.
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