French industrial gases company Air Liquide has announced plans to set up a carbon capture facility in the Netherlands.

The company will set up the facility at its hydrogen production plant at the Port of Rotterdam.

It will be connected to Porthos, said to be one of the largest carbon capture and storage infrastructures in Europe.

The facility is scheduled to start operations in 2026.

As the owner and operator, Air Liquide will deploy its Cryocap technology at the facility to reduce CO₂ emissions from the industrial basin in Rotterdam.

Air Liquide will capture CO₂ from its hydrogen plant and transport it via the Porthos network for permanent storage in depleted gas fields 200km offshore in the North Sea. 

This process is expected to contribute to the decarbonisation of hydrogen supplied to Air Liquide’s customers under existing contracts.

Air Liquide noted that Porthos project is set to reduce annual emissions by 2.5 million tonnes of CO₂, approximately 10% of the current industrial emissions in Rotterdam.

The EU has acknowledged the significance of Porthos by listing it as a Project of Common Interest for its potential contribution to the bloc's energy and climate policy goals.

Air Liquide executive committee member and CEO of the Europe industries hub Emilie Mouren-Renouard said: “We are pleased to take another concrete step to contribute to the decarbonisation of one of Europe’s largest industrial basins while participating to the development of Porthos. 

“This new world-scale CO₂ capture unit illustrates our expertise and commitment to implementing decarbonisation solutions, both for our customers and our own assets, in line with the group’s ADVANCE strategic plan to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 33% by 2035.”

Last week, the British and Belgian gas transmission networks reached an agreement to decarbonise gas infrastructure.