Ørsted Adds Carbon Capture to Its Offshore Wind-Powered Project in Denmark

Ørsted could build its first carbon capture facility at the Avedøre Power Station in Copenhagen as part of the Green Fuels for Denmark development, for which the developer recently entered into an agreement to offtake power from the new 250 MW Aflandshage offshore wind farm.

The company, which owns and operates Avedøre Power Station, started building its first offshore wind-powered hydrogen project there last month.

For the carbon capture project, Ørsted said that a future final investment decision is subject to the realisation of the parts of the Green Fuels for Denmark project that will produce e-methanol and e-kerosene.

The combined heat and power plant at the power station consists of two wood pellet-fired units and a straw-fired unit that supply power to the Danish power grid and district heating to the Greater Copenhagen area.

With the recently signed offshore wind power offtake agreement between Ørsted and HOFOR in place, the developer has identified the 100 MW straw-fired unit at Avedøre as the best point source of sustainable CO₂ for the next phases of the 1.3 GW Green Fuels for Denmark Power-to-X facility.

The 100 MW straw-fired unit could provide the amount of CO₂ necessary for producing sustainable fuels in the next phases of Green Fuels for Denmark, according to Ørsted, which said it would now explore the possibilities of advancing parts of the project’s first phases in order to deliver substantial amounts of sustainable fuels well before the previously planned 2027 operation date of the second phase.

The company will now start investigating the best way forward to deploy carbon capture technology at the straw-fired unit, including optimising the electrolysis capacity of the second phase of Green Fuels for Denmark with the supply of renewable electricity.

The straw-fired unit is fuelled by locally sourced agricultural by-products converting approx. 130,000 tonnes of straw each year to heat and power. The combination of using straw as fuel and utilising the surplus heat from both the carbon capture process and the Power-to-X process would result in up to 260 MW district heating, which would lead to both green and price-competitive district heating for the Greater Copenhagen area, Ørsted said.