Yara opens CO₂ capture facility: ‘An important day’

Yara has opened what it describes as Europe’s largest industrial CO₂ capture facility at its ammonia and fertilizer plant in Sluiskil, the Netherlands. The facility is designed to capture up to 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

The gas will be transported by ship to Northern Lights, the storage facility outside Øygarden in western Norway. Yara says two ships a week will leave the Netherlands, each carrying up to 7,200 tonnes of CO₂. The first shipment to Norway is expected in September.

The opening drew Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten and EU Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra. Yara chief executive Svein Tore Holsether called it an important day for the company and European industry, saying the Sluiskil project showed that large-scale industrial decarbonization is possible now.

If the necessary framework conditions are in place, Yara says the plant could send 12 million tonnes of CO₂ to be stored under the Norwegian continental shelf over 15 years. The company says carbon capture is necessary to reduce its emissions. In 2025, Yara and the products it sells accounted for more than 62 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3, according to its annual report.

Northern Lights forms part of Norway’s Langskip carbon-capture project, which has received substantial state support. Equinor, TotalEnergies and Shell began injecting CO₂ into its reservoirs last year. Northern Lights has agreements with other customers, including two Ørsted biomass power plants in Denmark, and decided last year to invest 7.5 billion Norwegian kroner to raise storage capacity from 1.5 million to five million tonnes annually.

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This is an important day for Yara and European industry. The capture facility in Sluiskil shows that large-scale industrial decarbonization is possible today.