C-ASH

Local Business and Community Development on an International Scale through CO2 Mineralization

The integrated green industries of the future and groundbreaking innovation are literally at our feet. The Skive region is already emerging as a beacon for sustainable industrial production and environmentally improving practices in agriculture and the fjord. Together with Aarhus University, Klimafonden Skive, Energibyen, and the municipalities of Skive, Morsø, and Thisted are now exploring how a nature-based CO2 storage technology called CO2 mineralization can bring another green opportunity to the region.

The underground in the western Limfjord area likely holds the potential to safely and permanently store very large amounts of CO2 – using a technology based on nature’s own forces: CO2 mineralization.

Our biggest climate challenge is clear: we must drastically reduce CO2 emissions to limit global warming to a maximum of 2°C. Emissions reductions must happen quickly to avoid worsening the situation for ourselves and the planet. By 2050 at the latest, CO2 emissions must be negative – meaning we need to actively remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Worldwide, this is driving the development of fossil-free industries and new ways to return enormous amounts of CO2 to the underground where it came from.

Local Potential – a Hub for Green Innovation

Preliminary analyses of samples from the Skive region indicate a storage potential equivalent to Denmark’s total CO2 emissions for approximately 60 years (June 2023), according to geologists from Aarhus University. Because the storage uses and accelerates natural processes (CO2 mineralization) to lock CO2 into solid minerals, the method is both safe and permanent. In short, CO2 mineralization works by volcanic ash in the Skive region’s underground converting CO2 into calcium minerals in tiny underground pores.

The C-ASH research project aims to document as quickly as possible that mineralization in the western Limfjord area works as expected.

Achieving CO2 neutrality by 2050 requires both CO2 storage and fossil-free production. The C-ASH project also seeks to establish a foundation so that local communities and businesses benefit as much as possible from the emerging CO2 industry. The groundwork is already in place, with the region recognized nationally as a location for developing and expanding industrial symbiosis parks.

The C-ASH project expands local potential and could add significant value to the international hub for green innovation developing in the region.

About

C-ASH is a development project documenting the natural conditions for CO2 mineralization and establishing a foundation for local communities and businesses to gain maximum benefit from the emerging CO2 industry.

The project is led by Aarhus University and Klimafonden Skive, in collaboration with Energibyen, Skive Municipality, Morsø Municipality, and Thisted Municipality.