Northern Lights injects first wastewater carbon dioxide underground

Norway’s Northern Lights project has initiated the injection of carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from wastewater treatment into underground storage, marking a significant expansion of carbon capture beyond traditional heavy industry sources. The biogenic CO2 originates from the Veas wastewater treatment plant near Oslo, which serves over 800,000 people and captures emissions produced during biogas generation. Since February, the carbon removal company Inherit has transported liquefied CO2 by truck from Veas to Northern Lights’ receiving terminal in Øygarden, where it is offloaded into tanks before being sent offshore via a 100-kilometer pipeline for permanent storage 2,600 meters below the seabed in the Aurora reservoir. Northern Lights operates as an open-access carbon storage network designed to accommodate captured emissions from various sources across Europe. Its initial phase can store up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually, with plans to scale up to at least 5 million tonnes per year. The wastewater-derived CO2 project is