Energy group Motor Oil and cement producer TITAN have been selected for EU Innovation Fund grants, supporting innovative low-carbon technologies, for respective carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiatives taken by the two corporate groups.

Their selections promise to create opportunities for synergies and the development of a domestic value chain in the CCS sector.

For example, an annual sum of 1.9 million tons of CO2 to be captured at TITAN’s production facility in Viotia’s Kamari area, slightly northwest of Athens, will benefit Energean’s CCS project at its depleted offshore oil fields in the northern part of the Aegean Sea.

The Prinos CCS also stands to gain from Innovation Fund selection for cement industry Holcim’s production facility in Croatia, as Prinos is the nearest CCS facility. On a larger scale, the Prinos CCS can develop into southeast Europe’s first CCS facility catering to industry.

Motor Oil’s Iris project, concerning carbon capture at the energy group’s Oil’s refinery in Corinth, west of Athens, has been selected for a 127 million-euro Innovation Fund grant, it has just been announced.

This development gives Motor Oil the opportunity to greatly reduce its carbon footprint, produce 56,000 tons of blue hydrogen annually, and prepare the groundwork for e-fuel production, through the development and operation of a new low-carbon synthetic methanol production plant.

TITAN’s Ifestos carbon capture project, also just selected for an Innovation Fund grant, will enable the group to produce approximately 3 million tons of zero-carbon cement on an annual basis.