An invisible infrastructure that everyone understands

Porthos, a joint venture of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, Gasunie and EBN, is building a CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure under the North Sea. A pipeline system carries CO₂ from Rotterdam industry out to the depleted P18-A gas field, some 20 kilometres offshore, where it is stored at a depth of 3 kilometres.

The problem: none of that infrastructure is visible. Pipelines run underground and along the seabed, the platform sits far off the coast, and the storage geology is deep. For the general public, and for staff, partners and stakeholders at family days and events, it was close to impossible to grasp what Porthos actually does and why it matters.

Porthos was looking for an experience that could tell that story: immersive, accessible to every age group, and usable at a family day with hundreds of visitors, without demanding any technical knowledge.

The result is a VR journey that takes visitors along the entire CO₂ route. It opens in the Rotterdam port area: CO₂ emissions visible at the industrial installations, and the collection points where the gas is captured. From there the visitor follows the pipeline out towards the sea.

Above the P18-A platform, the offshore pipeline junction 20 kilometres from the coast, they look down on the North Sea before the journey continues into the depths. Underwater, the pipeline runs on to the seabed wellhead, and finally the geological cross-section opens up: the storage layer 3 kilometres into the earth's crust, filled with CO₂.

A voice-over guides the whole experience in plain Dutch, so no VR knowledge or technical background is needed. It runs on standalone headsets and is ready to use at any event.