Climate change has been attributed to greenhouse gases with carbon dioxide (CO2) being the major contributor. Most of these CO2 emissions originate from the burning of fossil fuels (e.g. power plants). Governments and industry worldwide are now proposing to capture CO2 from their power plants and either store it in depleted reservoirs or saline aquifers (‘Carbon Capture and Storage’, CCS), or use it for ‘Enhanced Oil Recovery’ (EOR) in depleting oil and gas fields. The capture of this anthropogenic (man made sources of CO2) CO2 will mitigate global warming, and possibly reduce the impact of climate change. The United States has over 30 years experience with the transportation of carbon dioxide by pipeline, mainly from naturally occurring, relatively pure CO2 sources for onshore EOR. CCS projects differ significantly from this past experience as they will be focusing on anthropogenic sources from major polluters such as fossil fuel power plants, and the necessary CO2 transport infrastructure will involve both long distance onshore and offshore pipelines. Also, the fossil fuel power plants will produce CO2 with varying combinations of impurities depending on the capture technology used. CO2 pipelines have never been designed for these differing conditions; therefore, CCS will introduce a new generation of CO2 for transport. Application of current design procedures to the new generation pipelines is likely to yield an over-designed pipeline facility, with excessive investment and operating cost. In particular, the presence of impurities has a significant impact on the physical properties of the transported CO2 which affects: pipeline design; compressor/pump power; repressurisation distance; pipeline capacity. These impurities could also have implications in the fracture control of the pipeline. All these effects have direct implications for both the technical and economic feasibility of developing a carbon dioxide transport infrastructure onshore and offshore. This paper compares and contrasts the current experience of transporting CO2 onshore with the proposed transport onshore and offshore for CCS. It covers studies on the effect of physical and transport properties (hydraulics) on key technical aspects of pipeline transportation, and the implications for designing and operating a pipeline for CO2 containing impurities. The studies reported in the paper have significant implications for future CO2 transportation, and highlight a number of knowledge gaps that will have to be filled to allow for the efficient and economic design of pipelines for this ‘next’ generation of anthropogenic CO2.
The impurities present in carbon dioxide (CO2) streams for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) schemes are extremely important for CO2 pipeline and ship transportation affecting, for instance, the range of operation, safety considerations, fracture, cracking, corrosion control, dispersion in the event of a release, fluid density, operating pressure and temperature and the quantity of CO2 that can be transported. The range and levels of potential impurities present in captured CO2 from CO2 capture facilities will differ between sources and also between the capture technologies installed at the CO2 emission sources. However, the potential CO2 specifications that could enter the transport and storage systems, particularly from industrial sources, remain relatively under-researched. Consequently, the effect of these potential impurities in CO2 streams on CO2 transportation also needs to be understood. This paper summarises the main findings of an IEAGHG study, “Impact of CO2 Impurity on CO2 Compression, Liquefaction and Transportation”, commissioned to identify potential impurities and address the consequences of their impact on CO2 transportation
In 2021, the UK Government commenced a ‘cluster sequencing’ initiative to identify early movers in delivering carbon transport and storage (T&S) services to proximate regional industry clusters with capture potential. A Scottish proposition focussed primarily on linking the Grangemouth industry cluster to North Sea storage, and the potential to transition Oil and Gas industry capacity to deliver CO2 T&S has devolved policy support. This is in terms of potential to transition and create new direct industry and supply chain jobs, set against risks of displacing jobs in different sectors and regions of the UK. We introduce a Scottish CO2 T&S industry to a UK multi-sector economy-wide model, assessing the extent of potential expansion and job creation in the presence of supply-side and funding constraints. We find that large employment ‘multiplier’ gains registered in previous studies only apply over the very long term and in the absence of such constraints. Crucially, any need to recover demands on the public purse via socialisation of costs severely constrains possible gains, while imposing ‘polluter pays’ leads to net economy-wide contractions triggered by competitiveness losses concentrated in Scottish cluster industries, leading to offshoring of production and jobs, potentially skewed within the localities hosting the clusters.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is recognised as having a significant role to play in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and tackling climate change. In CCS schemes, carbon dioxide is captured from anthropogenic sources and transported to suitable sites either for EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) or storage. Globally, the largest source of CO2 is from power generation, therefore the initial projects proposed for CCS in the UK are from power plant. There are various technologies for capturing CO2 from power stations, however the captured CO2 can contain significant amounts of impurities. The presence of the impurities in the CO2 stream has an effect on the requirements for pipeline transportation and can change such factors as the flow properties, the decompression characteristics and the solubility of water in the mixture. Although transport of CO2 by pipeline is not new technology, and has been implemented in the USA for over 30 years, the effect of these impurities is not fully understood. The UK is in the advantageous position of having natural sinks for CO2 available offshore in the North and Irish Sea, which can be used for either EOR or storage. Therefore CCS implementation in the UK will involve transport of anthropogenic carbon dioxide from power stations to offshore sinks. All of the current experience with CO2 pipeline transport has been onshore, predominantly from near pure natural sources and therefore this is also a new challenge. This state-of the-art review paper will: • discuss the key technical factors presented by the transport of CO2 from power plant, including the effects of impurities on the design and operation of pipelines, • compare and contrast the current experience of transporting CO2 onshore with the proposed transport onshore and offshore in the UK and identify the technical and regulatory challenges, • present the results of initial modelling work to demonstrate the effects of the key variables on the development of a CO2 transport system in the UK.
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