CCS projects vary widely in terms of complexity. The early circular systems in the US, for example, were relatively easy: oil and gas were piped to a gas processing plant where carbon dioxide was separated, pumped back along the parallel pipelines, and injected back into the oil and gas field to enhance oil & gas production.
However, not all projects are as straightforward. In the UK, there are plans to capture 20-30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030 and 50 million by 2035. This could rise to as much as 180 million tonnes by 2050. There is close to 80 billion tonnes of storage capacity on the UK Continental Shelf, sufficient to store hundreds of years’ worth of carbon dioxide but there are challenges as some of the subsea aquifers are located offshore and relatively far away from the industrial clusters where the carbon dioxide is collected and sequestered before going offshore for storage. For this, transport is required, either by pipeline or ship. And this combination of requirements, Pearson says, is where the economics become complicated.
EU ETS a key driver
For a successful project, a series of unlinked but interdependent organisations and companies must do their own sums and establish a sound and profitable business model for capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide. Only then can a final investment decision be taken. And of course, the simpler the chain, the easier the projects are to progress. The cost of carbon is a prime factor too and in Europe, the EU Emissions Trading System will play a key role.
Dr Chet Biliyok, Petrofac’s Technical Director, Energy Transition Projects, compares the backdrop in Europe with that of the US. There, he says, for industries with highly concentrated carbon dioxide streams, coupled with a short distance from the carbon capture facility to the subterranean
storage site (typically a depleted oil and gas reservoir), a carbon dioxide cost as low as $25 a tonne can be realised. In Europe, however, where carbon dioxide will mostly be stripped from sources where it is more diffuse, the distances to storage sites are greater and there is no existing infrastructure, the challenge is starting from scratch. The cost could be as much as $200 a tonne.
“So in this case, we need the Emissions Trading System, with meaningful emissions allowance prices, to make the economics work,” he adds.
Shipping potential
Biliyok notes a range of exciting opportunities in shipping. There has been some talk around deploying carbon capture units on vessels to strip out carbon dioxide from exhaust gases during transit, which can then be offloaded at ports. Yet, daunting hurdles such as the limitation of space onboard exist, along with the results of a recent study from SINTEF in Norway showing that ship fuel consumption will double to accommodate the weight of the additional capture system. This limits the deployment of onboard carbon capture to a non-competitive slugfest with low carbon or zero emission fuels.
However, one undeniable opportunity is the merchant transport of carbon dioxide by sea and inland waterway, which will be a key element of decarbonisation in Europe. There’s little technical challenge here, he says, because there is already a wide body of knowledge in cryogenics and the sea transport of gases in liquid form.
LNG, for example, is shipped by sea at -162°C. LPG carriers, on the other hand, use a combination of pressure and temperatures to carry cargoes typically at about -45°C to -30°C. A similar arrangement would be required to ship carbon dioxide at scale, with gas carriers transporting carbon dioxide at slightly elevated pressure but
82 | ISSUE 110 | DEC 2024 | THE REPORT
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