A latest panel dialogue in Glasgow introduced collectively representives from a few of the companies serving to to construct a carbon seize and storage (CCS) trade within the UK.1 The sector is making progress with the storage and transport of captured CO2, however there are a lot of obstacles to be overcome.
It’s change into a well-known chorus: Internet Zero will probably be unachievable with out widespread deployment of engineered GHG removals. CCS is a frontrunner on this endeavour, counting on already-proven know-how and with the potential for being deployed comparatively rapidly.
At a panel dialogue on the All Power convention in Glasgow in Might, representatives from stakeholders on this fledgling sector all appeared to agree that it’s not taking place quick sufficient, and supplied ideas on easy methods to overcome a few of the bottlenecks.
The chance appears to be big, for an trade whose dimension must rival that of the fossil gasoline trade, whether it is to attain its goals,2 and the UK has been pursuing it aggressively. “We’ve by no means seen such ambition in public coverage,” commented panellist Dr William Joyce of Innovate UK. The UK authorities has plans to curb 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 per yr by CCS by 2030, with £20 billion being made obtainable to fund a sequence of initiatives by its cluster sequencing programme.
We have to develop, he advised, and there appears ample alternative to take action.
Europe’s storehouse?
An essential piece of the puzzle is storage: guaranteeing that captured carbon may be safely and sustainably sequestered over the long run. In direction of that finish, the UK is “fantastically positioned”, he mentioned, with vital potential on its continental shelf, in geological buildings akin to depleted oil and fuel fields, and saline aquifers below the ocean mattress. It quantities to 78 Gtonnes of potential storage, a capability adequate to retailer the entire UK’s captured carbon, in addition to all that captured by the remaining EU international locations mixed. “The UK might change into a worldwide chief,” he mentioned.
Scotland particularly is completely positioned for CCS, with its present oil and fuel workforce, and infrastructure, which may be repurposed for CO2 storage. The North Sea alone might retailer round 10-11M tonnes per yr. Scotland additionally has the deep transport ports and infrastructure wanted to change into a transport hub, and a storage vacation spot for different international locations’ carbon seize efforts.
A frontrunner within the carbon storage effort worldwide is Norway’s Northern Lights venture, collectively owned by TotalEnergies, Equinor and Shell. It’s scheduled to return on stream this yr, with the flexibility to deal with as much as 1.5 million tons of CO2 per yr.
Storage is now starting to occur within the UK too, with 5 of the initiatives within the northwest of England’s industrial cluster – dwelling of the Hynet venture, which integrates hydrogen manufacturing and CCUS – having been chosen to start flowing tens of millions of tonnes of CO2 into depleted fuel fields in Liverpool Bay.
There are “plenty of thermodynamic challenges” with regards to injection of the fabric right into a CO2 properly. The scenario is usually in comparison with a deodorant can, in as far as the temperature and strain within the storage properly have to be sufficiently managed to take care of the CO2 in a supercritical state, the place it has the properties of each a liquid and a fuel.
The know-how exists, mentioned Joyce, however we at the moment are trying to ship it “at big scale”, which is not-so-trivial.
Different initiatives have introduced dates to start storage. Humber Zero, which is able to see carbon seize know-how being utilized to gas-fired electrical energy turbines and a fluidized catalytic cracker within the Humber refinery, not too long ago mentioned it’s on track to inject the primary CO2 into storage by late 2026, in areas below the North Sea mattress.
Pierre Girard, Director of New Power with Neptune Power mentioned that growing the storage infrastructure is “very pricey” and “wants plenty of dedication”. Work can also be wanted to develop “a shared framework for the administration of liabilities”.
The UK has began on a trajectory of a really refined enterprise mannequin which was “nice”, he mentioned, particularly in gentle of earlier, unsuccessful makes an attempt to get CO2 storage off the bottom.
One essential framework to work inside is the London Protocol, which outlines strict monitoring and security measures for the transnational export and storage of CO2, however this was, in impact, “a really small barrier”.
One barrier in the mean time is the incompatibility between the respective Emissions Buying and selling Schemes of the EU and UK, however this will probably be “not laborious to resolve”. Carbon storage nonetheless wants plenty of subsidies so buying and selling schemes must be aligned.
Transporting the stuff
Carefully associated to the storage situation is transport: getting the captured CO2 to the place will probably be saved, and in a approach that minimizes value and emissions depth.
A report from the Oxford Institute for Power Research (OIES), revealed in Might, makes an attempt to guage the enterprise case for carbon seize and storage within the UK’s energy-from-waste sector, and contains an evaluation of transportation choices. In appraising the choices – pipeline, rail, ship or truck – it concludes that pipeline transportation gives the bottom value and emissions for the UK EfW sector. Nevertheless, the chance to deploy pipelines is restricted by issues just like the time wanted for regulatory and land approvals, and development.
The report notes that, “for websites the place all transport modes are viable, the standard value benefit order is pipeline < ship < rail < truck.”
An important milestone has not too long ago been reported with work that gives pipelines to attach Teesside-based carbon seize initiatives to offshore storage, in work accomplished by Costain (see field, “Pipeline pioneers”, on the finish of this text).
Repurposing pipelines
With regards to repurposing pipeline infrastructure for CO2, points can come up in relation to movement lengths. For instance, strain drops over lengthy distances can introduce the necessity for recompression alongside its size – an extra value and complexity not current when piping pure fuel.
CO2 can also be “not good and squashy like pure fuel”, as Jonathan Minnitt of Aker Options famous throughout the panel dialogue, and the trouble to repurpose pure fuel infrastructure for sending CO2 by pipeline can current potential difficulties, some extent explored within the latest Scotland Internet Zero Roadmap.
Corrosion of pipelines is an issue that’s “vital”, he mentioned – and that is one other situation with CO2 (however not with pure fuel). One panellist mentioned they’d thought of non-weld options like plastic pipelines, which would appear to introduce benefits like corrosion resistance, and fewer reliance on welding.
The UK authorities launched a name for proof on 7 Might, on the lookout for “revolutionary new choices for transporting CO2 on high of the present community of pipelines”.
“Tens of millions of tonnes of captured CO2 could possibly be transported by way of highway, rail, barge or ship, revolutionising the way in which it reaches offshore storage websites, serving to extra companies minimize emissions,” says the doc.
Minnitt of Aker Options cited latest initiatives which have exploited alternatives to co-locate totally different parts of this worth chain in shut geographic proximity, minimising the necessity for pipelines.
Environmental approvals
Pipelines or infrastructure may even imply packing containers to tick with regards to proving the appropriate environmental influence of initiatives, paradoxically, an impediment over which some builders have stumbled. Pierre Girard of Neptune Power mentioned plenty of regulators wished to see a full image of the emissions related to a web site, together with development, operations, commissioning and so forth. The latest delay of a venture to retailer carbon within the empty fuel fields at Porthos in Rotterdam – due to NOx emissions related to the proposed development work – was, he mentioned, “actually unhappy”.
A requirement for element can also be obvious with Monitoring, Measurement, and Verification (MMV), an essential part in venture allow functions for carbon storage.
MMV was one other a part of the worth chain that panellists advised introduced alternatives for the UK, requiring experience in thiings like monitoring and fibre optics.
Tweaking efficiency
The efficiency of CCS is an space the place panellists reported progress. The environmental advantages that may be attributed to initiatives are additionally tied in with making progress right here. For instance, a brand new gas-fired energy plant at Peterhead will probably be outfitted with carbon seize know-how, a collaborative effort between SSE and Equinor, which the companies say will seize greater than 90 % of all of the carbon burned, a functionality that will make it a frontrunner on this respect.
Doga Satir, a course of engineer with SSE Thermal supplied an summary of features of the carbon seize portion of the plant, which is able to use a solvent-based system. The group has benefitted from Innovate UK funding, which has assisted with analysis to maximise the CO2 seize upon start-up. A venture referred to as FOCUSS (Flexibly Operated Seize utilizing Solvent Storage) has checked out start-up and shutdown behaviour, and optimising using solvent, together with “easy methods to use a few of the solvent that hasn’t captured CO2”, mentioned Satir.
Working collectively to decrease prices
Co-operation was one other large speaking level, and the necessity to hyperlink totally different components of the worth chain. Minnitt made the analogy with cell phone chargers. How lengthy did it take us to get interchangeable USB cables? Ages. Key to the well timed uptake of CCS going ahead is to standardise on totally different modular substances of the infrastructure, in order that entry prices may be lowered. One notable initiative is LINCCS (Linking the CCS worth chain), which goals to deliver collectively industrial actors engaged on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, to extend the tempo of CCS uptake.
A report revealed in Might by the Centre for Power Coverage on the College of Strathclyde appeared to seek out that the introduction of carbon seize within the Scottish chemical industries might have unfavourable implications for the competitiveness of the trade, however these ill-effects could possibly be restricted if there may be “a UK-wider coordinated strategy to the implementation of carbon seize”.
The analysis additionally tried to quantify the unfavourable influence accruing from the selection of know-how, particularly in relation to the choice to make use of both pre-combustion or post-combustion carbon seize, with the previous’s larger requirement for gear and capital translating into a better value influence of three.12% (in comparison with 2.19% if post-combustion carbon seize was launched).
The panel dialogue in Might appeared to focus on the huge alternative for the UK to be a chief carbon storage location for the remainder of Europe.
In the course of the dialogue, Girard mentioned it will be a disgrace if the UK was to be disadvantaged of a few of the alternatives due to boundaries, akin to these affecting the cross-border switch of CO2, or due to Brexit, or tradition or protectionism. “We must always all work collectively,” he mentioned.
[ SIDE PANEL: Pipeline pioneers ]
A key milestone was reached in February within the East Coast Cluster – the collective decarbonization effort underway masking Teesside and the Humber – with the completion of the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage.
The work was undertaken by engineering contractor Costain. It included provision of fuel provide pipework and a excessive voltage energy community. When accomplished, the location’s c.12km of twenty-two” pipeline could have an preliminary capability to move round 4m tonnes of CO2 each year to be securely saved below the North Sea.
Laura Hughes, vitality sector director at Costain, mentioned the CO2 gathering community “is the primary on the earth to be a completely above-ground community.” She added: “This introduced fascinating design and engineering challenges when contemplating the properties of CO2 and its means to liquify at sure temperatures and pressures.”
“Nevertheless, in depth movement assurance simulations and knowledge modelling has given us a greater understanding of the dynamics of CO2 and its behaviours to efficiently full the design for a secure, re silient and environment friendly community.”
The Costain FEED workforce, working out of Teesside and Manchester with companions px Group, used quite a lot of strategies and applied sciences to design the routing for the carbon seize community. Key to the success was creating a brand new geographic info system (GIS) to behave as a single supply to seize asset info and knowledge from quite a lot of sources and stakeholders. This included in depth use of laser scanning, topographical info, and floor investigations in an effort to doc, for the first-time, the above-and-below floor belongings on the web site location.
“The digital footprint that has been generated for the world is pioneering,” mentioned Hughes.
Notes
[1] “Trade Decarbonisation 3: Scotland’s industrial transformation: native and world alternatives for hydrogen and CCUS”, In affiliation with NECCUS. Panel session at All Power, sixteenth Might, 11am-12.30pm.
[2] Smith, Wake. Pandora’s Toolbox: The Hopes and Hazards of Local weather Intervention. Cambridge College Press; New version (24 Mar. 2022).
