The CO2 value chain and legal aspects (Task 1)

The task seeks to demonstrate the importance of CCS to decarbonize the energy and industrial sector to reach the Paris Agreement target. It will provide recommendations on the best measures to cut CCS costs and assess shortcomings in the current legal framework applicable to CCS operations at national and international levels. This will help enable a faster and cheaper deployment of CCS technology.

Main results 2019

Understanding and planning for uncertainties

In 2019, we developed a new approach for design of the CCS chain under uncertainties. This was done to better understand the impact of uncertainties on CCS chain performance, and to enable better design than when uncertainties aren't planned for. This approach was demonstrated over the case of a waste- to-energy plant. It helped us better understand the range of capture costs that could be achieved, hence

enabling more informed decisions about financial risks. Furthermore it enhanced our understanding of how CCS infrastructure from a waste-to-energy plant could be designed more robustly to remain cost-efficient even in the case of less likely conditions.

Shipping CO2 at 7 bar could enable significant cost reduction

To reduce conditioning and transport costs of CO2, we identified cost-optimal transport conditions (temperature and pressure) for transport of CO2 via ship. There has been a lot of discussions on whether shipping at 7 bar is more cost-efficient than 15 bar, but no study has satisfactory concluded on this.

We studied if the 7 bar shipping option could be more cost-efficient than the current commercial 15 bar technology. Our work concluded that the 7 bar shipping option could enable significant cost reduction for a wide range of combinations of transport distances and capacities, both in the case of pure CO2 or CO2 with impurities after the capture process. The work showed that the 7 bar technology could indeed reduce costs with 15% and above in most cases. Furthermore, for longer distances cost reductions beyond 30% can be achieved. A paper focused on the liquefaction process aspects of this work was published in 2019 in the International Journal of Refrigeration and a manuscript summarizing the complete results and conclusion will submitted for publication in 2020.

Legal aspects to enable CCS chains based on ship transport.

Task 1 investigated the legal framework of CO2 shipping for CCS and identified one point needing urgent attention. According to the current frame of the European Emission Trading Scheme, CCS based on ship transport may not provide credit for the avoided CO2 emissions. This framework must thus be revised so CCS projects based on CO2 shipping are eligible for financial credit under the European Emission Trading Scheme and to expressly provide for the ship transport of CO2. The present legal solution is unsatisfactory. It creates a legal risk and potentially hinders investment.

Cost reduction in CO2 liquefaction and transport that could be achieved by considering the 7 bar shipping instead of 15 bar shipping: for pure CO2 and in the case in which ships larger than 10 000m3 can be built for the 15 bar technology.
Cost reduction in CO2 liquefaction and transport that could be achieved by considering the 7 bar shipping instead of 15 bar shipping: for pure CO2 and in the case in which ships larger than 10 000m3 can be built for the 15 bar technology.

Main results 2018

Main results

  • Improvement of the EMPIRE model for evaluation of the role of CCS in decarbonising the power and industrial sector
  • Evaluation of the impact of delivery pressure and impurities on the design and cost of CO2 liquefaction prior to ship transport
  • Development of a new model for evaluation of CCS chain design under uncertainties
  • Assessing the content and implementation of the current CCS Directive on liabilities for CO2 shipping and storage

Impact and innovations

  • The work on CO2 liquefaction is the first step toward the identification of optimal transport conditions for CO2 transport by ship
  • The new model for evaluation of CCS chain design under uncertainty is expected to lead to improved design strategies for CCS chains
Impact of the targeted delivery pressure after liquefaction on the cost of CO2 liquefaction for different CO2 impurity scenarios in the CO2 stream after CO2 capture. The results obtained will be used to identify the cost optimal conditions for transport of CO2 by ship 2019.

Main Results 2017

One of the critical activities in 2017 was to provide benchmarking reference points to evaluate the impact of
new knowledge resulting from other centre activities, as well as the potential of activities of interest.
Two reference CCS chains were selected and defined in discussions with partners, assessed and evaluated in
collaboration with Task 6:

  • CCS from a natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant
  • CCS from a hydrogen production plant

The obtained results show that the CO2 capture and conditioning cost is the main contributor to the CCS cost
(57-70%), while the transport and storage costs account for 16-17% and 18-26% of the chain cost. Equally
important, the semi-detailed cost breakdown was presented to provide a deeper understanding of the key
contributors to the cost of the whole chain, and therefore to identify points, which if reduced, could have the
most impact.

The results of the assessment of these reference chains are expected to be used by task leaders, Centre
management, and industrial partners to:

  • Follow the impact of different performed activities throughout the Centre
  • Support the prioritization of existing and new activities in the Centre
  • Assess how the Centre has performed in terms of reaching its ambitions

Journal Publications

2019: 

2018: 

 

Conference Publications

2019: 

  • Rør- og sjøtransport av CO2. Juridiske hindringer for å gjennomføre fullskala CO2 håndtering - C. Banet. TEKNA CO2 konferanse, Oslo, Norway
  • The harmonization or unification of interpretation - a case study of European carbon capture and storage - V. Weber. Harmonisation in Environmental and Energy Law, University of Hasselt, Belgium
  • Toward the identification of optimal conditions for transport of CO2 by ship - S. Roussanaly, H. Deng, G. Skaugen. TCCS-10 conference, Trondheim, Norway
  • Capacity Investments and Operational Uncertainty in a CCS value chain - V.S. Bjerketvedt, A. Tomasgard, S. Roussanaly. TCCS-10 conference, Trondheim, Norway
  • Design of post-combustion CCS from a waste-to-energy plant under uncertainties and fluctuations - S. Roussanaly, J.A. Ouassou, R. Anantharaman. PCCC-5 conference, Kyoto, Japan

2018: 

  • Identifying optimal conditions for transport of CO2 by ship - G. Skaugen, S. Roussanaly, H. Deng, J. Jakobsen. GHGT-14, Melbourne
  • Toward a new paradigm for development of CO2 capture materials: An illustration through the case of membrane-based post-combustion capture - S. Roussanaly, J.A. Steckel, R. Anantharaman, S. Budhathoki, K. Lindqvist, C.E. Wilmer. GHGT-14, Melbourne
  • Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (bio-CCS): regulating carbon negativity - C. Banet. GHGT-14, Melbourne
  • Bio-CCS: from carbon neutrality to carbon negativity as a legal requirement - C. Banet. Colloque INGILAW
  • Legal bottlenecks in Bio-CCS regulation - C. Banet. IEA Bioenergy Task 41 workshop on Bio-CCS

 

Task leader