Techno-economic assessment of commercially available CO₂ conditioning technologies

About

Explore the techno-economics of commercially available CO₂ conditioning technologies, with a focus on their performance, economic viability, and ability to meet the stringent purity requirements established by transport and storage (T&S) projects.

T&S projects demand exceptionally low levels of multiple chemical species, including water and various other impurities. Thus, by convening a group of experts, the workshop aims to establish valuable insights into the degree of performance and economic viability of deploying CO₂ conditioning technologies to meet the exacting purity specifications of CO₂ T&S hub projects.

Agenda

• Welcome address – Abdul’Aziz Aliyu, IEAGHG
• Opening and keynote remarks – Roelien Broos, Shell.
• Metrological analysis of impurity levels in CO₂ captured – Iris de Krom, National Metrology Institute.
• Learnings from trying to set a proper CO₂ stream specification for the whole CCS value chain – Harald Tlatlik, Zero Emissions Platform
• Making CO₂ specifications work for the CCS value chain for safe operations – Imran Abdul-Majid, Northern Lights.
• CO₂ specifications in T&S Projects: Pipelines vs shipping – Adekola Lawal, Petrofac.
• Technology review of emerging CO₂ conditioning systems, with a focus on DORA – Juliana Monteiro, TNO.
• Technology Review of Emerging and Commercially Available CO₂ Conditioning System Processes – Ray McKaskle, Trimeric.
• Economic assessment of CO₂ purification units for CCU – Josephine Vos, Delft University of Technology.
• Expert round table discussion and Q&A – Chair: Simon Roussanaly, SINTEF.
• Headline Speaker: John Woods, Wood PLC.
• Closing remarks – Abdul Aziz Aliyu, IEAGHG.

Background

Impurities in CO₂ captured from point sources with carbon capture and storage (CCS) can originate in several ways. Water, a major by-product of combustion, is considered an impurity in the CO₂ stream and elements that include sulphur, chlorine, and mercury, which may inherently be present in fossil fuels, are released during combustion, forming compounds in the gas phase that may remain as impurities in the captured and compressed CO₂. The oxidizing agent used for combustion, such as Oxygen (O2), can also introduce impurities like nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. These impurities might also result from air ingress into the process. Further, the materials and chemicals used in the CO₂ separation process, and their degradation products, can be carried over into the CO₂ stream, adding another layer of impurities.

Several European CO₂ transport and storage (T&S) hub projects, such as PORTHOS and ARAMIS in the Netherlands, those operated by Fluxys in Belgium, and Longship in Norway, have made their CO₂ purity criteria public. These criteria specify limits for over twenty different chemical species, including water, with some of the limits being in the parts per million by mole (ppm mol) range. To adhere to these T&S hub CO₂ specifications, CO₂ emitting entities might be compelled to implement specialised CO₂ conditioning processes.