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Technology Collaboration Programme by IEA

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Discover the latest advances carbon capture and storage research

Technical Review

IEAGHG Monitoring Network Virtual Discussion Panel

  • 25 September 2020
  • Event Proceedings
  • Storage

This discussion panel was held by webinar on Wednesday 12th August at 10pm BST, with the theme of engaging regulators, looking at ‘Regulation, Industry and Research - Translating Monitoring Research to Meet Commercial Needs’. The panellists comprised different CO₂ storage monitoring stakeholders; operators, regulators and researchers and attendees were asked to submit questions for the panellists to consider prior to the event, of which over 120 were received. 70 participants joined the event, in addition to the 8 panellists involved.The aim of the panel was to discuss the translation of CO₂ geological storage monitoring research into regulations and commercial-scale projects. It began with a scene setting presentation and framing questions with in-depth and thoughtful discussion with operator, regulator and research representatives from the US, Australia, and Norway.This discussion panel was an ideal opportunity for all stakeholders actively engaged in CO₂ geological storage projects and practical research in monitoring to share and learn about how the information from research and our Monitoring Networks can be used to meet commercial needs.

Technical Report

Review of Constructability and Operational Challenges faced by CCUS projects

  • 9 September 2020
  • Industry Insights

IEAGHG has commissioned several technical studies linked to large CCS projects1. Although constructability and operational challenges have been identified in previous IEAGHG reports, some aspects were unique due to the locations where the large CCS projects were implemented. These included the status of the initial facilities and other techno-economic and financial aspects of the specific CCUS projects. IEAGHG identified the need to provide a guide on constructability and operation for new CCS users. The objective of this study is to collect information from CCS projects to support the decisions during the transition from the planning to the execution phase. This study analysed a complete list of large CCUS projects from which relevant experience could be extracted. The projects were divided into three categories: operating projects; under construction or at advanced development; and cancelled projects. Based on the analysed projects, this study has delivered an assessment of potential key areas for success, and a decision tool guide for future projects

Technical Report

Understanding the cost of reducing water usage

  • 1 September 2020
  • Capture
  • Costs of CCUS

Previous IEAGHG studies (IEAGHG 2010/05, IEAGHG 2012/12, and IEAGHG 2018/04) have identified key factors that affect the Energy-Water-CCS Nexus: location; the dependency of the costs and water consumption on the cooling system; and the post-combustion CO₂ capture (PCC) system. Additionally, extracting water from a CO₂ storage site can significantly increase the available volumetric space for CO₂ storage which could benefit PCC in the power sector. The conclusions drawn from these studies identified the need to assess the technical and economic impact of water consumption in power plants with and without CO₂ capture systems in different locations. Further investigation also needs to encompass the impact of local regulations, ambient conditions, specific region-based power plants configurations, and water availability. This current study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 developed a hypothetical base case scenario of power plants with and without a PCC system in The Netherlands, assuming both on and offshore storage, and with and without treatment of the water extracted from the storage site for its reuse in the power plant. Phase 2 was based on four hypothetical PCC systems in South Africa, Australia, China and India.

Technical Report

Future role of CCS technologies in the power sector

  • 1 August 2020
  • Capture

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are essential for meeting global temperature targets at least cost. They have the ability to decarbonise several sectors, including power. Low-carbon, dispatchable, power generation plants with CCS can operate at baseload and also flexibly. Importantly, their ability to operate flexibly not only allows them to complement output from intermittent renewables but also to facilitate increased capacity of intermittent renewables on the grid. For a number of reasons, however, the commercial deployment of power CCS has been slow and must accelerate if the technology is to achieve its potential and contribute effectively to mitigating climate change. Using Australia, China, the United Kingdom and the United Sates as case studies, this study demonstrates the viability of a set of power CCS technologies to cost-effectively decarbonise baseload, mid-merit and peaking generation in distinct power markets. To realise this potential, however, general, technology-specific and country-specific CCS challenges must be addressed urgently with policy and regulatory actions.

Technical Report

Value of emerging and enabling technologies in reducing costs, risks and timescales for CCS

  • 1 July 2020
  • Costs of CCUS

This study is a horizon scanning exercise, aiming to understand the relevance of digital and enabling technologies for CCS and to assess the benefits they could offer to the large-scale deployment of CCS. It was contracted with the consultants Element Energy who led the work in conjunction with Imperial College, London. Diverse technologies, platforms and innovations developed outside of the energy sector are now being brought to this sector to reduce costs, risks and timescales for projects and could be applicable to current and future CCS projects as well. The deployment of CCS currently falls short of the projected capacity needed to achieve global emissions reduction targets, despite being a proven technology in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Technical Report

Update techno-economic benchmarks for fossil fuel-fired power plants with CO₂ capture

  • 1 July 2020
  • Capture
  • Costs of CCUS

IEAGHG updates its techno-economic studies periodically to examine the impact of developments and improvements made to core components, of changes made to system design, or when the fiscal environment may have materially altered. In the present case, benchmarks were updated for both coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants with CCS, primarily to: Investigate the techno-economic impact of markedly increasing the capture rates to achieve near-zero CO₂ emissions; And then, in addition, to: Explore the technological and economic benefits of recent improvements that may have been made to ultra-supercritical pulverised coal (USC PC) and natural-gas combined cycle (NGCC) technologies; and Examine the benefits of flue gas recirculation in the natural gas-fired cases, and the trade-offs between efficiency and flexibility in the coal-fired cases. Benchmarks were updated against a study published in 20181, where prices were based on 3Q2016. The update study used 3Q2018 prices. </li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --></ul><!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:acf/column-content --> <!-- /wp:acf/columns -->

Technical Report

The Status and Challenges of CO₂ Shipping Infrastructures

  • 1 July 2020
  • Transport

Large-scale CO₂ storage will entail substantial transportation of CO₂ from either point-sources or hub collection points to geological formations capable of storing thousands of tonnes of CO₂ in supercritical form. In many parts of the world the most suitable storage options for large-scale capacity will be in offshore formations such as the North Sea. Consequently, it is important to build an understanding of the most suitable techno-economic solutions for the trans-shipment of CO₂ from shore facilities to offshore storage locations. This study has explored a series of options to gain a more detailed comparison of shipping CO₂ either directly by sea tanker to a storage site, or via an intermediate stage, to a shore facility in closer proximity to a storage site prior to transfer via pipeline. These options have also been compared to direct transfer via pipeline.

Technical Report

The Clean Refinery and the Role of Electricity Generation

  • 1 May 2020
  • Capture

The oil refinery sector faces significant challenges in response to the Paris Agreement’s 2050 projections for carbon emission reductions. Moreover, there is a global trend to process significant amounts of heavy, sour crude to produce high value products, such as ultra-low-sulphur diesel and gasoline, to achieve better refinery margins as well as meeting stringent environmental standards including green-house gas emission reductions. The option of CO₂ emission free electricity generation within refineries can help to meet these goals. The primary aim of this study was to explore the role of the ‘clean refinery’ concept and how it could contribute to the Paris Agreement’s long-term objective to curb peak global greenhouse gas emissions. Various options for refineries are available depending, not only on the complexity and degree of integration, but also on whether a refinery already exists or is still at the planning stage. In addition to these general considerations, the regional location, crude mix and local markets for refined products and electricity all influence the design, complexity and economic viability of ‘clean refineries’. p>

Technical Review

4th International Workshop on Offshore Geologic CO₂ Storage

  • 30 April 2020
  • Event Proceedings
  • Storage

The 4th International Workshop on Offshore Geologic CO₂ Storage was held 11-12 February 2020, hosted by the University of Bergen in conjunction with the EU-Funded STEMM-CCS project in Norway. The workshop addressed how to develop CCS projects with offshore storage and built on the recommendations and topics raised at the previous workshops. The aim of the workshop series is to facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences among those who are doing offshore CO₂ storage and those who are interested, and to facilitate international collaboration on projects. Over 150 attendees from 18 countries participated in this 4th workshop.

Technical Report

IEAGHG Monitoring & Environmental Research Combined Networks Meeting

  • 1 March 2020
  • Event Proceedings
  • Storage

The 13th meeting of IEAGHG’s Monitoring Network was this year combined with the Environmental Research Network, to facilitate wider topic broaching and encourage broader discussions. This combined networks meeting was held from 20th – 22nd August 2019 at the University of Calgary, Canada. The two day meeting was preceded by a field trip to the Containment and Monitoring Institute (CaMI) field research station site visit. It was followed by a one day workshop on faults and their significance for CO? storage (report number 2020-03). The meeting was designed to cover the following themes: developments in sensing ; lessons from managing field projects; uncertainty in quantification; monitoring for EOR compared with deep saline formations; fall-back plans; new case studies with real data; environmental impacts of monitoring and stakeholder engagement; up-well leakage; and monitoring post-injection for closure.

Technical Report

IEAGHG Faults and their Significance for Large-Scale CO₂ Storage Workshop 

  • 1 March 2020
  • Event Proceedings
  • Storage

The success of CO? Capture and Storage (CCS) technology depends on the safe, secure and long-term storage of CO? at large-scale (mega tonnes per site). Upward migration and leakage of injected CO? along faults is a key risk. The aim of the workshop was to gain a greater understanding on how faults could influence long-term storage of CO?. The workshop built on oil and gas industry experiences, as well as the research community, to gain a clear perspective on fault properties that are important to CO? storage. The 1-day event provided an opportunity to review laboratory experiments, field studies, and modelling results, to gain insights on the importance of faults for CO? storage. Current practices to evaluate fault seal as well as critical technical gaps were discussed. The workshop gave an opportunity to review current research on CO? controlled release experiments and what could be learned from them, plus the contribution from simulations. The 1-day event documented critical issues for CO? storage related to faults, the experience of current experimental work, and identify remaining gaps in knowledge.

Technical Review

Agenda Workshop on Hydrogen Production with CCS

  • 21 February 2020
  • Capture
  • Event Proceedings

Hydrogen is a key raw material to other energy intensive industries. Globally, nearly 90% of the hydrogen produced industrially is consumed by the ammonia, methanol and oil refining industries. Moreover, hydrogen could soon play a significant role in the decarbonisation of power, space heating (i.e. industrial, commercial, building and residential heating) and transport fuel (i.e. use of fuel cell vehicles). Although the steam methane reformer route (SMR) is the leading technology for H2 production from natural gas or light hydrocarbons, there are other mature and emerging alternatives. Similarly, while increasing the process efficiency has shown a CO₂ emissions reduction of nearly 10%, CCS has been identified as a key strategy to cut down CO₂ emissions from hydrogen production. Against this background the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) decided to map activities on hydrogen production with CCS in member states and elsewhere. One conclusion of that exercise was to hold workshop with other organisations. A steering committee was formed to organise this workshop, held on November 6th 2019, and hosted by EDF and Club CO₂. This workshop was held for one day, devoted to a plenary session addressing three general topics, and including 90 attendees from 19 countries. Each session included several invited presentations, followed by a discussion among the workshop attendees. This document presents brief summaries of the three plenary sessions topics and one break-out session where all attendees were able to contribute.

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