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Can CO₂ Capture and Storage Unlock 'Unburnable Carbon'?

1 May 2016
Capture
Storage

This study has undertaken an initial assessment on the relevance of CCS in terms of the unburnable carbon issues. This consisted of the following tasks: <ol> <li>Undertake a comprehensive literature review to identify and assess those studies done to date which are relevant to, include or comment upon the role of CCS in the issues of unburnable carbon.</li> <li>Assess the assumptions, methodologies, any contentious subjects, and understand differences in these studies.</li> <li>Identify and assess sources of information on the global potential for CCS deployment, including storage potential.</li> <li>Potential issues that would contribute to better understanding and assessment of this topic (which are of a technical nature and thus IEAGHG could address), will be identified and recommendations made for further work, including whether any work is necessary relating to global storage capacity and CCS global potential.</li> </ol>

Technical Report

CO₂ impurities

1 April 2016
Industry Insights

The main objectives of the report are to: Review the CO₂ impurities that could be present from different CO₂ capture technologies and develop twelve CO₂ impurity scenario compositions for further analysis; Evaluate these impurity scenarios for CO₂ physical and transport properties. The properties that are investigated are the dew point, bubble point, melting point, density, Joule-Thomson coefficients, speed of sound, viscosity and thermal conductivity. Evaluate the effects of the impurities on CO₂ compression and liquefaction in terms of performance and energy requirements; Identify the effects of the impurities on the operating conditions for both pipeline and ship based transportation; Evaluate the effect of the impurities on the selection of materials for pipeline and ship transportation.

Technical Report

Summary of IEAGHG/CSLF Workshop on LCA in CCUS London 12-13 November 2015

1 March 2016
Event Proceedings

A workshop on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) was held in London, UK, 12th and 13th November 2015, hosted by IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG) and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF). The workshop built on the IEAGHG report 2010/TR2 and review work by the CSLF. The workshop looked at the state-of-the art of LCA for CCUS in terms of goals and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation as well as social LCA and Life Cycle Costing (LCC).

Technical Report

Operational Flexibility of CO₂ Transport and Storage

1 March 2016
Storage
Transport

This study has reviewed different transport and storage scenarios to reflect the range of full-scale commercial operations. In addition to a wide ranging literature review a survey of industrial, utility, pipeline and CO2-EOR operators was also conducted to obtain their insights of CO2 transport and storage. Owing to the sensitivity of these commercial operations it has not been possible to attribute background information to either individuals or their companies. Anonymity has not prevented the inclusion of real world data on exhaust gas composition from different sources including power generation (coal and natural gas), oil refining, gas processing, cement, hydrogen production, and ethanol production. It also includes background information on actual CO2 pipeline operation, including network hubs, and CO2 CO2-EOR experience in the United States. Experience from different industrial scale injection projects such as Sleipner, Snøhvit and In Salah, has been included. The study has investigated how flexible operation affects CO2 storage and the measures adopted to accommodate intermittent supply. There are a series of prioritized recommendations based on the gaps in knowledge.

Technical Report

Social Research Network 2015

1 January 2016
Event Proceedings
Public Perception

This work looked into adopting a place-based approach to better understand responses of the public to the siting of projects involving low-carbon technologies. The research examined public reactions to an offshore wind farm, a power line proposal and a tidal energy project in the UK. Theorising the concept of ‘place’ has two aspects to it – a place as a locus of attachment/identity and a place as a centre of meaning. With the latter, these meanings are not fixed and people have different thoughts or feelings about them. ‘Place attachment’ describes the emotional bonds between people and particular environments (which can be attachment or non-attachment), where ‘place identity’ refers to the ways in which places reflect and maintain identities for individuals or groups. This work argues the value of capturing place attachments and their related meanings to explain local responses to siting of infrastructure proposals, but notes that each in isolation is insufficient to explain why. It was felt that there is value in conducting and comparing multiple case studies across contexts and sectors to further examine the influence of place on consumers.

Technical Report

Monitoring Network Meeting

1 December 2015
Event Proceedings
Storage

The 45 presentations and 17 posters covered a range of topics, with sessions on cost-effective monitoring of large projects, permit requirements, induced seismicity, shallow monitoring, geophysical monitoring and CO₂ relationships, pressure monitoring applications, monitoring tools for shallow, surface and deep monitoring, update on projects, and post-closure monitoring. As well as the new results and developments, new at this meeting was a group-work exercise created by Sue Hovorka of the University of Texas. This involved the groups designing monitoring plans for fictional but realistic storage sites, and then these being actually tested with leakage scenarios.

Technical Report

Oxy-combustion turbines

1 August 2015
Capture

Post combustion capture is usually considered to be the leading option for capture of CO₂ at natural gas fired power plants but there is increasing interest in the alternative of oxy-combustion turbines which use recycled CO₂ and/or H2O as the working fluid instead of air. Large component tests have taken place and a 50 MWth demonstration plant is scheduled to be commissioned in 2017. Oxy-combustion turbines can also be combined with solid fuel gasification as an alternative to IGCC with pre-combustion capture. This study provides an independent evaluation of the performance and costs of a range of oxy-combustion turbine cycles, mainly for utility scale power generation. The study was carried out by Amec Foster Wheeler in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano.

Technical Report

Integrated CCS Project at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station

1 August 2015
Capture
Storage

On October 2, 2014, the first-ever, commercial–scale, coal-fired power plant incorporating amine solvent absorption carbon capture began operation near Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. This was a global landmark event. Although carbon capture technologies had been pilot tested prior to this, a commercial– scale power plant now exists that has demonstrated that a number of high-risk technology and business issues have been overcome. This report summarizes the experience and learnings of SaskPower in a way that will hopefully provide insight to other clean-coal initiatives

Technical Report

Review of Offshore Monitoring for CCS Projects

1 July 2015
Storage

This report reviews offshore monitoring practice for CO₂ storage projects in terms of tool capabilities, logistical practicalities and costs. The focus is on large-scale ‘commercial’ storage monitoring and draws together published experience from existing large offshore CO₂ storage sites as well as monitoring research at experimental test sites and in areas of natural CO₂ seepages. The strengths and limitations of monitoring techniques, strategies and methodologies are discussed, and relevant experience from onshore sites are also included. Monitoring over the full life-cycle from pre-injection (baseline) through injection and post-injection phases to transfer of responsibility to the competent authority is considered. The review draws on selected examples of current or planned monitoring practice.

Technical Report

Criteria of Fault Geomechanical Stability

1 April 2015
Storage

Faults typically consist of two sub-structures: a fault core; and a wider fault damage zone. Faults in low porosity rocks tend to have a fine-grained fault core whereas faults in coarse-grained, high porosity rocks, usually have low porosity deformation bands that can develop into high permeable slip surfaces. Fault zone permeability increases with increasing fluid pressure but permeability varies both across and along faults. Hydraulic properties also vary between the damage zone and the core where gouge material is concentrated. This concentration of fine grained minerals also reduces the mechanical strength of faults. Mechanical failure or reactivation occurs either when shear stress exceeds normal strength or when hydraulic fracturing is induced. Fault deformation can be either brittle or ductile. The former leads to the formation of cataclastite (fine grained granular) and shear fractures which dilate under low effective normal stress that can cause permeability enhancement. With increasing shear deformation, fracture asperities are sheared off leading to gouge production and a reduction in permeability. Thus, in brittle deformation permeability will generally increase under low effective stresses and small displacements but decreases with increasing effective stress and magnitude of displacement. Shear fractures created in ductile deformation contract during shearing and tend not to lead to an increase in permeability. Reactivation of faults can be assessed using both analytical and numerical approaches, but assessment is usually based on the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. This method can be used to determine the critical injection pressure. Numerical modelling can provide predictions of fault stability at different scales and incorporate different parameters such as the geometry of different faults. Numerical methods can be effective for identifying leakage potential and seal failure especially where dilatancy and stress dependent permeability changes occur. Experimental tests on minerals and rock samples exposed to CO₂ tentatively indicate that the coefficient of friction is not radically changed, however, this conclusion is based on limited exposure to CO₂. There is limited observational data on stress regimes and direct pore pressure measurements from core samples from cap rocks and fault zones. Acquisition of key data would enhance stress regime modelling and fault behaviour.

Technical Report

Carbon capture and storage cluster projects: review and future opportunities

1 March 2015
Capture
Storage

The study was based largely on literature in the public domain and a few enquiries to ascertain current status. Some valuable additional material was also obtained from expert reviewers of the study. Sufficient information was found to review 12 clusters in depth and a number of other less developed clusters at a more general level. Based on the results the gaps, risks and challenges faced by those developing CCS cluster projects are described. Some criteria for selecting additional cluster locations are developed and recommendations for increasing the likelihood of success are put forwards. The data and references were gathered in a working database to facilitate comparisons. A CCS cluster is taken to mean a location where the opportunity to cluster sources and/or sinks for CCS has been identified in published literature.

Technical Report

Monitoring Network and Modelling Network – Combined Meeting

1 February 2015
Event Proceedings
Storage

The objective of this project is to test near surface monitoring of CO₂ during a controlled release experiment. By monitoring released CO₂ the sensitivity of monitoring systems could be determined. Data could then be used to test and calibrate migration models under controlled conditions enabling results to be up-scaled to full-scale storage sites. The results can also be used to develop a monitoring protocol. Although this is a near-surface (<20m controlled release) deeper (100m – 300m) releases are planned.

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