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Enabling CCS Clusters

1 February 2018
Industry Insights

It is widely considered that deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) for clusters of energy intensive industries (EIIs) will become vital for meeting long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets, and is a cost effective way for doing so, according to organisations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In addition, it will be important to develop the related finance mechanism quickly to prevent carbon leakage, i.e. businesses transferring operations to places with less stringent GHG emission standards. Recent evidence highlights there might be different needs and challenges in deployment of industrial clusters, compared to those involving power generation. IEAGHG’s Technical Report 2015/03 “Carbon capture and storage cluster projects: review and future opportunities” reviews 12 CCS cluster projects and finds that the most successful clusters are currently based on CO₂-EOR in North America. This is to be expected as EOR provides a commercial benefit to investors in such activities.Further requirements for ICCS clusters include: generating confidence for per-investment in CCS infrastructure, new methods to attract international investment and systematic development of CCS cluster business plans. However, more information is necessary regarding the transferability of conclusions for CCS clusters based on power generation incentives, such as a UK Contract for Difference (CfD), to those involving multiple industry sectors, and especially EIIs.This study examines the economic and commercial arrangements needed to enable the global deployment of industrial CCS clusters. Over a period of eight months, with significant input from stakeholders from industry, government and the investment community, the project has identified the key enablers to unlock private investment in ICCS and developed four business models, which are expected to work in various regions around the world including North America, Europe, Australia and China.

Technical Report

CO₂ Storage Efficiency in Deep Saline Formations - Stage 2

1 January 2018
Storage

A key determinant for CO₂ storage in deep saline formations (DSFs) is dynamic efficiency (E factor) – that is the effect that increased pressure caused by fluid injection has on the storage capacity of a formation. The storage capacity will always be limited by the pressure limit imposed by the geomechanical strength of the caprock, which is defined as the fracture pressure. If a formation is bounded by faults or other low permeability barriers, then excess pressure could limit the dynamic efficiency, a condition referred to as a closed boundary. In contrast formations that extend over several 100 square kilometres without significant barriers can enable pressure to be dissipated, a condition known as an open boundary. In a previous study commissioned by IEAGHG the effects of dynamic efficiency were compared between two contrasting onshore basins (one open and the other closed), but over a long hypothetical time-scale of 2,000 years. Although the previous study showed the effects of boundary conditions, the dynamic efficiency was based on very large areas extending of several thousands of square kilometres. The results did not reflect the more likely conditions of much shorter timescales and injection over limited areas that would be experienced in early CO₂ storage sites. The aim of this second study is to improve the estimated dynamic storage of DSFs based on a modelled 50 year injection period and over comparatively limited areas of ~1,000 km2. Two well researched formations were selected: one from an onshore basin (the Minnelusa Formation in the USA) and the other form an offshore basin (the Bunter Formation in the North Sea). This study also includes a cost development model to determine how the number of wells affects the cost-effectiveness of each storage site.

Technical Report

Valuing Flexibility in Power Plants

1 December 2017
Capture

The study was designed to investigate the value of flexible CCS-equipped power plants to the UK’s electricity system. The value used, the System Value (or SV), is a metric that quantifies the benefit, i.e. the reduction in total system cost, of adding a unit of a particular technology to the electricity grid. To operate effectively, an electricity grid must not only have adequate generating capacity to meet demand but also have reliable reserve generation capacity (e.g. as back-up for outages) and sufficient system inertia (for frequency control). While supply-side (e.g. energy storage) or demand-side (e.g. energy efficiency) mechanisms may offer alternatives to grid expansion, adding new capacity remains a central requirement for any grid, e.g. as power plants are retired and/or demand increases. Since not all technologies provide the same services to the grid, the value of adding a unit of a particular technology will be a function, at any given time, not just of the incremental increase in power demand that it may satisfy but also of the characteristics of the technologies already connected.

Technical Report

12th IEAGHG Monitoring Network Meeting

1 November 2017
Event Proceedings
Storage

The theme for this meeting was ‘The Cost and Value-effectiveness of Monitoring: what key drivers are required to deliver an optimum outcome’. Sessions included project updates, the application of oil and gas production experience, innovative monitoring techniques, offshore monitoring developments, overburden research including controlled release experiments, wellbore integrity and micro-seismicity. Delegates also took part in a group exercise on how to respond to a hypothetical leak scenario. The meeting highlighted the impressive advances that have been made in the use of fibre-optic distributed acoustic sensors (DAS) at projects, including helical configured cables, to overcome the limitations of directional signals. The technology is now under trial at pilot CO2 storage sites.

Technical Review

2nd International Workshop on Offshore Geologic CO₂ Storage

1 November 2017
Event Proceedings
Storage

This second workshop built on the conclusions and recommendations from the first workshop in 2016 by continuing the theme of ‘how to do’, and including sessions on how to find storage, monitoring developments, CO2-EOR potential offshore, and infrastructure options, with presentations from Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, South Africa and Japan. New to all attendees were presentations on the US Department of Energy (DOE) -supported US projects looking at offshore storage in sedimentary basins in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and in basalts in the northern Pacific. Conclusions and recommendations were agreed, with a certain focus on infrastructure issues with the aim of engaging with operators of offshore infrastructure to make them aware of the opportunities from CCS and CO2-EOR.

Technical Review

Gas Supply Chain Emissions

1 October 2017
Industry Insights

This technical review has been undertaken with the aim of providing a summary of the current status of research into greenhouse gas emissions in the natural gas supply chain. Although 90% or more of the CO2 produced at gas fired power plants can be captured, emissions from the supply chain may reduce the near-zero-emission image of gas as an energy source. Emissions are predominantly from two sources: <ol> <li>Methane emissions during production and also fugitive emissions during transport.</li> <li>CO2 emissions from gas production installations, gas purification plants, pipeline compressors, LNG liquefaction plants, ships and receiving terminals.</li> </ol>

Technical Review

Peer Review of US RCSP Phase III Projects

1 September 2017
Storage

The 2017 international independent expert review of the RCSP had the following aims: <ol> <li>To follow up progress in addressing the recommendations of the third review in 2013, both in terms of the overall RCSP and individual regional partnerships and their Phase III projects;</li> <li>To assess the progress on the individual Phase III projects (7) and consider whether the proposed technical work program for each project has achieved its goals and those of the overall RCSP. Each project was expected to respond to the recommendations made in the previous review in 2013 and whether any subsequent modifications to project plans had achieved their desired effect;</li> <li>To assess results and key findings from the Phase III tests across the RCSP;</li> <li>To assess the overall technical program of the RCSP, address the synergies between the 7 Phase III projects and how they complement each other and how collectively they can provide a technical basis for future commercial scale projects in the USA;</li> <li>To assess how the RCSP compares, complements and contrasts with similar projects underway worldwide and how the information from these projects can help build an international knowledge base on CO2 capture and storage.</li> </ol>

Technical Report

CCS deployment in the context of regional developments

1 August 2017
Policy & Regulation

The aim of this study was to characterise key countries and regions worldwide where carbon capture and storage (CCS) could play an important role in mitigation efforts, based on national circumstances and priorities. An additional objective was to identify how international frameworks, such as the UNFCCC, can support CCS and what these new architectures would mean with respect to development of nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

Technical Report

CO₂ Migration in the Overburden

1 August 2017
Storage

This report documents the subsurface processes that may enable CO₂ to potentially migrate from the storage reservoir to within the overburden sequence. The potential rates of migration for each migration pathway and the implications for leakage are discussed. Secondary trapping mechanisms within the overburden are also discussed within the report. The conclusions are focused on tying overburden characteristics to their impact on developing risk assessments. As well as specific pathway structures, five CO₂ storage projects were selected for this review and the characteristics of the overburden sequence that promote trapping and hinder migration at each site are a summarised. The projects chosen were the offshore Sleipner and Snøhvit CO₂ storage projects, the planned storage site in the Goldeneye Field, the onshore Ketzin pilot CO₂ injection project in Germany and the Field Research Station in Canada.

Technical Review

ReCAP Project Understanding Cost of Retrofitting

1 August 2017
Costs of CCUS
Industry Insights

The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the cost of retrofitting CO₂ capture in a range of refinery types typical of those found in Europe. These included bo0th simple and high complexity refineries covering typical European refinery capacities from 100,000 to 350,000 bbl/d. The assessments performed in this report focused on retrofit costs including modifications in the refineries, interconnections, and additional CHP and utility facilities. The main focus of the study was on CO₂ capture from refinery Base Case 4, which was considered to be the most relevant reference for existing European refineries of interest for CO₂ capture retrofit. Considering the large number of cases (16) and their complexity, a hybrid methodology is used to evaluate the cost of the sections (CO₂ capture and compression, utilities, and interconnecting) of the concept. In this approach, four of the 16 capture cases were selected to represent a wide range of CO₂ capture capacity and flue gas CO₂ content. In each case, detailed assessments were undertaken. These detailed cost assessments form, based on subsequent scaling, the basis for the assessment of the other cases. The scaling equations have a larger purpose in that they can be used by refineries/policy experts to evaluate capital costs of retrofitting CO₂ capture to refineries of interest.

Technical Report

Proceedings of US DOE Workshop

1 June 2017
Event Proceedings

The aim of the workshop was to review the representation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and advanced fossil technologies in integrated assessment models (IAMs). IAMs are computer models and can range in the mathematical methods that underpin them, but largely they incorporate representations of the energy system, the economy and earth systems into one IAM. These computational models are then used at global, national and city scales to gain insights into energy and economic system dynamics under various constraints, e.g. from government policy, from socio-economics and from the environment. IAMs are widely used in energy and climate change mitigation scenario analysis to develop technology roadmaps and inform policy pathways.

Technical Review

CCS Industry Build-Out Rates – Comparison with Industry Analogues

1 June 2017
Industry Insights

This study compares the anticipated CCS build-out rates with those achieved in other sectors, where comparable technologies in those sectors have been used as analogues. In particular, it addresses whether the build-out rates for CCS, as depicted in Figure ES.1, are tenable, i.e. whether the claimed build out is possible once the programme is up and underway. It does not attempt to address the timing of when the build-out would begin or, more particularly, the veracity of the timing of the start of build-out as depicted in Figure ES.1.

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