Initiatives to develop the technology of carbon capture will necessitate the deployment of an infrastructure to transport and store the recovered carbon dioxide. Early concepts of how this might be implemented in Europe are outlined in a proposal for a EU demonstration programme by the Zero Emissions from Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP) team and in an economic assessment of carbon capture and storage options prepared by McKinsey & Co.
Sources of Stationary Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Europe
Source: EU GeoCapacity paper at Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen March 2009
Note: Reduced number of sources in France because of country's reliance on nuclear power.
Details for Irish Republic, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Serbia and Sweden, etc. not covered.
Also see the Sandbag website for a more detailed map of emissions sources in Europe.
Both reports suggest that capture areas would develop as clusters around large stationary emitters such as power plants and storage would be centred (again in clusters) onshore or in some cases, offshore. The McKinsey report outlines an early development strategy based on hub and spoke, whilst a map produced by Sandbag (location presented above) shows just how many sites in Europe currently emit carbon dioxide. This number can only grow as organisations are added to the scheme, for example under the UK's carbon reduction commitment.
Many of these users will only be able to capture carbon dioxide at low pressure (typically atmospheric from flue gases) and as a consequence, it is hard to predict what percentage of emission sources might eventually be connected to a gathering network. Although work is in hand to develop capture systems for large power plants, e.g. see the earlier posting about a UK demonstrator, no such initiative is in place for smaller industrial users. Additionally, the power required to condition and compress the associated gases may typically increase demand at such users by 20% or more (with a corresponding increase in power generation demand across Europe).
The EU's Directorate-General of Energy and Transport has recently issued a tender to study in more detail the feasibility of a European wide transport infrastructure. This work would include the completion of an integrated database with details of European carbon dioxide sinks and sources, such as developed by the GeoCapacity project.
Possible Carbon Capture and Storage Clusters in Europe
Source: Paper presented by McKinsey & Co, CCS Conference Gottenburg, Jan 2009
A major issue to be addressed by governments as well as the operators of emitting plants is the need to assure the public that the transport of carbon dioxide and the location of storage facilities within urban areas will be safe. This is likely to be a major challenge judging from the early response to proposals to handle and store carbon dioxide locally by residents in both Germany (Spremberg) and Holland (Pernis). Unlike the delivery of petrol to filling stations or the supply of natural gas to their homes where the public has favourably weighed up the benefits in comparison to the potential hazards, it is likely that they will only see a downside when asked to sanction the transport or storage of high pressure carbon dioxide through or under their towns and cities. A cursory review of the maps presented in this article would also suggest that with the exception of zones where it may be practical to use offshore storage (for example. areas bordering the North Sea or the Adriatic), it may prove difficult to obtain planning consent for the required transport and storage infrastructure across mainland Europe.
Sources of Carbon Dioxide and Possible Storage Zones in Europe
Source: EU GeoCapacity paper at Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen March 2009
Note: Blue areas represent the location of deep saline formations whose storage capabilities
are still the subject of detailed study. In comparison to saline aquifers, the storage capacity
and pan-European accessibility to offshore oil and gas reservoirs appears to be more limited.
In the UK, the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage (SCCS) has issued a report that reviews the potential for captured carbon dioxide to be stored in the Northern sector of the North Sea. The study suggests there is sufficient capacity to store the carbon dioxide produced by all of the UK's coal fired power plants for 200 years, but it is not clear to the author how practical this proposal really is, since the offshore installations to be used are old and transport costs will be higher than for reservoirs in the Southern sector of the North Sea which are closer to the sites of most power plants in England.
The TimesOnline reported earlier this year that UK's National Grid has started to prepare plans for a network that could be used to pipe and store carbon dioxide under the North Sea. In practise the Grid's activities appear to have been limited to the issue of a consultation document concerning the possible use of spare onshore natural gas capacity to pipe carbon dioxide from the central belt in Scotland to the St.Fergus terminal located north of Aberdeen.
Other issues to be considered include:
- The infrastructure used must be good for hundreds of years, but also accessible for maintenance. Long term ownership and liability for any future incidents has still to be codified, but it is assumed that this will pass to governments.
- Transport systems will need to have a high availability to ensure emitting plants can operate continuously. This may require the construction of ring mains and as likely, additional capital expenditure.
- Materials - it will be important to control the moisture content of transported carbon dioxide to minimise the likelihood of corrosion.
- There is experience of constructing and operating CO2 pipelines in the United States.
- Det Norsk Veritas (DnV) report that they have developed new guidelines for CO2 transmission systems. This extends existing standards such as ASME B31.4.
- Offshore storage will have a role to play, but could turn out to be a niche market if it proves possible to develop a European wide delivery system.
- The location of compression and pumping stations on the gathering network will require much optimisation. Ideally, compression should be performed at the point where the carbon is captured, but this could significantly reduce operational flexibility. Proposals to locate facilities on the network and final points of injection will require a close look at new entrant and existing emission allowances.
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