A preliminary assessment of CO2 capture, transport, and storage network for China's steel sector

Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has emerged as a promising way for achieving deep decarbonization of China's steel sector. Large-scale CCS deployment necessitates a comprehensive source-sink matching analysis to offer early engineering guidance. To address this issue, this study conducted a source-sink matching analysis of China's steel sector, assessing CO2 sources, CO2 storage capacities and costs, and CO2 pipeline layouts under three capture targets. The findings reveal an obvious spatial mismatch between CO2 sources and potential CO2 sinks for China's steel sector. CO2 sources are mainly situated in eastern China, while main CO2 storage sites are located in western China. The average unit costs of CCS under low (30%), medium (60%), and full capture (90%) targets are 83, 91, and 118 $/t CO2, respectively. In particular, as capture target increases, the CO2 transportation cost will supersede the capture cost and dominate the average CCS unit cost, owing to the construction of longer pipelines. This study recommends prioritizing CCS demonstration with steel plants in regions having suitable CO2 storage basins nearby. Moreover, future investigations should concentrate on on-site experiments of CO2 storage basins and the technology development of offshore carbon storage in China.