Case study on CO2 transport pipeline network design for Humber region in the UK

Abstract

Reliable, safe and economic CO2 transport from CO2 capture points to long-term storage/enhanced oil recovery sites is critical for commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage technology. Pipeline transportation of CO2 is considered the most feasible and viable option for achieving this. However, in carbon capture and storage applications, there is concern about associated impurities and huge volumes of high pressure CO2 to be transported over distances that will likely be densely populated areas. On this basis, there is limited experience for design and economic assessment of CO2 pipeline. The Humber region in the UK is a likely site for building CO2 pipelines in the future due to large CO2 emissions in the region and its close access to depleted gas fields and saline aquifers beneath the North Sea. In this paper, various issues to be considered in CO2 pipeline design for carbon capture and storage applications are discussed. Also, different techno-economic correlations for CO2 pipelines are assessed using the Humber region as a case study. Levelized cost of CO2 pipelines calculated for the region range from 0.14 to 0.75 GBP per tonne of CO2. This is a preliminary study and is useful for obtaining quick techno-economic assessment of CO2 pipelines.