The CCP3 Collaboration Project – Main Achievements

Abstract

Abstract The CO 2 Capture Project (CCP) is a partnership of six energy companies working to advance the technologies that will underpin the deployment of industrial-scale CO 2 capture and storage (CCS). Harnessing the unique expertise of its members, the CCP has worked in collaboration with government bodies and more than 60 academic institutions, industry and leading environmental groups. Initiated in 2000, the overall objective of CCP is to deliver major cost reductions for CO 2 capture and demonstrate that geological storage is efficient, verifiable and secure. Phase 3 of The CO 2 Capture Project (CCP3) has been undertaken during 2009-2014 and with continuing support of R&D work for capture and storage technologies at multiple levels of development, including exploratory research to demonstration. Demonstration of the next generation technologies being developed by CCP is a key aspect of this third phase of the project and several capture and storage technologies have been or will be deployed (or made deployment-ready) within the CCP3 timeframe: • The regenerator of a large pilot Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit in a Brazilian refinery owned by Petrobras was retrofit to oxy-firing with CO 2 recycle. A successful demonstration was completed in 2012. • The retrofit to oxy-firing of a commercial Once Through Steam Generator (OTSG) used in oil sands extraction operations in Canada (duty of 50 million BTU/hr) was performed in 2013, following completion of a feasibility study by Praxair. A demonstration run is scheduled in early 2014 and the main results will be included in the conference paper. • Field deployment and performance assessments of new CO 2 storage monitoring techniques at third party pilot / demonstration sites include: a modular borehole monitoring (MBM) assembly at Citronelle Dome (Alabama), Borehole Gravity at Cranfield Field (Mississippi) and InSAR at Decatur (Illinois) and electromagnetics at Aquistore (Saskatchewan). Other R&D projects completed in 2013 or early 2014 with co-funding of the CCP include: • Investigation of novel oxygen carriers (none Nickel-based) for Chemical Looping Combustion. • Pilot testing of commercial burners for refinery crude process heaters in oxy-firing mode. • Prolonged laboratory test of palladium alloy membranes in Water Gas Shift operating conditions and design of a pilot membrane module. • Pilot and bench-scale testing of several novel solvents for post-combustion application, including non- aqueous and enzyme-enhanced solvents. • Geomechanical hysteresis of top seal from prior oil extraction processes and potential impacts on CO2 storage containment • Fundamental studies of subsurface physico-chemical processes to simulation of through seal CO 2 leakage and intervention options. • Design of a bench-field scale “fracture sealing” experiment to test candidate sealant performance Selected scenarios for application of the CCP capture technologies are: • Oil refinery (capture from steam boilers, process heaters, fluid catalytic crackers, hydrogen plants) • Steam production for extraction of heavy oils • Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) power station These represent major sources of CO 2 emissions for the CCP member companies and some of their customers. Storage venues may range from saline formations to CO 2 EOR and possibly unconventional gas reservoirs. Relevant findings and technologies may be leveraged for oil and gas exploration and production characterization and surveillance. An assessment of the performance and economics of state-of-the-art post combustion, oxy-firing and precombustion for the above applications has been carried out. Foster Wheeler was commissioned to conduct technical evaluation studies, while an in-house economic model was developed, which included capture, transportation, and storage costs. The objective of these studies was to provide material for a CO 2 capture handbook to be used to support CO 2 capture technology selection in the oil and gas industry. The technical/economical evaluation of novel technologies developed in CCP3 was undertaken using the same procedure (third party performance evaluation and in-house economic model). The main results will be included in the conference paper. The CCP3 also maintains Policy and Communications capabilities with on-going stakeholder interactions and continues to make accurate and current technical information publicly available including a number if Technical Factsheets and Annual Reports.