Carbon Capture, Utilization, And Storage Research Articles

Towards building a successful CCS hub in Darwin

The Northern Territory Government is working with industry, the Australian Government and CSIRO to accelerate development of the Middle Arm of Darwin Harbour into a globally competitive, sustainable industrial development precinct for low-emission hydrocarbons, hydrogen production, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and minerals processing. This project will significantly reduce Northern Territory emissions and catalyse growth of new industries driving low-emissions energy transition and providing a sustainable future Northern Territory economic growth. The Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct masterplan provides for a range of development scenarios that incorporate integrated large-scale renewable energy and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) infrastructure. Master planning of this greenfields site provides significant benefits including optimising the use of existing and shared infrastructure, resulting in reduced impacts and maximised economic benefits. This provides Industry with greater certainty, reduces the burden of pre-approvals and creates an investment-ready industrial precinct with ready access to key marine, road and rail transport facilities, utilities and other shared services. This provides an advantage over existing precincts around the globe, which may need to be retrofitted at greater cost and impact. When combined with decarbonisation of the existing gas industry at Middle Arm, there is unique opportunity to develop new low-emissions industries within the Northern Territory and supply low-emission energy and products to the Southeast Asian markets. This paper provides an overview of the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct, its integration with the existing Northern Territory gas industry, the minerals industry and renewable energy, and CCS projects.

Towards 2030: transforming asset emissions in Australian production operations

Operators are building roadmaps to reduce emissions at an increasing rate because of initiatives such as the Australian Government’s Safeguard Mechanism and global draft proposals to make emissions from plants auditable. There are three main levers for integrated gas operators: (1) Optimising existing operations to improve efficiency. (2) Designing sustainable developments and modifications. (3) Rebalancing portfolios to lower carbon equivalent intensity assets. Large capital projects are typically proposed as responses to the second lever – such as carbon capture and electrification. However, operating assets hold pressing challenges to reduce ~10–20% of emissions and need to develop viable roadmaps. Through our work in Australian integrated gas industry, we found that the majority of CO2-e operational emissions reduction opportunities can be addressed by discrete improvement programmes on rotating reliability, process optimisation and methane leak reduction. We discuss how asset operators can drive their Operations, Energy Transition and Digital Functions to realise these significant CO2-e benefits on a scale of months by: (1) Developing a value-driven decarbonisation strategy for operations, identifying benefits in production, cost and emissions, front-loaded with high impact, rapid 20–30% reduction initiatives that can be realised in the next 1–2 years. (2) Implementing effective and auditable real-time monitoring of plant emissions direct from existing control systems, sensors and imaging techniques. (3) Deriving a programme of tech-enabled optimisation levers and bringing this into new designs for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), hydrogen and electrification projects for maximum benefits.

The Northern Territory low-emissions carbon capture, utilisation and storage hub development – the collaborative business case development

The Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Northern Territory Government, and Industry are working collaboratively on developing the business case for a carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) hub based on the Middle Arm of Darwin Harbour. This business case is following the development vision developed by government and industry which incorporates, Northern Territory industrial development goals and those of the gas companies to chart a course for rapid decarbonisation of the energy and industrial sectors of the Northern Territory. The business case is focussed on three key elements; Part 1 – macro-economics, emissions, markets and best practice CCUS hub examples; Part 2 – CCUS hub technical definition and technical risk reduction studies; and Part 3 – Hub economic models and execution plans. These activities aim to understand the viability of the development of a 25 million ton CO2 storage and utilisation hub by 2040. Work on the business case is well underway and this paper will provide a progress update, with particular focus on the activities associated with part 1 of the business case.

A State-of-the-Art Review on Technology for Carbon Utilization and Storage

Carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies are regarded as an economically feasible way to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, various aspects of CCUS are reviewed and discussed, including the use of geological sequestration, ocean sequestration and various mineral carbon mineralization with its accelerated carbonization methods. By chemically reacting CO2 with calcium or magnesium-containing minerals, mineral carbonation technology creates stable carbonate compounds that do not require ongoing liability or monitoring. In addition, using industrial waste residues as a source of carbonate minerals appears as an option because they are less expensive and easily accessible close to CO2 emitters and have higher reactivity than natural minerals. Among those geological formations for CO2 storage, carbon microbubbles sequestration provides the economic leak-free option of carbon capture and storage. This paper first presents the advantages and disadvantages of various ways of storing carbon dioxide; then, it proposes a new method of injecting carbon dioxide and industrial waste into underground cavities.

Utilization of Synthetic Steel Gases in an Additively Manufactured Reactor for Catalytic Methanation

The path to European climate neutrality by 2050 will require comprehensive changes in all areas of life. For large industries such as steelworks, this results in the need for climate-friendly technologies. However, the age structure of existing steelworks makes transitional solutions such as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) necessary as short-term measures. Hence, a purposeful option is the integration of technical syntheses such as methanation into the overall process. This work summarizes hydrogen-intensified methanation experiments with synthetic steel gases in the novel additively manufactured reactor ‘ADDmeth1’. The studies include steady-state operating points at various reactor loads. Blast furnace gas (BFG), basic oxygen furnace gas (BOFG) and three mixtures of these two gases serve as carbon sources. The methanation achieved methane yields of 93.5% for BFG and 95.0% for BOFG in the one-stage once-through setup. The results suggest a kinetic limitation in the case of BFG methanation, while an equilibrium limitation is likely for BOFG. There is a smooth transition in all respects between the two extreme cases. The reaction channel inlet temperature ϑin showed a large influence on the reactor ignition behavior. By falling below the threshold value, a blow-off occurred during experimental operation. By means of a simulation model, practical operating maps were created which characterize permissible operating ranges for ϑin as a function of the gas composition and the reactor load.

A novel computational strategy to estimate CO2 solubility in brine solutions for CCUS applications

Estimation of CO2 solubility in brine is crucial to various CCUS (carbon capture utilization and storage) applications, especially for engineering design of the physical/chemical processes. In this work, we developed machine learning based workflow to calculate CO2 solubility in brine at various combinations of salt mixtures, pressure, and temperatures. Most importantly, the performance of predictive models and workflow were tested against extensive experimental observations and key features of brine components with significant contributions were determined.

Two-Stage Planning for Electricity-Gas Coupled Integrated Energy System With Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Considering Carbon Tax and Price Uncertainties

In this article, we propose two-stage planning models for Electricity-Gas Coupled Integrated Energy System (EGC-IES), in which traditional thermal power plants (TTPPs) are considered to be retrofitted into carbon capture power plants (CCPPs), with power to gas (PtG) coupling CCPPs to the gas system. The sizing and siting of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS)/PtG facilities and the operation cost of TTPP/CCPP/gas source/PtG are all considered in the proposed model, including penalty on carbon emissions and revenue of CCUS. With changing policy on climate change and carbon emission regulation, the carbon price, carbon tax, and load uncertainties are also analyzed and considered in the proposed planning model. Stochastic planning and robust planning methods are introduced to verify mutually through economic and carbon indices. Various cases and discussions demonstrate the proposed methods’ effectiveness in reducing carbon emissions and increasing CCUS's profit from EGC-IES.

Life cycle assessment of carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies: An analytical review

The impact of climate change is more evident now than ever due to the environmental burden accumulated over the past two decades. Decarbonising methods such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies are the future of the green economy and are considered one of the most significant alternatives for mitigating carbon emissions. Therefore, this review mainly focuses on life cycle assessment (LCA), the current state-of-the-art tool to determine the environmental performance of the technologies. This paper aims to assess papers published from the year 2019 to 2022 from all around the world to understand the trend, challenges, and prospects of CCUS technologies in reducing carbon and environmental impacts. This review concludes that the employment of carbon capture technologies can significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also increase other environmental burdens such as acidification, eutrophication and ecotoxicity depending on the type of carbon capture method used, energy penalty and the rate of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emitted from the carbon capture infrastructure. Furthermore, Carbon Capture Utilisation (CCU) is a viable option to be employed in industries mainly to produce chemicals and use the captured carbon directly to combat GHG emissions with the proper modification of the carbon conversion method of the plant and the application of renewable energy. Although the Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) technology has an overall great impact on reducing Global Warming Potential (GWP), the increasing demand for fuel for the infrastructure causes environmental trade-offs with an increase in GHG emissions and other impact categories. The findings of this research would help in developing and implementing improvised methods and will provide a clear view of the prospects of CCUS technologies which will assist in decision-making.

Complications in drilling operations in basalt for CO2 sequestration: An overview

The review article addresses the functional impediments of drilling in basaltic formation for CO2 storage. The rising temperature of earth due to increased emission of CO2 is an alarming situation for 8 billion people residing on the planet. Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt hosted the 27th Conference of the Parties of the united nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27-UNFCCC) where leaders from more than 100 nations gathered to discuss the solution that car bring back the temperature of earth to its optimum range. Out of several solutions like hydrogen economy, clean fuels, smart utilization of hydrocarbon and etc. carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) remain one of the crucial technologies that can help in tackling the situation of global warming by capturing CO2 directly from atmosphere. The captured CO2 can be utilized for generation of several products with CO2 as raw material or can be injected into geological formations. For gigatons scale of removal of CO2 from atmosphere storage into geological formation is the most economical and feasible option available. Geological formation like petroleum reservoirs, coal seams, basaltic sequences are the prospective sites for injection where CO2 can be stored and out of these available sites basaltic sequence storage is the most safe as it stores the CO2 as solid part of the formation (gaseous CO2 converts to solid CO2 in form pf carbonates) itself and is an fast process as almost all of the injected CO2 is reported to be stored permanently within two to three years as compared to other formations where it can takes thousands of years for phase change of CO2. Basaltic sequences are also advantageous due to their non-commercial value with a drawback of its hardness and abrasivity. The minerals that constitute the basalt attain the value of 6–7 on Mohr’s scale of hardness making it one of the hardest rocks on earth. This hardness and abrasivity of basalt are a major concern that impacts the drilling process and makes it complicated as well as uneconomical. Thus, this review article emphasizes on geology of basalt that generates complication while drilling procedures.

Thailand’s net-zero emissions by 2050: analysis of economy-wide impacts

This paper aims at exploring the economy-wide impacts of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 in Thailand. This study developed a recursive dynamic Asia-Pacific Integrated Model/Computable General Equilibrium (AIM/CGE) model of Thailand for the assessment. The macroeconomic impacts of Thailand’s net-zero GHG emission targets by 2050 are analyzed relative to its 2-degree pathway. Results indicate that Thailand should put more effort in GHG mitigation actions to achieve the emissions peak by 2025 and net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. Improvement in energy efficiency; increasing electrification; expanding renewable energy utilization; deploying green hydrogen; bioenergy; carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS); and behavioral changes are the key identified pillars of decarbonization to drive Thailand towards the pathways of net-zero emissions by 2050. Results show that there is a possibility of attaining net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 at the expense of an economic loss for Thailand. The gross domestic product (GDP) loss would be as high as 8.5% in 2050 to attain net-zero emissions. Lower productivity from the energy intensive industries such as petroleum refineries, coal and lignite mining, manufacturing industries, and transport are the key contributing sectors to the GDP losses. The price of carbon mitigation would shoot up to reach USD 734 per tCO2eq in 2050 from USD 14 per tCO2eq in 2025 to attain net-zero emissions in 2050.

Advances in electrolyzer design and development for electrochemical CO2 reduction

AbstractIn view of global energy transition and environmental issues, electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to high value‐added chemicals by using clean renewable electricity, as an advanced carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology, demonstrates a promising approach to reach the carbon neutrality with additional economic benefits as well. Over the past decade, various new valid catalysts in electrochemical CO2 reduction (ECO2R) have been designed and intensively investigated. Unfortunately, constructing appropriate ECO2R electrolyzer with high conversion rate and long‐term stability to unleash the full potential benefits of electrocatalysts remains a recognized challenge, especially as it has not yet attracted attention. This review summarizes the progress of ECO2R reactor and their corresponding structure characteristics/ electrochemical performance. Besides, the current challenges and bottlenecks of CO2RR reactor are discussed. We aim to introduce the advances in ECO2R electrolyzer in detail to offer enlightenment for large‐scale industrial application of ECO2R.image

Methane-to-chemicals: a pathway to decarbonization.

The utilization of methane for chemical production, often considered as the future of petrochemistry, historically could not compete economically with conventional processes due to higher investment costs. Achieving sustainability and decarbonization of the downstream industry by integration with a methane-to-chemicals process may provide an opportunity to unlock the future for these technologies. Gas-to-chemicals is an efficient tool to boost the decarbonization potential of renewable energy. While the current implementation of carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies is of great importance for industrial decarbonization, a shift to greener CO2-free processes and CO2 utilization from external sources for manufacturing valuable goods is highly preferred. This review outlines potential options for how a methane-to-chemicals process could support decarbonization of the downstream industry.

Japan’s greenhouse gas reduction scenarios toward net zero by 2050 in the material cycles and waste management sector

The first draft scenario toward net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 for the material cycles and waste management sector was presented by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan in August 2021. The details of the future GHG emission estimation used to create the draft scenario are described in this document. For multiple scenarios where more aggressive measures, such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), were included in addition to business-as-usual and the current policy continuity scenario, future GHG emissions were estimated as the sum of the products of activities and emission factors indicating changes in measures between scenarios. The estimation outcomes demonstrated that future GHG emissions from the solid waste management sector could be anticipated to be zero or even negative when material conversion to biomass, primarily for plastics, recycling to raw materials, and installation of CCUS at incineration facilities are assumed. Extensions of prior plans are not enough to reach the goal of net zero emissions, according to the measures necessary and the volume and pace of their implementation suggested in this study. Stakeholders should collaborate with great ambition.

Economic Analysis of Methanating CO2 and Hydrogen-Rich Industrial Waste Gas in Depleted Natural Gas Reservoirs

This study explored underground biomethanation as a means to achieve carbon neutrality and promote carbon circular utilization by methanating CO2 and hydrogen-rich industrial waste gas in depleted natural gas reservoirs (MECHIG). This approach not only aids the development of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies, but also effectively processes industrial waste gas, thereby reducing pollutant emissions. In order to verify the feasibility of the MECHIG concept, this study builds upon the analysis of the MECHIG process overview and employs the net present value (NPV) analysis method to investigate its economic viability. Additionally, the study conducts a sensitivity analysis on six factors, namely methanation efficiency, facility site investment, hydrogen content in waste gas, natural gas prices, operation and maintenance (O&M) investment, and CO2 capture and injection prices. The results indicate the following: (1) Under the baseline scenario, the NPV of the MECHIG concept is approximately CNY 5,035,100, which suggests that the concept may be economically viable. (2) The fluctuation in natural gas prices has the most significant impact on NPV, followed by facility site investment and methanation efficiency. In contrast, the variations in hydrogen content in waste gas, O&M investment, and CO2 capture and injection prices have relatively smaller effects on NPV. (3) To ensure the economic feasibility of the concept, the acceptable fluctuation ranges for the factors of methanation efficiency, facility site investment, hydrogen content in waste gas, natural gas prices, O&M investment, and CO2 capture and injection prices are −16.78%, 5.44%, −32.14%, −4.70%, 14.86%, and 18.56%, respectively.

Potential analysis of BESS and CCUS in the context of China's carbon trading scheme toward the low-carbon electricity system

To achieve the goal of low-carbon electricity transition, the carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and a battery energy storage system (BESS) are considered as promising tools for fossil power and renewable power, respectively, to overcome the disadvantages of high carbon intensity and fluctuant output. The potential of these two technologies in the context of carbon trading was systematically analyzed and compared using the real option approach. The results showed that the positive effect of the carbon trading on the adoption of the CCUS was more significant than that of a BESS. Specifically, the influence of the emission quota policy on the adoption of CCUS is limited at beginning because its effects on cost perception and benefit perception are counteractive. In terms of the indirect impacts of the emission trading scheme, electricity marketization can promote the utilization of CCUS and BESS. The potential revenue from selling electricity and emission quotas embodied in the additional operation time can significantly encourage fossil power enterprises to upgrade in advance. Additionally, the carbon cost delivered to the electricity price can increase the revenues of renewable power enterprises and promote the utilization of the BESS. Based on these findings, some policy implications are provided.

A comprehensive framework for feasibility of CCUS deployment: A meta-review of literature on factors impacting CCUS deployment

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) has gained prominence as one of a suite of technologies needed for mitigating the urgent threat posed by climate change. Despite the significance of CCUS technologies to a multitude of climate mitigation scenarios, research has identified a series of challenges to deployment, ranging from cost overruns and technical failures to public opposition. Research has widely documented the range of techno-economic challenges impacting the feasibility of individual technologies. However, a growing body of research calls for the feasibility of CCUS to be assessed more holistically, with greater focus on systemic, societal and other non-technical issues. Through a meta-review of 22 recent multidisciplinary review papers on CCUS, we identify and explore a comprehensive set of challenges impacting CCUS deployment. The results show a continued focus on the techno-economic dimensions within literature. However, the meta-review also unfolds a series of issues receiving less attention in literature, from organisational and environmental challenges to issues of legitimacy. Overall, this paper contributes to a broader understanding of the critical challenges facing CCUS projects in the coming decade and provides a framework for a more holistic assessment of climate mitigation technologies such as CCUS.

A Fabry-Perot Fiber-Optic Interferometer for Highly Sensitive CO2 Detection Based on the Nanoparticles Self-Assembly Technology

The highly sensitive CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> detective instrument is intensively studied recently for the atmosphere protection. Fiber-optic interferometer is widely used as a gas sensor because its interference wavelength can be influenced by the environmental refractive index. In this work, by adopting the nanoparticles self-assembly technology, a spherical optical device with a primary pore width of 8.13 nm and a specific surface area as large as 74.58 m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> /g is fabricated. For gas detection, the larger the specific surface area of the device, the more gas molecules being adsorbed, resulting in a higher sensitivity. A Fabry-Perot fiber-optic interferometer is designed by mounting the self-assembled device on a fiber end face. In the experiment, it shows a fast response time of 21 s, a high wavelength sensitivity of 200 pm/%, and a wide detection range from 350 ppm to 36% for CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> gas. It also performs a high selectivity, good repeatability, and immunity to the gas flow rate. Such a Fabry-Perot interferometer, as a standard lab-on-fiber device, will have a significant application potential for trace CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> monitoring in the field of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).

Research Development on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage as a Climate Change Mitigation Technology

The continuous growth of energy consumption leads to the increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), which consists of carbon capture and storage (CCS) as well as carbon capture and utilization (CCU), is a technology that aims to capture CO2. Therefore, this study evaluates and provides an overview of CCUS in the period 2012–2022, by using a bibliometric analysis to obtain a complete perspective and reference on CCUS. The data search was carried out on January 20, 2022, by inputting the keyword “carbon capture utilization storage” into the Scopus database, and 296 documents were generated. Other software used included Open Refine, VOS viewer and Tableau to describe publication and citation trends, co-authorship, and co-occurrence. CCUS research trend increased by 2,766.6% from 2012 to 2022. The most productive country in investigating CCUS was China, and Zhang X. was the most prolific writer. The organization that published the highest number of research on the topic was the National Taiwan University. The publications and citations were dominated by the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control that was published by Elsevier Ltd., which also issues a number of significant publications and receives the highest number of citations. 

Progress in Electrodeposited Copper Catalysts for CO2 Conversion to Valuable Products

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is a key area of research for CO2 abatement. To that end, CO2 capture, transport and storage has accrued several decades of development. However, for successful implementation of CCUS, utilisation or conversion of CO2 to valuable products is important. Electrochemical conversion of the captured CO2 to desired products provides one such route. This technique requires a cathode “electrocatalyst” that could favour the desired product selectivity. Copper (Cu) is unique, the only metal “electrocatalyst” demonstrated to produce C2 products including ethylene. In order to achieve high-purity Cu deposits, electrodeposition is widely acknowledged as a straightforward, scalable and relatively inexpensive method. In this review, we discuss in detail the progress in the developments of electrodeposited copper, oxide/halide-derived copper, copper-alloy catalysts for conversion of CO2 to valuable products along with the future challenges.

Carbon resilience calibration as a carbon management technology

In the path to a net-zero carbon and energy transition from fossil fuel, the world is facing a dilemma of growing global energy demand and required actions on climate-related risks. While over 80% of the current global energy needs are supplied by fossil fuels, the number of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) projects is limited in this sector. There is a huge gap between the scale and distribution of ongoing CCUS projects and the carbon intensity (CI) of energy-intensive industries. Furthermore, the climate impact of growing reliance on unconventional resources (Tar sands and shales) as well as the depletion of conventional resources poses challenges to the oil and gas sector to meet energy demand, while limiting their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. On the other hand, the economic viability of CCUS projects is highly sensitive to carbon credits policies, which are not yet fully integrated in a way to fill the current gap in the number, scale and distribution of these projects. Moreover, there is limited consistency between the allocated decarbonization funds and the anticipated economic growth of fossil fuel economies to promote wide-scale global resilience to carbon exposure. Therefore, it is essential to take climate-related risks, including socioeconomic impacts, into consideration for the decision-making process of companies and governments to embrace low-carbon energy. The focus of this article is on carbon resilience calibration and emissions scenario analysis in investment decisions to realize decarbonization goals through balancing short-term actions with long-term energy transition plans. The challenges and prospects of the application of CCUS technologies as an industrial decarbonization approach are discussed. Carbon footprint (CFP) observing, factoring and reporting workflows for correlating carbon exposure and resilience as part of climate assessment are introduced. Moreover, the main elements of carbon resilience scenarios are analyzed to fill the gap between the current industrial activities and decarbonization plans and to avoid making decisions solely based on economic aspects. Finally, we propose a workflow for carbon resilience calibration and a cash flow model for a sample CCUS project in the upstream oil and gas industry.