CO2 Capture Project Research Articles

Usage of Chlorella and diverse microalgae for CO2 capture - towards a bioenergy revolution.

To address climate change threats to ecosystems and the global economy, sustainable solutions for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are crucial. Existing CO2 capture projects face challenges like high costs and environmental risks. This review explores leveraging microalgae, specifically the Chlorella genus, for CO2 capture and conversion into valuable bioenergy products like biohydrogen. The introduction section provides an overview of carbon pathways in microalgal cells and their role in CO2 capture for biomass production. It discusses current carbon credit industries and projects, highlighting the Chlorella genus's carbon concentration mechanism (CCM) model for efficient CO2 sequestration. Factors influencing microalgal CO2 sequestration are examined, including pretreatment, pH, temperature, irradiation, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and sources and concentrations of CO2. The review explores microalgae as a feedstock for various bioenergy applications like biodiesel, biooil, bioethanol, biogas and biohydrogen production. Strategies for optimizing biohydrogen yield from Chlorella are highlighted. Outlining the possibilities of further optimizations the review concludes by suggesting that microalgae and Chlorella-based CO2 capture is promising and offers contributions to achieve global climate goals.

2024 SPE Pioneers of Improved Oil Recovery

Reservoirs present plenty of complexity and mystery. Four oil recovery experts have helped remove some of those mysteries, taming the complex to boost production. From developing preformed particle gels that improve conformance when fractures cause severe channeling to simulating enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes in the reservoir to identifying the aqueous stability concept to demonstrating the distance polymer solutions can travel without degradation, the four 2024 recipients of the 2024 Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) Pioneer Award have made a “sustained and important contribution to increased oil recovery,” Randy Seright, New Mexico Tech, 2024 Pioneer selection committee chairman and 2008 honoree, told JPT. Seright, four other previous recipients of the recognition, and 2024 SPE IOR Conference General Chairman Tom McCoy evaluated a field of 16 nominees for the lifetime achievement honor and selected four who have throughout their careers “made the most lasting and significant contributions to IOR,” Seright said. “It’s why we are where we are today with respect to IOR.” The 2024 IOR Pioneer recipients who were honored during the biannual IOR conference in Tulsa in April are Baojun Bai, professor of petroleum engineering, who sits in the Lester Birbeck Endowed Chair at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) in Rolla, Missouri; Mojdeh Delshad, research professor in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin); Varadarajan Dwarakanath, team lead for chemical EOR at the Chevron Technology Center in Houston; and Stephane Jouenne, who previously led a TotalEnergies team dedicated to surface and subsurface research topics for polymer flooding and is currently CO2 capture project coordinator at TotalEnergies. “It’s the most prestigious award given out in IOR,” Seright said.

Paulownia trees as a sustainable solution for CO2 mitigation: assessing progress toward 2050 climate goals

Due to the progressive climate change on our planet, scientists are interested in solving this issue since it threatens not only certain regions or countries but also the world’s ecosystems and economies. Therefore, minimizing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and reducing atmospheric levels are global priorities. Thus, it is necessary at this moment to develop an appropriate approach to reduce or stabilize CO2 levels in the atmosphere. However, CO2 capture projects are long-term, low-profitable, and high-risk environmental projects. Consequently, it is necessary to find an appropriate and sustainable CO2 capture approach that is efficient in reducing atmospheric CO2 levels while having a safe impact on the environment. Although carbon (C) is the key basic component used to produce biological compounds by photosynthetic organisms in terrestrial plants, the C pathway is a key factor affecting the capture of CO2 by photosynthetic organisms. Among photosynthetic organisms, Paulownia, a multipurpose tree, is popular around the world for its timber and its potential role in CO2 sequestration. Paulownia spp. belongs to the Paulowniaceae family and comprises a group of trees. These trees are primarily found in southeastern Asia, particularly in China, and have been intentionally grown for more than two millennia due to their ornamental, cultural, and medicinal value. The number of Paulownia species varies depending on taxonomic classification, ranging from 6 to 17. Among them, Paulownia tomentosa, Paulownia elongata, Paulownia fortunei, and Paulownia catalpifolia are the most widely recognized and favored species. The present review provides a comprehensive technical-economic scenario for the capture of one million tons of CO2 by Paulownia trees (as a terrestrial plant model, grown on 2,400 ha−1). P. tomentosa can be utilized in agroforestry systems to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within urban cities and emphasize the carbon storage potential of agroforestry. In conclusion, Paulownia trees as an environmental mass project showed great encouragement to investors and governments to expand these types of projects to achieve global climate goals by 2050.

Research and design experience of a 150 kt/a CO2 capture and purification project in the Shaanxi Guohua Jinjie power plant

There was little research and demonstration experience in large flue gas carbon projects in China. 150 kt/a flue gas CO2 capture project in the Guohua Jinjie power plant, which is the largest-scale flue gas carbon capture project in China, effectively solved this technical bottleneck. The performance of the used compound amine absorbent, phase change absorbent, and the ionic liquid was described, and the compatibility of performance was considered in the project; new energy-saving processes integrated mechanical vapor recompression heat pump, interstage cooling, and split flow desorption. The plane layout of the project was put forward, and the utility consumption of the capture system was analyzed. The paper explained the health, safety, and environmental protection instructions, presented test category tables, and developed energy consumption and economic analyses. The results showed that the renewable energy consumption per unit product was 2.32 GJ/t CO2, the loss of absorbent was less than or equal to 1.0 kg/t CO2, and the total investment (excluding tax) of the project was 13.8398 million yuan. When the CO2 sales price (excluding tax) was 203.43 Yuan/t, the yield was 0 %, and when the CO2 sales price (excluding tax) was 260.949 Yuan/t, the yield was 8 %. The feasibility study research conclusions indicated that the project was technically and economically feasible.

Study Describes Challenges, Opportunities of CO2 EOR in China

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 209468, “CCUS In China: Challenges and Opportunities,” by Hu Guo, China University of Petroleum; Xiuqin Lyu, Sinopac Northwest Oil Field Company; and En Meng, China University of Petroleum, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. One of the most attractive carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) applications in China is that of carbon dioxide (CO2) enhanced oil recovery with captured CO2 (CCS EOR). CO2 EOR with captured CO2 presents an important path for China. The complete paper reviews the progress of CCUS technology in China. The current challenges of CCS EOR include high capture costs, small scale, low incremental oil recovery, and huge capital input. The costs can be significantly reduced when the scale is enlarged to the commercial level and transportation costs are further reduced by pipelines or trains. Importance of CCUS At the time of writing, 49 CCUS pilots or field tests had been conducted or were under construction in China. CCUS demonstration projects were small-scale, and no projects involving more than 1.0 million tons of CO2 per year (mtpa) were conducted. 1.3 million tons of CO2 were estimated to be injected in 2020 for EOR use. The authors reference a study that mentions nine CO2 EOR projects. Among these, the Jilin oilfield project was notable for its size of 2.0 million cumulative tons of CO2 injected. CO2-enhanced coalbed methane was also an attractive option for China, and several field tests were conducted by CNOOC and its partners. Another notable CCUS demonstration project involved the Shaanxi Jinjie power plant. This was the largest coal-fired power postcombustion (PC) CO2-capture project, with a capture capacity of 0.15 mtpa. The project began in November 2019. In January 2021, equipment installation was completed. By June of 2021, 168 trial operations had been passed. The captured CO2 will be used for EOR. This demonstration project will gain knowledge to reduce PC CO2 emissions, a great challenge for China because the majority of electricity is based on coal combustion. Gas processing and power plants rank first for the US in terms of CCUS project numbers. Power plants also rank first in the number of CCUS projects for China, but the number of natural-gas-processing projects was much less.

Research and Design Experience of a 150 Kt/A Co2 Capture and Purification Project in the Shaanxi Guohua Jinjie Power Plant

Research and Design Experience of a 150 Kt/A Co2 Capture and Purification Project in the Shaanxi Guohua Jinjie Power Plant

Co2 Capture Project Integrated with Mikawa Biomass Power Plant

Co2 Capture Project Integrated with Mikawa Biomass Power Plant

The experience in the research and design of a 2 million tons/year flue gas CO2 capture project for coal-fired power plants

The world's largest 2 million tons/year CO2 capture project from flue gas of coal power plants for EOR at Shengli oilfield of China was introduced. The blend amine absorbent performance, chemical absorption process, energy-saving method, and the layout area of engineering were interpreted. The health, safety, and environmental affect was analyzed and economic analysis was also carried out. The conclusion showed that the project has technical and economic feasibility. The study showed that the total energy consumption per unit product is 121.4 kg (standard coal equivalent (SCE))/tCO2, and the comprehensive regeneration energy consumption of the project is less than 2.2GJ/tCO2. The total investment of the project is 1329.4 million CNY; the after-tax internal rate of return reaches 8% when the ex-factory price of CO2 is 301.84 CNY /t(excluding tax).

CO2 Capture Project – Phase 4 Advancing CCS Knowledge and Technology Deployment for the Oil and Gas Industry

The CO2 Capture Project (CCP) is a unique collaborative technology development program initiated in 2000 with participants from corporations, academia, governments, research institutions, policy makers and individual contractors who have come together to advance development of new approaches to capture and store CO2 and improve efficiencies of existing technologies. The overall objectives are to deliver major cost reductions for carbon capture and demonstrate that geological storage is safe, measurable, and verifiable. The 3rd phase of CCP, CCP3, has been recognized with a CSLF Global Achievement Award, reflecting CCP’s role as an exemplary model of science-based research, development, and demonstration. Phase 4 of CCP, CCP4, began in 2015 and is supporting R&D work for capture and storage technologies at multiple levels of development, spanning exploratory research to demonstration. CCP4 will be the final phase of CCP and will conclude at the end of 2021. The technical teams within CCP are looking at two key areas impacting Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The Capture program is developing CO2 capture scenarios addressed in previous phases (refinery, heavy oil, and natural gas power generation), together with a new scenario (CO2 separation from natural gas production). The Storage, Monitoring and Verification program is focusing on demonstrating the viability of monitoring tools in the field and developing robust leakage detection, characterization, and intervention protocols. These programs are supplemented by the Policy and Incentives (P&I) and Communications programs. The P&I program is committed to providing technical, economic and social insights to inform the development of legal and policy frameworks and to help improve public understanding. The Communications program is contributing to the technical understanding of CCUS within the oil & gas industry, as well as sharing research results and insights from the Capture, Storage and P&I Teams’ work with the wider CCUS industry and academia. This paper will detail the objectives of the CCP4 Capture program and provide a summary of recently completed and ongoing technical projects.

The Co2 Capture Project: 20 Years of Innovation

The CO2 Capture Project (CCP) is a unique collaborative technology development program initiated in 2000 with participants from corporations, academia, governments, research institutions, policy makers and individual contractors who came together to advance development of new approaches to capture and store CO2 and improve efficiencies of existing technologies. The overall objectives have been to deliver major cost reductions for carbon capture and demonstrate that geological storage is safe, measurable, and verifiable. Since 2000, the CCP partners and cost-sharing governments have invested over $90 million to support a wide-ranging portfolio of projects to advance the understanding and development of capture and storage technologies, the economic analysis of the cost base of CCS together with analysis of regulatory and policy frameworks and a dedicated communications programme with key stakeholders. In this paper, we reflect upon the highlights and lessons learnt from twenty years of investment in technology development and the implications for the future deployment of CCS.

Nano Sealant for CO2 Seal Integrity and Overcoring at Mont Terri

Wellbore integrity is an important consideration for the viability of subsurface CO2 sequestration. Wellbores may leak due to micro annuli that develop between annular cement and steel casing and/or the host formation, as well as fractures and flaws in the cement itself. Leakage pathways may be problematic for the long-term containment of CO2. To address the need for a repair material that can effectively seal and repair wellbores, a new nanotechnology-based sealant has been developed at the University of New Mexico, USA. The sealant, referred to TS-Nano 20™, has superior flowability, excellent bond strength to steel and rock, is very ductile, and is thermally stable. Moreover, the sealant has been demonstrated to readily flow into microcracks below 20 µm under modest pressure gradients. The sealant showed excellent bond strength and superior fatigue resistance to debonding under stress cycles than microfine cement and other sealants. TS-Nano 20™ was used in a field test at the Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory (MT-URL) located in NW Switzerland. This experimental work at MT-URL was performed under the auspices of the CO2 Capture Project (CCP), a three-company collaboration comprising Chevron, BP, and Petrobras. The CCP effort is directed to develop more cost-effective and efficient processes for CO2 concentration, capture and sequestration applied to the energy, refining, chemical, and power generation industries in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A wellbore with a cemented annulus was located beneath the floor of the underground laboratory. The wellbore was intentionally damaged by thermal cycling inside the casing to produce leakage pathways in the wellbore system. The wellbore system included injection ports at several locations along its length to allow pressure and flow tests to be conducted to document the leakage along the length of the wellbore system. Subsequently, various sealants were injected into the injection ports to seal the leakage pathways within the wellbore system. The sealant was then successfully injected into two of the intervals on site. After injection of sealants, the entire wellbore system needed to be stabilized for eventual overcoring and forensic analyses. To this end, a large open hole test interval (uncemented) at the bottom of the wellbore was first filled with a very flowable cement slurry to chase out water and reduce the dead volume, and then the sealant was injected on top of the cement and squeezed into leakage pathways that remained near the bottom of the wellbore system and cracks in the clay formation. Additionally, the sealant was used to further stabilize portions of the wellbore by injecting into all the previously used injection ports. We report on the ability of the nano sealant to maintain its flowability and mechanical characteristics under relatively low temperature and meet all field injection requirements, including having a relatively long-time to gel while hardening after injection. Pressure and permeability measurements from the field tests are reported documenting the ability of the sealant to seal relatively very thin microcracks and create appropriate conditions for overcoring.

A silicate based sealant to plug seepage behind the casing

In a previous project, a silicate based sealant was developed and applied to the case of a clayey sandstone formation with the objectives of plugging the surroundings of a well typically within a radius of 1 m. Here, we report experiments conducted at the Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory (MT-URL) focusing on the mitigation of pressure leakages associated with CO2 containment in near wellbore injection well systems. This work was performed under the auspices of the CO2 Capture Project (CCP), a three-company collaboration comprising Chevron, BP and Petrobras. The CCP effort is directed to develop more cost effective and efficient processes for CO2 concentration, capture and sequestration applied to the energy, refining, chemical and power generation industries in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The experimental set-up installed at the underground test site mimics an injection well with the objectives of testing various sealants able to contain losses associated with delaminations that may occur at various well boundaries such as cement to casing and cement to caprock. Cement and caprock may also be micro-fractured. The tested sealant takes advantage of the properties of alkaline silicate solutions forming a gel after addition of an acid in appropriate strength and quantity. With a viscosity close to water, it can easily be injected in a liquid state and does not need to be activated after injection. The gelation time can be adjusted and is mostly sensitive to temperature. We tested two formulations of the sealant in a 1 m interval of the well system. The sealing capacity is evaluated by comparing flowrates at constant imposed pressure before and after injection of the sealant. Typically, a decrease by a factor of 10 of these flowrates is an indication of a good sealing performance. The first formulation proved to be efficient only for a limited time smaller than 1 month. The second improved formulation proved to be efficient for a period larger than one month.

Critical Knowledge for CO2-Intensive Industries to Implement Amine-Based Carbon Capture

This paper has been written to provide some decarbonization guidelines and recommendations for different CO2 intensive industrial applications, such as, Cement, Oil Refineries, Waste to Energy, Steel, H2 Production, Aluminum and Pulp & Paper. Relevant information has been provided for any potential project targeting a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. The importance of flue gas characterization has been indicated, including which typical components in the flue gas should be measured, which are important for properly planning and designing a CO2 capture project. Additionally, based on Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) experience with both clean flue gas (CCGT) and more contaminated flue gas (RFCC), recommendations are given for the importance of good solvent hygiene and maintaining low amine emissions to the stack and surrounding environment. It is expected that each of the industrial applications described will lie somewhere between the CCGT and RFCC in terms of flue gas cleanliness. It has also been demonstrated that material integrity of a CO2 capture plant can be compromised if solvent hygiene is not maintained. Also, how the material integrity and selection can have considerable impact on CO2 capture plant cost and reliability of operation

Rapid Cycle Temperature Swing Adsorption Process Using Solid Structured Sorbent for CO2 capture from Cement Flue Gas

Concrete is the most widely used man-made material in the world. The production process of cement, a key component of concrete, contributes significantly to CO2 emissions. Every year, over 4 billion tonnes of cement are produced, releasing approximately 7%-8% of global CO2 emissions [1]. Cement flue gas, processes and raw materials, contain around 16% CO2 and 7-10% O2 and NOX /SOX (100-300 ppm), contingent on the fuel type. High amounts of NOX/SOX are a significant challenge for any carbon capture system. The presence of high O2 concentration in the emitted gas stream can chemically degrade typical amines via production of amides or other oxide derivatives. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct preliminary studies at a pilot scale using real cement flue gas conditions to develop a viable technology and accurate techno-economic analysis for large plants (1 million+ tonnes of captured CO2 per year). Svante (formerly Inventys) has a strong patent portfolio on Rapid Cycle Temperature Swing Adsorption (RC-TSA) processes using structured adsorbents, steam-assisted direct regeneration with fast kinetics (< 1.5 mins cycle time) as an alternative to traditional liquid amine technologies. This project utilized scaled up CALF-20 sorbent, one of the first Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) used in an industrial CO2 capture project. This MOF is robust with regards to steam, O2 and acidic contaminant gases (such a NOX/SOX) which make it an ideal candidate for the cement CO2 capture application. This article discusses efforts to scale up the CALF-20 MOF sorbent from lab scale to ton scale. A review of CALF-20 performance after 2300 hrs of VeloxoTherm™ capture process results on a boiler flue gas doped with CO2 and Air to simulate Cement kiln flue gas at 0.1 TPD capacity is presented. Also included are results from Phase 1 of the cement project related to NOX/SOX stability tests on CALF-20 sorbent.

E&amp;P Notes (January 2020)

E&amp;P Notes (January 2020)

Assessing the Economics of CO2 Capture in China's Steel Plant

This paper provides a techno-economic analysis of a hypothetical first-of-its-kind CO2 capture and storage project in a modern Chinese steel production plant. It assumes the use of amine capture technology of the relatively high concentration CO2 emissions from the iron making process. The technical configuration of the project was modelled using the Advanced System for Process Engineering (ASPEN), combined with a financial model. Global crude steel production reached 1.6 billion tonnes in 2015, an increase of 41% over the 1.1 billion tonnes in 2005. China alone produced 804 million tonnes of crude steel in 2015, an increase of 130% over the 350 million tonnes in 2005. Applying environmentally-friendly and low-carbon technologies is the major future trend for the steel sector globally. The EU Commission’s Low Carbon Roadmap anticipates a global emission intensity of less than 0.2 tCO2 per tonne of crude steel by the end of 2050 compared to the current level of above 1.3 tCO2 per tonne, and China’s average of 2.18 tCO2 per tonne in 2014. The Roadmap suggests carbon capture and storage is a key technology to achieve larger emission reductions in the iron/steel sector. The cost of CO2 avoidance for the modelled 0.5 million tonne/year capacity CO2 capture project with transport and storage is USD69/tCO2. Assuming that the project runs at 90% capacity (0.45 MtCO2/year), over 25 years, the project would capture 11.25 MtCO2. However, this is offset by emissions from increased energy consumption so the project would only reduce aggregate emissions by 0.36 MtCO2/year, or a total of 8.88 MtCO2 over its lifetime. The cost of CO2 avoidance is sensitive to a number of assumptions, including the discount rate and the cost of CO2 transportation and storage. The discount rate of the capture project is assumed to be 12%, taking into account the cost of capital of Bao Steel and the risk of the CO2 capture project. If a project is considered as a moderate risk investment applying an 8% discount rate, the cost of CO2 avoidance (i.e. the abatement cost) will be reduced from USD69/t CO2 to USD64/tCO2. The assumption on transport and storage cost could be lower if the project could share the infrastructure with other large stationary emission sources.

Application of CO2 Capture from Coal Chemical Industry in Northwest China

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal chemical industry in Northwest China, Yanchang Petroleum has deployed and developed a carbon dioxide capture project at one of its affiliated coal chemical plant in Yulin, Northwest China. The CO2 capture unit was built at a 200,000 t/a coal to acetic acid chemical plant. The CO2 is captured from coal gasification process using a Rectisol process, finally compressed and stored in liquid state with a pressure of 2.3 Mpa and a temperature at -17 ℃. 50,000 t/a of high concentration CO2 (>99%) was captured, and delivered to the Jingbian and Wuqi CCUS pilot sites by truck tanker for CO2-EOR and geological storage projects. The CO2 capture cost is less than 18 USD/t CO2 (<120RMB/t CO2). So far, operation of capture unit is stable with low energy consumption. This paper briefly reviews the process, technical details and cost of this CO2 capture project.

Techno-Economic Comparison of an Integrated CO2 Capture, Geological Utilization and Storage (CCUS) Projects Between Greater Green River Basin in U.S. And Ordos Basin in China

Techno-Economic Comparison of an Integrated CO2 Capture, Geological Utilization and Storage (CCUS) Projects Between Greater Green River Basin in U.S. And Ordos Basin in China

Co2 Capture Project - Phase 4: Advancing Ccs Technology Deployment and Knowledge for the Oil and Gas Industry

Co2 Capture Project - Phase 4: Advancing Ccs Technology Deployment and Knowledge for the Oil and Gas Industry

Advancing CO2 Capture from Natural Gas Combined Cycle Power Plants with Piperazine Scrubbing

Carbon dioxide capture and storage is widely recognized as an essential technology for limiting the global temperature rise to 2 °C by the end of the century. Technology development efforts so far focus on coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources with relatively high CO2 partial pressures. However, natural gas is increasingly used in power generation because of its abundance and low greenhouse gas impacts among the fossil fuels. For deep decarbonization that is required in the future, fossil fuels with CCS continue to play a relevant role in scenarios that balance cost of energy with climate impacts. Carbon capture from natural gas sources has been an ongoing interest to CO2 Capture Project (CCP) and its members from the oil and gas industry. This paper describes the work related to solvent-based natural gas carbon capture sponsored by CCP and pilot studies performed in collaboration with University of Texas at Austin researchers. The collaboration with University of Texas at Austin (UT) is aimed at demonstrating the application of an aqueous piperazine solution-a second-generation solvent-in a pilot plant. The goal is to test CO2 separation from synthetic flue gas representative of the exhausts from natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant (i.e. ~4 mol% CO2). The low CO2 concentration in NGCC flue gas is considered to be a challenge for many capture technologies. This work tested the performance of 5m piperazine in the UT pilot plant at a range of operating conditions, including solvent loadings, gas and liquid flow rates, assessing two different absorber configurations. High CO2 capture rates above 90% were confirmed. The pilot test results were used to verify and extend the range of applicability of the thermodynamic model developed by UT. This work increases the confidence for the application of the process models to design CCS processes for low CO2 concentrations. The model’s predictions of the pilot plant tests at low concentrations are now as accurate and reliable as those for higher CO2 concentrations where much of the data have been collected until now. Further pilot tests at NCCC are being designed to supplement the model evaluation data set for NGCC flue gas as well as to address questions related to oxidation/corrosion and cooling scheme optimization for NGCC applications.