Building a network to transport carbon dioxide
In Europe, carbon capture and storage (CCS) will help to reduce CO2 emissions from the power-generation sector, offering a bridge between the fossil-fuel–dependent economy and the envisioned carbon-free future. However, its large-scale deployment will require pipelines to transport the captured gas from power plants to appropriate CO2 storage sites. Current European research projects on CO2 transport are focusing on the origin of the gas coming from power plants equipped with their own CO2 capture process. Until now, no single entity could consider multiple different smaller sources because of the complexity of the technical problems faced. The 'Large-scale CCS transportation infrastructure in Europe' (COCATE) project, funded by the EU, was the first to take on the challenge. Project members aimed to explore the challenges of a CCS infrastructure connecting various small CO2 sources located in the same industrial area to a final storage site. Before CO2 can be transported and stored, it must be captured as a relatively pure gas. Results from the COCATE project indicate that a good solution for small emitters is to share the capture. COCATE carried out an analysis of the risks associated with the different pipeline designs for transporting flue gases. This showed that further studies would be needed to implement the transport network developed in the project. In order to facilitate the decision-making process and increase the chances of implementing such a network, the now completed COCATE project also developed a decision-making tree. Based on a real-life case study, this tree can help other similar industrial areas to develop their own shared collection network.
