Evaluation of CO2 Storage Locations and Transport Solutions From Capture Plant in Dunkirk

Abstract

The “3D” project (for DMXTM Demonstration in Dunkirk) is part of Horizon 2020, the European Union’s research and innovation program. The project’s ambition is to validate replicable technical solutions of CO2 Capture & Storage. It should play a major role in enabling industries with high energy consumption and CO2 emissions, such as the steel industry, to reduce their emissions. This project is an essential lever for meeting the targets of the Paris Agreement on global warming.

The project will demonstrate the effectiveness of the DMXTM process on a pilot industrial scale. The pilot plant will be built and installed in the steel works site of ArcelorMittal Dunkirk as a part of the project, capturing 0.5 tonnes of CO2 per hour by 2021. In addition, the partners are also working on the implementation of a first industrial unit at the ArcelorMittal site capturing between 1 and 1,5 Million tonnes CO2 per year, that could be operational by 2025. On longer term perspectives, the project will also propose a design for a future European Dunkirk North Sea Cluster, which should be able to capture, condition, transport and store 10 million metric tons of CO2 a year at the horizon 2035.

Part of the project consist in the evaluation of transport solutions from Dunkirk, and possible storage locations for more than 1 Million tonnes CO2 per year. Based on the given volume, solutions for transport of CO2 from Dunkirk to a remote storage site are being investigated. Both pipeline and ship transportation solutions are being looked at, which include compression (for pipeline transportation), pipeline dimensions, ship logistics, size and number of ships as well as corresponding intermediate storage. Different options for ship architecture are also compared (e.g. onshore terminal, offshore floating storage, direct injection etc.).

The study benefits from many relevant results from previous studies on CO2 transport. The transport routes have been identified based on work done to determine the most relevant storage locations. The pressure, temperature and stream composition for CO2 transport is optimized in relation with the specificities from CO2 conditioning and in adequation with the storage solutions identified. Based on those elements, the project is now working to identify the optimum transport architecture and evaluate the cost of transport for 1 Million tonnes CO2 per year from Dunkirk to the offshore storage in the North Sea.

This paper will discuss several interesting topics related to transport of CO2, based on an evaluation of the choice between ship and pipeline transport. It will be shown how this affects the architecture of the value chain, from the conditioning to the injection point, and the impact it has on the overall cost.

The requirements to the conditioning of the CO2 will be different for ship transport compared to pipeline transport, and it may also have effect on the CO2 specification. The different options will be presented, and potential cost saving options will be shown.

The choice of ship transport versus pipeline transport will depend on the volumes of CO2, the transport distance and the need for flexibility with respect to input sources and delivery points. These elements will be discussed, with a special emphasis on the impact of the volumes on the optimal transport mode.

Keywords: Infrastructure and Source sink matching, shipping, pipelines, CO2 Quality