Objective

• Identify strategic themes and options that could deliver the desired outcomes.
• Provide input to the assessment if a business case could exist and to develop a plan for the next stage of work
• To identify the likely impacts of the CO₂ source(s) and/or storage on the transport method and vice versa.

Major Deliverables

• Functional Description
• Opportunity Framing Report
• Technology Overview Report (if aplicable)
• Risk Register
• Identification Study Report
• Forward Work Plan

Tasks

Specific tasks include the following:

• Opportunity framing workshop aimed at identifying strategic themes and alternatives
• Preparation of a functional description detailing the boundary conditions, expectations, assumptions and performance requirements for the plant
• Document expected conditions (temperature, pressure, phase, impurity level) of CO₂ during transport for each permutation
• Identify likely parameters affecting CO₂properties/quality for each source / transport method / storage site.  This may include consideration of:
  • CO₂ quality e.g. likely levels of impurities in captured CO₂ resulting from type of fuel and/or type of capture, likely water content resulting from transport limitations, storage site limitations on specific impurities such as sulphur/water vapour, impact of any solvent carryover into storage site
  • Pressure limitation,s e.g. legal limitations on pressure, diameter of pipeline under consideration, shipping or pipeline transport, any compression limitations, existing pressure in storage site, original pressure in storage site (if depleted hydrocarbon field), pressure limitations of any existing equipment etc
  • Temperature limitations, e.g. cooling water temperature available at CO₂ capture/treatment site, existing temperature in storage site, transport distance and ambient temperature surrounding pipeline, likely shipping temperature
  • Route considerations, e.g. proximity to populations or environmentally protected areas, other constraints
  • Intermittent or steady state flow from CO₂ source
  • Multiple CO₂ sources/transport methods
• Identify issues for each permutation of source/transport/storage site.  These may include:
• Transport method limitations on any aspects of CO₂ quality e.g. level of water content allowable in pipeline due to material
• Re-use of pipeline with associated limitations on pressure/temperature/purity:
• Change in pressure required at a distance from capture site e.g. when transferring from one diameter pipeline to another diameter, general pressure  losses or elevation change pressure changes
• Change in pressure when transferring transport to storage
• AGI facility location and venting
• Pressure/temperature interactions, e.g. Joule-Thompson cooling caused by expansion;
• Impacts of intermittency on transport method e.g. pressure changes leading to possible temperature and/or phase changes
• Other possible phase changes or causes of 2-phase flow in transport
• Identify possible mitigation methods for issues for each permutation of source/transport/storage site.  This should include consideration of resulting impacts e.g. additional cleaning may require additional drying.  These mitigation methods may include:
• Additional cleaning of CO₂ source before/after capture/conditioning e.g. water wash, dehydration, sulphur removal
• Additional treatment of captured/conditioned CO₂ partway along transport route e.g. CO₂ booster plant, additional treatment when transferring between pipelines or changing diameter of pipeline
• Use of pipeline for linepack to offset intermittency, resulting pressure, temperature and phase changes
• Cooling/heating required to offset temperature impacts of pressure changes; and
• Redundancy of systems / temporary storage
• Carry out a technology assessment if relevant
• Identify at a high level cost impacts of mitigation methods and residual risks
• Identify any unknowns that require testing in evaluate phase e.g. capability of existing pipeline to withstand transport conditions
• Produce written design basis for route selection and pipeline design deliverables describing benefits/disadvantages for each permutation of capture/transport/storage
• Document likely transport system entry point, including any disconnection issues for an asset re-use type proposal
• Preparation of Identification Stage Report and Forward Work Plan

Examples

• CO₂ Product Specification
• CO₂ Product

Key Personnel

• Project Manager and staff (Project Controller and Document Controller)
• Engineering work-stream lead
• Process work-stream lead
• Project Engineers
• Pipeline Engineers
• Key Engineering sub-consultants
• HAZOP team