10.2 Chain component cost
The LLSC consists of four transportation sections and a central terminal. The tariff index for the four different transportation sections are presented below to illustrate the dependency of these four routes with regard to transportation distance and transport capacity.
10.2.1 Onshore pipeline CO2 transport
The onshore pipeline transportation section costs is built up of two components, the installation and operational costs of the pipeline itself and the installation and operational cost of the installation at the emitter. The installation at the emitter involves all required cost to dehydrate and compress the CO2 stream as delivered by the emitter to pipeline specification. The transportation is performed at supercritical conditions with a fixed pressure drop between emitter and terminal or sink for all cases.
Figure 61: Onshore pipeline CO2 transportation costs for various transportation distances
Transportation costs for an onshore pipeline and emitter installation depends both on capacity and distance. The results show the clear benefit of economy of scale, where the impact of distance on the costs per transported tonne of CO2 also becomes less if total capacity is increased.
10.2.2 Onshore liquid CO2 transport
Onshore transportation of liquid CO2 is done by barges. The limited size of barges for inland transportation by waterways makes the transportation cost per tonne, only for the barging costs, almost independent of distance. This is valid up to a certain maximum distance, depending on barge capacity. The installation required at the emitter involves all assets to dehydrate, liquefy, store and transfer from the emitter to the barges. The cost for the combination of barging and emitter developments for different capacities and distances are presented in Figure 62.
Figure 62: Onshore liquid CO2 transportation costs for various transportation distances
The transport cost of liquid CO2 by barge is less depending on transportation distance compared to pipeline transport, especially for smaller quantities.
10.2.3 Offshore pipeline CO2 transport
The offshore transport of CO2 by pipeline only involves the installation and operational costs for the pipeline itself. The dependency on capacity and distance is presented Figure 63.
Figure 63: Offshore pipeline CO2 transportation costs for various transportation distances
The results show, as expected, a similar dependency on distance and capacity as for onshore pipeline transport. The absolute costs for offshore pipeline transport is higher compared to onshore transport.
10.2.4 Offshore liquid CO2 transport
The cost for offshore liquid transport by ships includes besides the ship costs also the costs for the offloading facilities (tower or buoy) at the sink location.
Figure 64: Offshore liquid CO2 transportation costs for various transportation distances
The sailing time of the liquid CO2 carriers is relatively short compared to the other operational activities, like loading and unloading, required for liquid CO2 transport. This makes liquid CO2 shipping almost independent of distance, for the distances reviewed in this study. The results also show that low transportation capacities have a negative impact on the costs per tonne of CO2. The slight increase at higher capacities is a result of the limited number of ship sizes used in the analysis. Ship size is a more important variable in offshore transport as compared to onshore transport where barge sizes are limited by the sluice sizes along the rivers Rhine and Maas.
10.2.5 Terminal costs
The terminal costs are depending on the required chain components based on capacities and transportation types from the emitters and to the sinks. The three chain component costs at the terminal are vaporization of liquid CO2 for offshore pipeline transport, liquefaction of CO2 for liquid shipping and terminal costs including storage tanks and all other requirements for the terminal. The cost per tonne of CO2 is presented as tariff index for the different components as a function of capacity in Figure 65. The results show that economy of scale mainly applies to the terminal costs itself, where liquefaction and vaporization capacity have little influence on the cost per tonne CO2.
Figure 65: Terminal component costs
The high sensitivity of the terminal tariff is caused by the requirement to have a minimum storage capacity available regardless of throughput in order to guarantee a certain chain reliability. This demonstrates that the emitters’ required flow flexibility in relation to the chain reliability they require has a significant impact on terminal tariffs: a high design vs normal operating flow requirement in combination with a high chain reliability calls for large terminal tanks and thus tariffs.
