To achieve a 40% (minimum) reduction in industrial CO2 emissions in the European Union (EU) in line with the Paris agreement, Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) remains a key technology to adopt – especially in carbon-intensive sectors. A key challenge in its implementation, however, lies in the optimal planning and design, and also right-sizing of such infrastructure, given regional decarbonisation targets.
This report outlines the assumptions, methodology and results obtained for the whole-system optimisation of CO2 transport for the North Sea port (NSP) cluster under a pre-defined 2030 scenario in line with EU emission reduction targets. The methodology involves calculating CO2 capture costs using a Gaussian Process reduced order model (GP-ROM), and using mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) models for sizing the CO2 pipeline infrastructure. The report provides the basis for the techno-economic evaluation and spatially-explicit operability and safety studies of CO2 transport in the NSP cluster for future decarbonisation scenarios.
