Given the currently high costs of CCUS, as well as the more stringent regulations that will come with higher penalties on CO2 emissions (e.g., via the Emission Trading System in the European Union), the future of large-scale CCUS deployment can significantly benefit from implementing optimal and shared CO2 transport and storage infrastructure solutions in cluster regions. To this end, C4U’s is developing a methodology for the techno-economic optimisation and life cycle assessment of CO2 capture, purification, and transport in industrial clusters, and has applied this methodology in scenario-based studies for the decarbonisation of a real-life industrial cluster: the North Sea Port CCUS cluster (Belgium and the Netherlands).
To ensure the economic, safe, and reliable operation of pipelines transporting CO2 in industrial CCUS clusters, the pipeline operating parameters – including pressure, temperature, flowrate and the CO2 stream composition – should be maintained within certain specified operating ranges. Deviations from these ranges may upset the pipeline operation, causing (e.g.) flow assurance issues and potentially damaging the pipeline, as well as increasing the risks of pipeline failure (e.g., due to corrosion or overpressure). While simple strategies can be proposed to control the dynamic operation of a single CO2 pipeline, managing the operation of pipeline networks that collect CO2 streams from various sources – and distribute CO2 to different sink locations for storage/ utilisation – is a more complex task. This is particularly due to the potential interferences between merged CO2 streams, as well as the impacts of any changes or upsets at CO2 delivery points onto the network’s state of flow. To assess the potential impacts of fluctuations in CO2 streams at the inlet sources on the network operation, mathematical models are needed.
To this end, this report aims to assess the operational risks resulting from the mixing of fluctuating CO2 streams in pipeline networks, by applying the fluid dynamics modelling approach. The study has focused on simulating realistic 2030 and 2050 scenarios of the operation of a hypothetic pipeline network designed for the North Sea Port (NSP) industrial cluster. The scenarios assumed collecting annually up to ca 7 Mt of CO2 from seven major NSP emitters – including the ArcelorMittal (AM) steel plant, Dow Benelux Terneuzen chemical plant, Yara ammonia and fertilizer plant, Zeeland Refinery (ZR), Engie Electrabel (EE) Knippegroen and Rodenhuize power plants, and PZEM Sloe gas power station.
