Establishing an integrated CCS transport infrastructure in northern Europe - Challenges and possibilities

Paper in proceeding, 2011

This paper examines cost, challenges and possibilities for the development of an integrated CCS transport infrastructure for the power, cement, refinery and steel and iron sectors in six EU member states: Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia. Input for ramp-up of CCS within the power sector has been provided by Chalmers Electricity Investment model (ELIN) while ramp-up of CCS in the three industry sectors is based on general assumptions. For each country, three types of CCS infrastructure systems have been assessed; for the power sector only, integrated for the power sector and the three industry sectors and finally, for the three industry sectors only. Transport cost has been calculated to range between € 1.0 and € 4.1 per ton CO2 in the power sector and to between € 1.6 and € 15.9 per ton in the industry sector. The low cost systems indicate a favorable distribution of sources and sinks while high cost systems are a result of low volumes and offshore transport requirements. Transport cost in the integrated system ranged from € 1.2 to € 4.5 per ton implying that there seems to be little to gain for the power sector by integrating transport networks with the industry in the countries investigated, simply due to the location of sources and sinks and the fact that captured volumes from the industry sources are usually considerably smaller than captured volumes from power plants. The results reveal that the development of a CCS infrastructure to a large extent will depend on the phase-in of actual capture plants over time. The ownership concentration within the power sector in most of the countries investigated in this report may facilitate the build-up of a large centralized transport infrastructure.