Case study on CO₂ transport pipeline network design for Humber region in the UK

Reliable, safe and economic CO₂ transport from CO₂ capture points to long-term storage/enhanced oil recovery sites is critical for commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage technology. Pipeline transportation of CO₂ is considered the most feasible and viable option for achieving this. However, in carbon capture and storage applications, there is concern about associated impurities and huge volumes of high pressure CO₂ to be transported over distances that will likely be densely populated areas. On this basis, there is limited experience for design and economic assessment of CO₂ pipeline. The Humber region in the UK is a likely site for building CO₂ pipelines in the future due to large CO₂ emissions in the region and its close access to depleted gas fields and saline aquifers beneath the North Sea. In this paper, various issues to be considered in CO₂ pipeline design for carbon capture and storage applications are discussed. Also, different techno-economic correlations for CO₂ pipelines are assessed using the Humber region as a case study. Levelized cost of CO₂ pipelines calculated for the region range from 0.14 to 0.75 GBP per tonne of CO₂. This is a preliminary study and is useful for obtaining quick techno-economic assessment of CO₂ pipelines.