Sensitivity Analysis and Case Studies for CO2 Transportation Energy Consumption

Abstract

The transportation of CO2 is important to all Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects. Both the infrastructure costs – compressors, pipelines, tanker ships, etc. – and the energy consumed in the compression or liquefaction of CO2 are significant. Understanding how the size, capacity and energy consumption of transportation alternatives varies between projects is therefore important. Modelling provides a useful insight into the performance of transportation alternatives, but the results are only useful when the basis for comparison is consistent and the impact of model input parameters is well understood. This article presents the results of sensitivity studies made using a transportation model that was developed in earlier/related work. Several important model parameters are studied using three planned/ operating CCS project cases. The results show that while the characteristics of the storage site are most important in determining the transportation system operating pressure, ambient temperature is the key parameter determining energy consumption.