UPTAKE WP2/WP3 bilateral webinars
T2.2/T3.1 webinar: modeling of transportation and storage of CO2 for carbon dioxide removal
July 5th, 2024 | Organized by ETH Zürich | 20 participants
Speakers: Dr. Tom Mike Terlouw (Paul Scherrer Institute), Julian Nöhl (ETH Zürich), Dr. Yoga Pratama (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis), Vittoria Bolongaro (ETH Zürich)
Key takeaways and actionable points:
Operational costs and deployment potential of CDR systems are influenced by:
- process performance, which can vary with changing climate conditions
- the greenhouse gas intensity of the supply chain (e.g., energy sources)
- and the transportation and distance to the nearest CO2 storage site
CDR Model Implementation Reporting Template: IIASA to share the template with WP3 and WP2 for feedback and data collection.
WP3 to share an example of input data in IAMC format; WP2 to provide preliminary updated data for the EU, informed by the webinar presentations, as a starting point
Summary of presentations in key summary points
Julian Nöhl: “The role of CO2 transport in CCS and CDR - Are we missing something?”
- There is a transition over time in the cost of transportation, the mix of transportation types, and distances.
- Megatonne-scale CO2 transport infrastructure is currently unavailable; early-mover carbon capture, transport, and storage (CCTS) chains (e.g., container-based transportation chains) can already reduce the impact of global warming from point sources.
- Without megatonne-scale pipelines, CO2 transport can incur substantial costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr. Tom Terlouw: “Spatially explicit modeling of the techno-economic performance of solid-sorbent direct air capture with CO2 storage in Europe.”
- CDR costs and the potential of DACCS are highly influenced by spatial aspects, which cannot be neglected.
- CDR efficiencies in Europe vary between 68–94% in 2020 and 92–97% in 2050.
- This increases net CDR costs by 6–47% in the near term and 3–9% in 2050.
- Economic regions for DACCS implementation are predominantly colder climates with abundant wind resources and low interest rates. As such, the most economical/optimal European locations are in the United Kingdom, Denmark, northern France, and on the shores around the North Sea.
Panel discussion and Q&A
Representation of solvent/sorbents for CO2 capture
- As of now, costs and environmental impacts would be exogenous due to the lack of explicit materials modeling.
- WITCH is working on implementing explicit materials modeling.
Risk of double counting between WP2 and WP3 (e.g., supply chain emissions of DACCS)
- WP2 to provide granular LCA results to avoid double-counting
Consistency of Assumptions Between IAMs
- Modeling of CO2 transportation and storage varies by model, showing significant differences between assumptions.
- Efforts to align assumptions where needed to reduce discrepancies.