Australia’s Transborders Energy is considering development of an offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) hub project – the deepC Store Project.
The project would involve capturing carbon dioxide from industrial sources in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, shipping liquid CO2 from capture sites to an offshore Australia CO2 floating storage and injection (FSI) hub facility, and a CO2 injection well for storage in a subsurface storage complex near the FSI hub facility.
Transborders on Monday announced it had signed memoranda of understanding for collaboration with Japanese utilities and liquefied natural gas customers Tokyo Gas, Kyushu Electric Power Company and Osaka Gas; compatriot shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines; UK-headquartered contractor TechnipFMC; Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO); and Norwegian consultancy Add Energy Group.
All of the parties bring significant experience and expertise to develop the deepC Store project, whether that is as technical experts, LNG project investors which can be potential CO2 suppliers, or as prospective investors in the project, said Transborders.
Under the memoranda, the companies will share knowledge and information related to the scoping and seeking funding for a concept study for evaluating the technical, commercial, and economic aspects for developing the CCS project.
Multi-user hub
The initial focus of the project would be on capturing CO2 that is currently treated and vented at the gas-processing and existing liquefied natural gas plant in Australia.
“This reduces the overall lifecycle cost of the CO2 capture and storage project since the CO2 to be captured is already treated,” Matt Holding, Transborders’ study manager, deepC Store Project, told Upstream.
However, Transborders noted that the deepC Store Project would be a multi-user hub that could receive CO2 from a range of industrial sources including power stations, oil processing, the petrochemical industry, and cement, fertiliser, iron and steel manufacturing.
Holding described CCS as “a real game-changer” to mitigate emissions from oil and gas operations and the “only feasible way” to mitigate emissions from cement manufacturing.
“CCS technologies also offer significant strategic value in the transition to net-zero emissions [as] CCS can be retrofitted to existing power and industrial plants, which could otherwise still emit eight billion tonnes (Gt) of CO2 in 2050.
“CCS can tackle emissions in sectors where other technology options are limited, such as in the production of cement, iron and steel or chemicals, and to produce synthetic fuels for long-distance transport (notably aviation).”
He added that CCS is an enabler of least-cost low-carbon hydrogen production and can remove CO2 from the atmosphere by combining it with bioenergy or direct air capture to balance emissions that are unavoidable or technically difficult to abate.
The reservoir CO2 is already separated from the process streams in LNG plants, but today it is usually emitted into the atmosphere.
deepC Store would capture and liquefy this stream at customer facilities for transport by ship and injection into a suitable underground reservoir.
The goals of the deepC Store Project are said to align with the Australian government’s Low Emissions Technology Statement, with CCS being identified as one of the five priority technologies and economic stretch goals to reduce emissions from energy, transport, agriculture and heavy industry.
‘Significant milestone’
The concept study for DeepC Store is planned to start in 2021, around the third quarter.
Transborders chairman Jack Sato said: “The execution of the MoUs is a significant milestone towards developing an offshore multi-user CCS infrastructure for safely capturing, transporting and storing CO2 from LNG plants and other industrial plants in Northern Australia and Asia Pacific regions.
“This milestone also demonstrates industry’s willingness to collaborate and accelerate the decarbonisation of the Australian oil and gas industry and to contribute to Australia’s climate goals.”
CSIRO researcher Linda Stalker added: “This project is strongly aligned to CSIRO’s role as Australia’s energy transition catalyst. Collaboratively accelerating geological storage of industrial emissions from both the oil and gas sector and hard-to-abate industries in Australia and the region will support our nation’s transition to net zero emissions.”
Written by
This article is republished from Upstream. Browse the original article from here.