CO2 Transport and Storage

A growing number of projects are choosing to focus either on CO₂ capture or on CO₂ transport and storage. A “part-chain” approach can reduce commercial risks and promote efficiencies, but relies on close coordination and alignment in the development of each element of the CCUS value chain. With growing plans to equip facilities with CO₂ capture, spurred by strengthened climate goals, a gap is starting to emerge between anticipated demand for CO₂ storage and the pace of development of storage facilities. In the absence of further efforts to accelerate CO₂ storage development, through government or private-sector exploration, the availability of CO₂ storage could become a bottleneck to CCUS deployment. This is currently demonstrated in the project pipeline, where global demand for CO₂ storage could exceed anticipated supply by over 60 Mt CO2 in 2030. 

Currently there are around 90 full-chain CCUS projects and more than 150 CO₂ capture-specific projects in development. Most capture-specific projects aim to store CO₂ in one of the 40 CO₂ storage hubs under development. In some cases, full-chain projects may choose to expand their CO₂ storage infrastructure in later phases to create a storage hub. The Ravenna hub in Italy and the Polaris CCS hub in Canada are two such examples of projects considering this. 

Currently the majority of projects choose to develop transport and storage together. CO₂ transport infrastructure moves CO₂ from its point of capture to either a point of use or a point of storage. Multiple modes – barge, pipeline, ship, train and truck – can be used to transport CO₂. Of these modes, pipelines and ships are the most scalable options with the lowest cost per tonne of CO₂. 

Pipelines that transport CO₂ captured at multiple sources can support the widespread deployment of CCUS. In Canada, the 240 km Alberta Carbon Trunk Line has a capacity of 14.6 Mt CO₂/year even though it currently only transports some 1.6 Mt CO₂/year from two sources. Commissioned in 2020, the pipeline was designed with significant excess capacity so other facilities can be attached in the future. Multi-user CO₂ pipeline networks are being developed globally; examples include the Midwest Carbon Express in the United States, an offshore CO₂ pipeline connecting Belgium with Norway, and the Delta Corridor connecting parts of Germany and the Netherlands.  

While merchant CO₂ shipping has been demonstrated on a small scale (around 2 000 t or less), large-scale shipping of CO₂ has not yet been demonstrated. Currently two ships are under construction as part of the Northern Lights project and more are being designed by other projects. Barges to transport CO₂ on inland waterways are also being considered by some projects. CO₂ transport by barge or ship requires different conditioning – in terms of phase, temperature and pressure – than CO₂ transported by pipeline. CO₂ terminals are required for waterborne transport in order to load and unload the CO₂ and ensure that it is properly conditioned for further transport and injection. Several CO₂ terminals are in development, including at the Port of Antwerp in Belgium, the Port of Gdansk in Poland, the Port of Gothenburg in Sweden, Dunkirk harbour in France, and in Germany as part of the BlueHyNow project. Additionally, ship-to-platform and ship-to-well delivery are being explored and may be deployed in the future, reducing the need for unloading terminals. 

Based on the current project pipeline up to 2030, it is likely that more than 50% of captured CO₂ will be stored at dedicated storage sites. This represents a large shift away from CO₂-EOR towards dedicated CO₂ storage. Today nearly 75% of captured CO₂ is used for CO₂-EOR, more than 20% is stored in seven dedicated storage sites, and the remainder is used in other applications such as greenhouses and to produce industrial products. While much of the CO₂ injected for CO₂-EOR is retained in the subsurface, practices need to be optimised if CO₂ injected for this purpose is to be considered stored. CO₂ accounting practices also need to be agreed upon.

By capitalising on both economies of agglomeration and scale, multi-user CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure can support decarbonisation of entire industrialised zones. Recently there has been an evolution towards the development of multi-user transport networks and storage hubs; overall, about one-third of CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure in development is multi-user. 

By capitalising on both economies of agglomeration and scale, multi-user CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure can support decarbonisation of entire industrialised zones. Recently there has been an evolution towards the development of multi-user transport networks and storage hubs; overall, about one-third of CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure in development is multi-user. 

A number of the transport and storage projects currently in development are associated with industrial clusters. Examples include:  

• Four transport and storage projects attached to five industrial clusters in the United Kingdom. 
• The Porthos project in the Netherlands, to transport CO2 from Rotterdam-Zuid to offshore storage sites.  
• The Houston CCS hub in the United States.  

Multi-user infrastructure can support the deployment of CO₂ capture in smaller emitters and also the diversification of CCUS business models and transport modes. Examples include the following: 

• Three projects in the United States aim to construct over 5 800 km of pipeline to move CO₂ captured at a high number of relatively small emitters (more than half averaging below 0.2 Mt CO₂/year) to storage sites.  
• As a part of the Longship CCS project, the Northern Lights Project in Norway intends to transport CO₂ via ship from the two capture plants associated with Longship to a receiving terminal, where CO₂ will then be transported by pipeline offshore to the storage site. It will be the first time CO₂ is transported by ship for the purpose of storage. The project has positioned itself as a transport and storage service provider and plans to offer its services to other sources in the future.  

Dedicated CO₂ storage has been the subject of significant research, development, and innovation, including piloting and commercial-scale demonstrations.  

Monitoring, measurement and verification technologies continue to be developed. This work can improve storage performance and safety, reduce costs and potentially improve CO₂ storage development times.  

CO₂ mineralisation, where CO₂ is injected into basalts or peridotites, is also becoming increasingly developed. These rocks contain a higher fraction of CO₂-reactive minerals, which can accelerate the precipitation of carbonate minerals compared to conventional storage. In Iceland, Carbfix is demonstrating dissolved-CO₂ injections for the purpose of mineralisation and has injected around 85 000 t since 2014. Supercritical injection of CO₂ into basalts was piloted during the Wallula Basalt Pilot Demonstration Project in Washington, United States. Numerical modelling from both of these projects suggests that significant mineralisation can occur within two years of injection. Additional piloting and demonstration of CO₂ mineralisation could support the scale-up of this type of storage.

In specific circumstances, existing pipelines and other infrastructure can be reused for CO₂ transport and storage. Repurposing can be attractive because it can reduce the overall cost and time of infrastructure development, lengthen infrastructure life before decommissioning and, in the case of pipelines, potentially reduce access requirements and landowner compensation. Several projects in development, including the Acorn Project in the United Kingdom, plan to reuse existing infrastructure. Only limited repurposing has occurred thus far; to facilitate it, infrastructure owners should be encouraged to incorporate a reuse audit in their decommissioning process.  

Currently the food and beverage industry is the main shipper of CO₂. It usually transports CO₂ at medium pressure (13 to 18 bar and -30°C to -28°C) as users have no need to move high volumes and do not require large cargos. Low-pressure CO₂ ships (6.5 to 8.7 bar and -45°C to -41°C) are able to have larger tank volumes and cargo capacities than medium-pressure carriers due to the temperature and pressure at which they operate. This can potentially reduce transport costs. There is significant potential for spillover learning from the LNG and LPG trade. However, further research and development is needed to support development of low-pressure CO₂ ships and their deployment. The International Organisation for Standardization has convened a working group (ISO/TC 265/WG 7) on the transport of CO₂ by ship in order to better understand the technical requirements for a future CO₂ shipping standard. 

Countries and regions have recognised the importance and urgency of developing CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure. A number of countries have recently enacted policies: 

• The United States Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law in 2021, includes around of USD 5 billion in support for CO₂ transport and storage development. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will also support the deployment of CO₂ transport and storage. It increases the value of the 45Q tax credit for CO₂ stored in dedicated storage sites and injected for CO₂-EOR. It also extends the beginning of construction deadline from 2026 to 2033 and reduces the size threshold.  
• Canada’s Budget 2022 defines a CCUS Tax Credit of 37.5% for eligible transport, storage and use equipment. Additionally, in March 2022 Alberta announced that six potential CO₂ storage hubs will advance to the next round of consideration.  
• Denmark intends to devote at least USD 2.2 billion to CCUS development, including transport and storage infrastructure. In 2021 the country also provided grant support to Project Greensand and Project Bifrost, both of which target offshore CO₂ storage development. 
• The European Commission updated its TEN-E regulation to make geological CO₂ storage infrastructure eligible to receive subsidies through the Connecting Europe Facility subsidy scheme.  
• In 2021 Korea announced plans to invest up to USD 1.2 billion into CCUS development up to 2030. About 30% will go towards storage resource assessment, while the majority of the fund is earmarked to support demonstration of CCUS. 

The seven full-chain CCUS projects that took positive final investment decisions between January 2021 and August 2022 could potentially add transport and storage capacity of up to 7.5 Mt CO₂/year. However, a number of these projects include CO₂-EOR and may already be connected to existing pipelines for transport. That said, more than 10 full-chain projects and 5 transport and storage hubs plan to take final investment decisions in the latter part of 2022.  

Until 2019 the London Protocol was considered a major international legal hurdle for the development of regional CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure because it effectively prohibited the export of CO₂ for the purpose of storing it offshore. In 2019 contracting parties to the protocol formally accepted a resolution that allows countries to agree to export and receive CO₂ for offshore geological storage via bilateral (or multilateral) agreements. In September 2022, Denmark and Flanders, Belgium signed a landmark agreement to allow for CO₂ transport for the purpose of offshore storage. As of yet, no other agreements have been announced, however, the Netherlands and Norway signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2021 agreeing to finalise a bilateral agreement in 2022. International collaboration will be essential to ensure that the necessary agreements are put in place to allow for CO₂ to be transported to other countries for its storage offshore. 

CO₂ storage assessment and site development can take three to ten years, depending on the amount and quality of existing geological information. Therefore, countries without an overview of their storage resources should start preliminary pre-competitive assessments as soon as possible. Government organisations such as geological surveys can be well-positioned to manage resource assessment, and governments should also consider if state-owned enterprises should have a role in the storage assessment and development process. Assessment should be done in a standardised way, such as with the Storage Resource Management System (SRMS), which has received industry backing and is being used by the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) in their CO₂ Storage Resource Catalogue.  

Once resources have been assessed, source–sink matching – wherein the geographical location of CO₂ storage sites and CO₂ storage resources are matched against capacity and other criteria – can be used to determine if available resources are likely to be sufficient, and how to develop optimised CO₂ transport infrastructure.  

As a first step in developing storage resources, countries should review existing laws and regulations that cover CO₂ storage activities. In some countries this may fall under oil and gas regulations, drinking water regulations, or mining regulations, to name a few. If there are any gaps in regulatory frameworks, or if such laws or regulations do not exist, countries should consider adopting CCUS frameworks that ensure the safe and secure storage of CO₂.  

Given the need to roll out CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure in a safe and timely manner, regulators should ensure that the relevant authorities have sufficient internal capacity to review and process permitting applications. Regulators could consider defining strategic projects, which can benefit from a streamlined permitting process. One such example of this is the European Project of Common Interest status as defined by the TEN-E regulation.  

Both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have trust funds that have supported CO₂ storage resource assessments in a number of emerging markets and developing economies. These two trust funds are set to expire by the end of 2023. Given the importance of deploying CCUS in these countries to support their ongoing development while pursuing decarbonisation goals, storage resource assessments should continue to be the target of international cooperation and multilateral support. To that end, in 2021 the US Department of Energy and the US Geological Survey signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on assessing global, regional and national CO₂ storage resources. However, this commitment does not replace the need for dedicated multilateral finance initiatives.

CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure is the critical enabler of CO₂ capture deployment. The private sector should capitalise on competencies to develop CO₂ transport networks and CO₂ storage hubs with a view towards developing a robust CO₂ management industry. Developing such infrastructure can help companies that have traditionally been fossil-fuel focused, such as natural gas transmission service operators and oil and gas companies, diversify their business lines and create new revenue streams.