Overview
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been hitting the headlines in recent months, as governments and industry struggle to find viable solutions to the climate change challenge. The European Union, for example, has announced substantial funding for CCS pilot projects at power plants and has selected DNV to help minimise the time between policymaking and the implementation of full-scale CCS projects. The aim is to establish the commercial application of viable CCS on a global basis within the next 10 years. If this goal is to be achieved, the necessary technical, legal, financial and regulatory structures will have to be finalised without delay.
The transportation of CO2 captured at power plants and other large fossil fuel-burning industrial facilities to underground storage locations is a crucial element of CCS. The transportation can be undertaken by either gas carrier or by pipeline. CO2 shipping offers a cost-efficient and flexible alternative for projects where volumes are not large enough to justify a pipeline and for locations where conditions do not permit pipeline construction. There is also the possibility of utilising gas carriers to collect CO2 from a number of plants for transport to a central staging post from where delivery by pipeline to the final sequestration location can be carried out.
There are currently four purpose-built CO2 carriers in operation but they are small vessels engaged in the carriage of limited volumes in North West Europe, primarily for the food and beverage industry. As the battle to control climate change takes shape, the carriage of the CO2 yield from CCS projects is opening up a large new potential market for gas carrier operators. Semi-pressurised/fully refrigerated (semi-ref) gas carriers would be required, probably of approximately 20,000m3 in size. Such semi-ref gas carriers would be about 10 times the size of the four existing CO2 carriers. A number of the world’s leading operators of semi-ref gas carriers are studying the possibility of constructing the dedicated CO2 carrier fleets that the anticipated CCS schemes would require.
At the same time, every party considering involvement in CO2 shipping acknowledges the major challenges which lie ahead. Commercial viability will be determined by the CCS goals set by governments and the price apportioned to a tonne of CO2. The technological viability of CO2 shipping will be determined by the ability of power plants to capture the CO2 stream and liquefy and store it on site as well as the ability of ships to transfer their cargoes at offshore locations and pump it deep beneath the seabed.