Hubs and clusters approach to unlock the development of carbon capture and storage – case study in Spain

Xiaolong Sun; Juan Alcalde; Mahdi Bakhtbidar; Javier Elío; Víctor Vilarrasa; Jacobo Canal; Julio Ballesteros; Niklas Heinemann; Stuart Haszeldine; Andrew Cavanagh; David Vega-Maza; Fernando Rubiera; Roberto Martínez-Orio; Gareth Johnson; Ramon Carbonell; Ignacio Marzan; Anna Travé; Enrique Gomez-Rivas

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117418

Hubs and clusters approach to unlock the development of carbon capture and storage – case study in Spain

Xiaolong Sun, Juan Alcalde^*, Mahdi Bakhtbidar, Javier Elío, Víctor Vilarrasa, Jacobo Canal, Julio Ballesteros, Niklas Heinemann, Stuart Haszeldine, Andrew Cavanagh, David Vega-Maza, Fernando Rubiera, Roberto Martínez-Orio, Gareth Johnson, Ramon Carbonell, Ignacio Marzan, Anna Travé, Enrique Gomez-Rivas

^*Corresponding author for this work

Civil And Environmental Engineering

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Abstract

Many countries have assigned an indispensable role for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in their national climate change mitigation pathways. However, CCS deployment has stalled in most countries with only limited commercial projects realised mainly in hydrocarbon-rich countries for enhanced oil recovery. If the Paris Agreement is to be met, then this progress must be replicated widely, including hydrocarbon-limited countries. In this study, we present a novel source-to-sink assessment methodology based on a hubs and clusters approach to identify favourable regions for CCS deployment and attract renewed public and political interest in viable deployment pathways. Here, we apply this methodology to Spain, where fifteen emission hubs from both the power and the hard-to-abate industrial sectors are identified as potential CO₂ sources. A priority storage structure and two reserves for each hub are selected based on screening and ranking processes using a multi-criteria decision-making method. The priority source-to-sink clusters are identified indicating four potential development regions, with the North-Western and North-Eastern Spain recognised as priority regions due to resilience provided by different types of CO₂ sources and geological structures. Up to 68.7 Mt CO₂ per year, comprising around 21% of Spanish emissions can be connected to clusters linked to feasible storage. CCS, especially in the hard-to-abate sector, and in combination with other low-carbon energies (e.g., blue hydrogen and bioenergy), remains a significant and unavoidable contributor to the Paris Agreement's mid-century net-zero target. This study shows that the hubs and clusters approach can facilitate CCS deployment in Spain and other hydrocarbon-limited countries.

Original language	English
Article number	117418
Number of pages	20
Journal	Applied Energy
Volume	300
Early online date	29 Jul 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117418
Publication status	Published - 15 Oct 2021

Funding

Funding was provided by the Grup Consolidat de Recerca ?Geologia Sediment?ria? (2017SGR-824) and the DGICYT Spanish Project PGC2018-093903-B-C22. XS acknowledges funding by the China Scholarship Council for a PhD scholarship (201806450043). JA is funded by MICINN (Juan de la Cierva fellowship - IJC2018-036074-I). EGR acknowledges funding provided by MICINN (?Ram?n y Cajal? fellowship RYC2018-026335-I). VV acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program through the Starting Grant GEoREST (www.georest.eu) (Grant agreement No. 801809). IDAEA-CSIC is a Centre of Excellence Severo Ochoa (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Project CEX2018-000794-S). NH is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded research project ?HyStorPor? (EP/S027815/1). SH and AC are funded by EPSRC EP/P026214/1 UKCCSRC 2017, and EU project 837754 - STRATEGY CCUS. DVM is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (?Beatriz Galindo Senior? fellowship BEAGAL18/00259). GJ is funded by the University of Strathclyde Faculty of Engineering. Funding was provided by the Grup Consolidat de Recerca “Geologia Sedimentària” (2017SGR-824) and the DGICYT Spanish Project PGC2018-093903-B-C22. XS acknowledges funding by the China Scholarship Council for a PhD scholarship (201806450043). JA is funded by MICINN (Juan de la Cierva fellowship - IJC2018-036074-I). EGR acknowledges funding provided by MICINN (“Ramón y Cajal” fellowship RYC2018-026335-I). VV acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program through the Starting Grant GEoREST ( www.georest.eu ) (Grant agreement No. 801809). IDAEA-CSIC is a Centre of Excellence Severo Ochoa (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Project CEX2018-000794-S). NH is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded research project “HyStorPor” (EP/S027815/1). SH and AC are funded by EPSRC EP/P026214/1 UKCCSRC 2017, and EU project 837754 - STRATEGY CCUS. DVM is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (“Beatriz Galindo Senior” fellowship BEAGAL18/00259). GJ is funded by the University of Strathclyde Faculty of Engineering. Pipelines are considered to be the most viable method for onshore transport of high volumes of CO 2 over long distances [136] , especially when the CO 2 source comes from a power or industrial plant with a long lifetime [16] . The challenge is to develop long-term strategies for CO 2 pipeline networks that optimise source-to-sink transmission [72] . For commercial-scale CCS projects, an extensive network of CO 2 pipelines needs to be developed, involving multiple CO 2 sources and storage sites. Due to an uneven distribution of CO 2 sources and potential storage structures, the construction of European pipeline infrastructures may become trans-national [137] . For the Iberian Peninsula, when Spain and Portugal are considered together in building a pipeline network, fewer hubs would be required, as well as less pipeline infrastructure and equipment, which would reduce costs for construction and installation [138] . Moreover, the existing natural gas pipeline network that connects Spain and Portugal can be used as a proxy when installing a future CO 2 pipeline network. Similarly, joint large-scale trans-national infrastructures have also been suggested in the western Mediterranean, including Spain, Portugal and Morocco [72] . In the western Mediterranean, most of the storage capacity is located in Spain [73,138,139] and, accordingly, Portugal and Morocco can benefit from gaining access to Spain’s storage capacity by a trans-national pipeline network. Furthermore, Spain’s pipeline network can also connect with a European network, as an EU-wide coordination of CO 2 transport planning, as well as the resolution of legal issues surrounding trans-boundary transport and liability, are essential to enable CCS in support of the EU targets [140] . The Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF Energy), for example, is able to fund trans-national pipelines for CO 2 via Projects of Common Interest (e.g., this tool has already funded the CO2-SAPLING Transport and Infrastructure Project with this aim [141] ). Vessel transport may complement pipeline networks in the western Mediterranean in some cases, achieving the transport of small CO 2 volumes over long distances, e.g., accessing the large CO 2 storage capacity in the North Sea [142] .

Keywords

CCS site selection
CO2 emission hubs
hubs and clusters
source-to-sink
Spain

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10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117418Licence: CC BY 4.0

Sun-etal-AE-2021-Hubs-and-clusters-approach-to-unlock-the-development-of-carbon-capture-and-storageFinal published version, 4.22 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

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Sun, X., Alcalde, J., Bakhtbidar, M., Elío, J., Vilarrasa, V., Canal, J., Ballesteros, J., Heinemann, N., Haszeldine, S., Cavanagh, A., Vega-Maza, D., Rubiera, F., Martínez-Orio, R., Johnson, G., Carbonell, R., Marzan, I., Travé, A., & Gomez-Rivas, E. (2021). Hubs and clusters approach to unlock the development of carbon capture and storage – case study in Spain. Applied Energy, 300, Article 117418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117418

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abstract = "Many countries have assigned an indispensable role for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in their national climate change mitigation pathways. However, CCS deployment has stalled in most countries with only limited commercial projects realised mainly in hydrocarbon-rich countries for enhanced oil recovery. If the Paris Agreement is to be met, then this progress must be replicated widely, including hydrocarbon-limited countries. In this study, we present a novel source-to-sink assessment methodology based on a hubs and clusters approach to identify favourable regions for CCS deployment and attract renewed public and political interest in viable deployment pathways. Here, we apply this methodology to Spain, where fifteen emission hubs from both the power and the hard-to-abate industrial sectors are identified as potential CO2 sources. A priority storage structure and two reserves for each hub are selected based on screening and ranking processes using a multi-criteria decision-making method. The priority source-to-sink clusters are identified indicating four potential development regions, with the North-Western and North-Eastern Spain recognised as priority regions due to resilience provided by different types of CO2 sources and geological structures. Up to 68.7 Mt CO2 per year, comprising around 21\% of Spanish emissions can be connected to clusters linked to feasible storage. CCS, especially in the hard-to-abate sector, and in combination with other low-carbon energies (e.g., blue hydrogen and bioenergy), remains a significant and unavoidable contributor to the Paris Agreement's mid-century net-zero target. This study shows that the hubs and clusters approach can facilitate CCS deployment in Spain and other hydrocarbon-limited countries.",

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Sun, X, Alcalde, J, Bakhtbidar, M, Elío, J, Vilarrasa, V, Canal, J, Ballesteros, J, Heinemann, N, Haszeldine, S, Cavanagh, A, Vega-Maza, D, Rubiera, F, Martínez-Orio, R, Johnson, G, Carbonell, R, Marzan, I, Travé, A & Gomez-Rivas, E 2021, 'Hubs and clusters approach to unlock the development of carbon capture and storage – case study in Spain', Applied Energy, vol. 300, 117418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117418

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AU - Sun, Xiaolong

AU - Alcalde, Juan

AU - Bakhtbidar, Mahdi

AU - Elío, Javier

AU - Vilarrasa, Víctor

AU - Canal, Jacobo

AU - Ballesteros, Julio

AU - Heinemann, Niklas

AU - Haszeldine, Stuart

AU - Cavanagh, Andrew

AU - Vega-Maza, David

AU - Rubiera, Fernando

AU - Martínez-Orio, Roberto

AU - Johnson, Gareth

AU - Carbonell, Ramon

AU - Marzan, Ignacio

AU - Travé, Anna

AU - Gomez-Rivas, Enrique

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N2 - Many countries have assigned an indispensable role for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in their national climate change mitigation pathways. However, CCS deployment has stalled in most countries with only limited commercial projects realised mainly in hydrocarbon-rich countries for enhanced oil recovery. If the Paris Agreement is to be met, then this progress must be replicated widely, including hydrocarbon-limited countries. In this study, we present a novel source-to-sink assessment methodology based on a hubs and clusters approach to identify favourable regions for CCS deployment and attract renewed public and political interest in viable deployment pathways. Here, we apply this methodology to Spain, where fifteen emission hubs from both the power and the hard-to-abate industrial sectors are identified as potential CO2 sources. A priority storage structure and two reserves for each hub are selected based on screening and ranking processes using a multi-criteria decision-making method. The priority source-to-sink clusters are identified indicating four potential development regions, with the North-Western and North-Eastern Spain recognised as priority regions due to resilience provided by different types of CO2 sources and geological structures. Up to 68.7 Mt CO2 per year, comprising around 21% of Spanish emissions can be connected to clusters linked to feasible storage. CCS, especially in the hard-to-abate sector, and in combination with other low-carbon energies (e.g., blue hydrogen and bioenergy), remains a significant and unavoidable contributor to the Paris Agreement's mid-century net-zero target. This study shows that the hubs and clusters approach can facilitate CCS deployment in Spain and other hydrocarbon-limited countries.

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KW - source-to-sink

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VL - 300

JO - Applied Energy

JF - Applied Energy

M1 - 117418

ER -

Hubs and clusters approach to unlock the development of carbon capture and storage – case study in Spain

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The role of CCS in industry clusters in delivering value to the political economy

UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre 2017 (UKCCSRC 2017)

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