Project information

Background

The European Community’s objective of limiting climate change to 2° C requires a global reduction of CO2 emissions of 50% by 2050. This goal demands the developed world to lower CO2 emissions by 60-80% by 2050. Today, the power generation from fossil fuels (primarily coal and gas) is responsible for approximately 40% of all CO2 emissions in the EU. As the (CO2 emitting) use of fossil energy will remain an essential foothold of European energy supply, measures have to be considered and implemented to gain CO2 emission reductions, from both fossil fuels and other CO2-emitting sources.

The EU has declared it wants to reduce emissions with 20 % in 2020 compared to 1990 and even with 30 % in case of an international agreement. In both scenarios, carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be essential to meet those goals. Recent cost estimates, such as those from the EU CASTOR project, show that CCS, included into the Emission Trading Scheme, will be cost-competitive with other CO2 reduction alternatives. This is a strong indicator that the political will of the Commission together with the economic needs of the CO2–intensive industry can push CCS implementation in consonance. An integral part of CCS (on a large-industry scale) will be the establishment of a European CO2 pipeline network.

Relevance

   

All aspects of carbon capture, transport and storage must fit
CO2EuroPipe will provide guidance to elements of an EU ‘Master Plan’ for the development of large-scale European CO2 infrastructure. This project will geographically focus on the North West and Central parts of the EU, with major industrial players from Norway, Sweden, UK, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and the Benelux, but the major organisational conclusions of the project will be applicable throughout Europe. Other elements have been provided by previous and current EU projects. The present project will finish in 2011, well before the 2012 deadline, when new EU regulations on CO2 reduction will be put in place. The first local CCS initiatives are already taking shape and will be well under way by 2012. It is of prime importance that these first building blocks for a European CO2 infrastructure are developed not just for those projects, but with the requirements of full-scale European CCS in mind, optimising their future value. Our project will provide the basis for the most cost-effective path from local projects to a pan-European CCTS system. Given the pace at which CCS projects are being developed and EU and national regulations need to be put in place, results that are generated in this project will be delivered as soon as they are obtained.

Project goals

The project aims to:

1.     describe the infrastructure required for large-scale transport of CO2, including the injection facilities at the storage sites;
2. describe the options for re-use of existing infrastructure for the transport of natural gas, that is expected to be slowly phased out in the next few decades;
3. provide advice on organizational models, on financial and legal issues, on CO2 quality standards, environmental risks (onshore pipeline transport);
4. develop business case for a series of realistic scenarios, to study both initial CCS projects and their coalescence into larger-scale CCS infrastructure;
5. demonstrate, through the development of the four business cases, the need for international cooperation on CCS;
6. summarise all findings in terms of actions to be taken by EU and national governments to facilitate and optimize the development of large-scale, European CCS infrastructure.

Business cases

The business cases considered in the project include:

CO2 transport from the Rotterdam area to depleted gas fields in the North Sea;
Transport from the Rhine/Ruhr area to Northern Germany and to the North Sea, (either by linking with the Rotterdam initiative or through the industrialized areas around Hamburg and transporting to storage sites further north in Germany and / or Danish / Norwegian sectors in the North Sea);
CO2 transport from the Norwegian mainland to reservoirs in the North Sea;
Options for CCS in central / east Europe and the possible link with the developing infrastructure in and around the North Sea.
The business cases will be used to apply and test the results obtained in the project: each of the cases will have different 'boundary conditions', such as the organisational model, the measures adopted or to be adopted by the national and regional governments, the environmental issues (risks).