CO2 capture and storage (CCS) cost reduction via infrastructure right-sizing.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be a critical component of a portfolio of low-carbon energy technologies required to combat climate change ( IEA-GHG, 2013 ). As such, an extensive transportation infrastructure will be required to transport captured CO 2 from different sources to the available sinks. Several studies in the literature suggest that shared oversized pipeline networks may be the most efficient long term option compared to single source to sink pipelines, based on increased CCS deployment over the years and therefore increased CO 2 flowrate to the transport network. However, what is neglected in this vision is that the deployment of intermittent renewable energy tends to displace thermal power generation. This directly reduces the amount of fossil fuel burned, CO 2 produced, captured and transported through the network. This paper presents an optimisation methodology to “right-size” CO 2 transport infrastructure, explicitly accounting for the transient flow of CO 2 arising from the co-deployment of intermittent renewable energy generators. By application of this methodology, we demonstrate that capital cost reductions of up to 28% are possible relative to a business-as-usual design case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]