European Scenarios of CO2 Infrastructure Investment.

Based on a review of the current state of the Carbon Capture, Transport and Storage (CCTS) technology, this paper analyzes the layout and costs of a potential CO₂ infrastructure in Europe at the horizon of 2050. We apply the mixedinteger model CCTS-Mod to compute a CCTS infrastructure network for Europe, examining the effects of different CO₂ price paths with different regional foci. Scenarios assuming low CO₂ certificate prices lead to hardly any CCTS development in Europe. The iron and steel sector starts deployment once the CO₂ certificate prices exceed 50 €/tCO₂. The cement sector starts investing at a threshold of 75 €/tCO₂, followed by the electricity sector when prices exceed 100 €/tCO₂. The degree of CCTS deployment is found to be more sensitive to variable costs of CO₂ capture than to investment costs. Additional revenues generated from utilizing CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery (CO₂ -EOR) in the North Sea would lead to an earlier adoption of CCTS, independent of the CO₂ certificate price; this case may become especially relevant for the UK, Norway and the Netherlands. However, scattered CCTS deployment increases unit cost of transport and storage infrastructure by 30% or more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]