Better understanding of CO2 liquefaction (Towards

identifying optimal transport conditions for ship-

based CCS)
blog.sintef.com/sintefenergy/co2-liquefaction-transport-conditions-ship-based-ccs

by Sintef September 16, 2019

Authors: Han Deng, Simon Roussanaly, Geir Skaugen

Ship-based transport of CO2 is an attractive technology for early deployment of CCS. It

has several advantages like cost-effectiveness for long distances and small volumes, low
capital investment, flexibility, and opportunities for co-utilisation of infrastructure. As
CCS chains based on ship transport are moving closer to implementation, the question
of optimal transport conditions (pressure, temperature and composition) is being
raised. To date, no openly public study has satisfactorily concluded on optimal transport
conditions for CCS. A first step towards identifying these conditions is better
understanding of the CO2 liquefaction process.

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NCCS: The Norwegian CCS Research Centre.

The components of the CO 2 shipping chain

The CO2 shipping chain starts after the CO2 capture and lasts until storage. The chain
involves liquefaction, buffer storage, loading/unloading, shipping transport and
reconditioning. In practice, the CO2 could be transported under different transport
conditions (temperature and pressure).

What did we previously know about optimal CO 2 shipping

conditions?
In the past decade, the low pressure-based transport (7 bar and -50℃) and medium
pressure-based transport (15 bar and -30℃) have been the two most discussed options.
For the Norwegian full-scale CCS project, initial work pointed at the 15 bar option as the
best solution from the cost, safety and maturity perspective. Recently, it was indicated
that in the future, lower pressure-based transport could be a better solution.

In Norwegian CCS Research Centre (NCCS), we therefore do research to identify the

optimal transport conditions and provide recommendations on the best measures to cut
CCS costs. As a first step toward this ambitious target, we started by focusing on the
liquefaction, especially on trying to understand the impact of the targeted transport

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pressure and impurities on the design and cost of the process. The blog presents the
results of this work performed in NCCS (Task 1) and presented in the following
publication.

Deng H., Roussanaly S., Skaugen G. (2019) Techno-economic analyses of CO 2

liquefaction: Impact of product pressure and impurities. International Journal of
Refrigeration, 103, 301-315.

The CO 2 liquefaction process

The CO2 liquefaction consists of a series of compression stages and cooling, through
which the CO2 stream is liquefied to reach the conditions for temporary storage or
transport. We considered a liquefaction process including a compression train, an
impurity removal unit, a refrigeration cycle, flash tanks and other minor components.

In the compression train, the CO 2 stream is compressed to the desired liquefaction

pressure and water is removed by condensation to prevent hydration. The impurity
removal unit will be used to remove other impurities when the delivered CO2 needs to
meet a high purity requirement. The refrigeration cycle is to condense the CO2 stream.

How the delivery pressure impacts the CO 2 liquefaction cost

In our study, the impact of the targeted delivery pressure on the design and cost of the
liquefaction process has been investigated with an integrated techno-economic
optimisation model. We looked at four cases; a case based on pure CO2 after the capture
process, which corresponds to the ideal situation, and three cases considering CO2
composition obtained from the following combination of industrial application and
capture technologies:

1) Amine-based post-combustion CO2 capture from a cement plant

2) Membrane-based post-combustion CO2 capture from a refinery

3) Rectisol-based pre-combustion CO2 capture from a coal power plant.

While the first case helps us understand the performances of the CO 2 liquefaction
process under “ideal” conditions (i.e. no impurities), the three last cases enable a good
understanding of the impact of type and level of impurities on the liquefaction process
design and cost.

After evaluating the technical and cost performances of the liquefaction process for 10
targeted transport pressures (ranging from 7 bar to 70 bar) for the four scenarios, we
found that:

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 For pure CO 2, the highest liquefaction cost is obtained at 7 bar among the range
considered, while a minimum lies around 40-50 bar (13% cheaper than at 7 bar).
The decrease in cost is due to the significant reduction in the power requirement
associated with cooling of the CO 2
For impurity cases considered, the liquefaction cost is increased significantly
compared to pure CO2 (up to 34% in some cases). This increase varies from case
to case, with the membrane-based case being the most affected and the amine-
based case being the least. Overall, delivery pressure under 30 bar is the most
heavily impacted, while a more moderate increase is observed beyond. The rise in
the cost is partially caused by the loss of CO2 through purge to remove impurities
that are not soluble in the CO2 This results in a reduction in the amount of CO 2
delivered by the liquefaction process. Besides, the rise in cost is also linked to the
higher investment cost of the liquefaction process, due to higher compression and
cooling requirement.
In the comparison of the most discussed 7 and 15 bar options, the cost is reduced
by 1.05 €.tCO2-1 at the 15 bar option for pure CO 2 case, while the reduction varies
between 1.3 and 1.7 €.tCO 2-1 depending of the impurity scenarios considered.

CO2 liquefaction cost for different delivery CO2 pressures after liquefaction in the pure CO2 and
impurity cases

The effect of purity requirements

For a given impurity case, the different delivery pressures may result in different
purities of the delivered CO2 after the liquefaction process. In the above analysis for the
impurity scenarios, no requirement is imposed on the purity of delivered CO2. However,
strong purity constraints may be imposed to the liquefaction process due to
requirement down the chain (transport and/or storage). This could have a significant
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impact on the comparison of the different possible transport pressures. We selected one
impurity case to investigate the impact of the purity requirement, with considering
industrial-grade and food-grade purity requirements (≥99% and ≥99.9% purity
respectively).

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Join our newsletter to stay updated with all the latest research results and news from
NCCS: The Norwegian CCS Research Centre.

It turns out that potential purity requirements also have a significant impact on
comparisons of the delivery pressure. For example, the cost difference between the 7
and 70 bar pressure options is significantly reduced when 99% purity requirement is
met. The difference ranges between 3.2 and 4.5 €.tCO2-1 depending on the cost of
impurity removal, while this difference is 6 €.tCO2-1 in the case without a purity
constraint. For further details and findings, please read the full-length paper .

Next step – integrating with the rest of the chain

We are continuing the work to integrate results from CO2 liquefaction with the shipping
part of the chain (buffer storage, ship transport and reconditioning), to reach our goal
of identifying the optimal transport conditions for the whole CO2 shipping chain.

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