Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, Petar Sabev Varbanov and Peng Yen Liew (Editors)

Proceedings of the 24th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering – ESCAPE 24
June 15-18, 2014, Budapest, Hungary. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Process Simulation and Analysis for CO2 Transport

Pipeline Design and Operation – Case Study for the
Humber Region in the UK
Xiaobo Luoa, Ketan Mistryb, Chima Okezuea, Meihong Wanga, *, Russell
Cooperb, Eni Okoa, Julian Fieldb
a
School of Engineering, the University of Hull, Cottingham RD, Hull, United Kingdom
b
CCS Research Group, National Grid, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Meihong.Wang@hull.ac.uk

Abstract
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) will play a vital role for carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions reduction. Pipelines are considered the preferred method for both onshore and
offshore large volumes of CO2 transported. In the Humber region in the UK, there are
two advanced proposals for CCS power station developments: the Don Valley project
and the White Rose (Drax) CCS project, which were expected to provide a basis to
develop a pipeline supporting a CCS cluster in this area. This paper presents a case
study of the pipeline network for the Don Valley and the White Rose CCS projects,
representing the possibilities in the Humber area. A model of the pipeline network was
developed using the computer software package Aspen HYSYS® and three different
operating strategies were compared and discussed regarding their energy and utilities
requirement. For all three operating strategies, simulation results show that energy
consumption ranges from 96 to 103 kWh/t-CO2 and cooling duty range from about 140
to 147 Mcal/t-CO2 in a wide range of the flow rate of the CO2-rich stream.
Keywords: CCS, CO2 transport, Pipeline design/operation, Process simulation

1. Introduction
Reducing CO2 emission is a big challenge both technically and commercially. CCS is
regarded as a crucial mitigation technology and will contribute to reducing the global
CO2 emissions by about 7 Gt/y in 2050 (IEA, 2012). CCS is the process of capturing
CO2 from large industrial emitters and transporting it to a storage site, to mitigate CO2
emissions to the atmosphere. Pipelines are the preferred method for large volumes of
CO2 transport (IPCC, 2005). Recent study of Roussanaly et al. (2013) shows pipeline
method has 10% lower cost than the shipping method for a typical CO 2 transportation
network. Pipelines have been used to transport CO2 in gaseous and dense (i.e. liquid or
supercritical) phases. The dense phase is regarded as the energy-efficient condition due
to its high density and low viscosity (Zhang et al., 2006). However, two-phase flow may
occur as the pressure will change with the transient flow of CO2. Relevant process
simulations have been conducted about the changes of the CO2 physical properties
along pipelines (Zhang et al., 2006) and the performance of pipeline network including
injection well (Nimtz et al., 2010) using steady state models. Some dynamic models
were also developed to evaluated the scenarios of load change, start-up, shout down and
compressor trip(Liljiemark et al., 2010) and to examine the hydraulic parameters of the
CO2 pipelines(Chaczykowski and Osiadacz, 2012). However, the pipeline model in
1634 X.Luo et al.

key to legend
P1: Drax to multi-junction
P2: Don valley to multi-junction
P3: Onshore trunk pipeline UK Land North Sea
P4: Offshore trunk pipeline
Power and Capture Plant Bridlington
Valve
Pump Station
Compressor or blower Booster pump
Drax Power Plant & station
A saline
White Rose CCS plant aquifer
(Oxy-fuel combustion)

Mid-booster
compressor

Don Valley CCS plant

(Pre-combustion)

Figure 1. The pipeline sketch for the Humber case study

these studies are relatively simple, with a single emitter or without booster stations. This
may not reflect realistic operating scenarios for a typical CO2 pipeline network system.
In this paper, the authors consider a multi-source case study with booster station and
onshore and offshore trunk pipelines. The model was developed using commercial
computer software package Aspen HYSYS®. Three possible operating strategies were
discussed and their potential energy and utilities requirements were estimated.

2. Pipeline network scheme in the Humber region

The Humber region in the UK offers a good opportunity to deploy CCS in the UK
(Lazic et al., 2013). In this area, the Don Valley power project and the White Rose CCS
project were approved in 2009 and 2013 respectively, which were expected to provide a
basis to develop a pipeline supporting a CCS cluster. Figure 1 shows an example route
corridor of the pipeline network. The CO2 captured from Don Valley power plant is
transported in gaseous phase at a maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP) of 35
bar, and then is boosted to dense phase by a compressor near the multi-junction site,
before joining the dense phase CO2-rich stream from Drax power plant. The combined
CO2-rich stream will then be transported in dense phase via a pipeline with a MAOP of
136 bar. A pumping station located near the coast will boost the pressure of the CO2-
rich stream to a saline aquifer storage site more than 1 km beneath the bed of the North
Sea via an offshore pipeline with a MAOP of 186 bar.

An entry specification for the CO2-rich stream is needed to define the acceptable range
of composition, taking into account safety, impact on pipeline integrity and hydraulic
efficiency (Race et.al, 2012). In this case study, the entry specification was defined to be
96 mole% CO2 and a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, argon and methane with
hydrogen limited to 2.0 mole% and oxygen limited to 10 ppmv.
Table 1. Parameters of the pipelines
Collecting Onshore trunk Offshore trunk
Flow rate
Emitter pipeline pipeline pipeline
range
Length ID Length ID Length ID
Mt/y km mm km mm km mm
Don Valley 0.91-6.27 15 738.2
71 571.8 91 559.2
White Rose 0.61-2.65 5 295.5
Process Simulation and Analysis for CO2 Transport Pipeline Design and
Operation – Case Study for the Humber Region in the UK 1635

Figure 2. Process flowsheet of the pipeline network

3. Simulation method
3.1. Process flow diagram
The steady state model for this case study was developed using Aspen HYSYS®. Figure
2 shows the process flowsheet.
3.2. Physical property
The cubic equation of state (EOS) and other more complex EOS have been widely used
to calculate the physical properties of CO2 for pipeline transport modeling and
simulations. There is no consensus in the literature regarding the best EOS for the
design of CO2 pipelines. Diamantonis et al. (2013) compared the results of several EOS
with experimental data, which shows the Peng-Robinson (PR) (Peng and Robinson,
1976) EOS is of comparable accuracy even compared with other advanced EOS, when
binary interaction parameters are used. In this study, PR EOS has been selected
considering both the accuracy and the simplicity.
3.3. Base case
The maximum entry flow rate from both the White Rose and the Don Valley projects
and the highest ambient temperature were chosen as the base case. This is considered as
the worst case scenario, since it would require the highest entry pressure and the greatest
boosting pressure at the pump station. The assumptions made for the simulation are as
follows: 1) 330 operating days per year for each power plant; 2) the pressure drops
across valves and other fittings are neglected; 3) the adiabatic efficiencies of
compressors and pumps used in this model are 75 %.

The pressure settings of key sections are based on two operational constraints: 1) the
entry pressure (i.e the outlet pressure of the compressor at each capture plant) should be
high enough to maintain a minimum pipeline operating pressure of 101 bar, to avoid
two phase flow in the dense phase pipelines; 2) a constant injection pressure of 126 bar
is specified to satisfy the injection rate, which requires a minimum arrival pressure of
126 bar at the storage site. The input and boundary conditions for the base case were
specified in Table 2.

4. Process analysis of different operating strategies

It is important to study daily operation for determining the best strategy to operate the
system economically, safely and efficiently. In this case study, the two emitters are
fossil fuel power plants. Typical daily operating scenarios involve variation of the flow
rate of the CO2-rich stream due to fluctuations in energy demand. The pressure profile
of the pipeline network relies on the CO2-rich stream flow rate. When there is
fluctuation in the flow rate in response to changes in electricity demand, there are
several possible operating scenarios, all based on different pressure settings. In this
1636 X.Luo et al.

Table 2. Input and boundary conditions for the base case

Unit White Rose Don Valley
Capture technology - Oxy-fuel Pre-combustion
Entry composition mole% 96%CO2, 96%CO2, 2%N2,
2%N2, 2%Ar 2%H2
Flow rate kg/h 334,596 791,667
Entry pressure bar 120.50 35.00
Differential pressure of mid-compressor bar - 86.92
Numbers of compressor stages - 5-stages 3 stages
Numbers of mid-compressor stages - - 2 stages
o
Entry temperature C 20.0 20.0
Pump boosting pressure bar 43.00
Offshore platform arrival pressure bar 126.00

section, a case study was performed to compare power consumption and cooling duty
for each operating strategy. For the modelled CO2 pipeline system, three possible
operating scenarios are:
Case1: To maintain the same entry pressure and the same pump boosting pressure, so
that the arrival pressure at the offshore storage site would vary with the flow rate of
CO2-rich stream.
Case2: To maintain the same entry pressure and adjust the pump boosting pressure.
Case3: To adjust both the entry pressure and pump boosting pressure, while maintaining
a constant injection pressure.

A throttle valve would be added at the end of the offshore pipeline to maintain a
constant injection pressure of 126 bar when the arrival pressure at the storage site is
higher than 126 bar for each case. Table 3 presents the different pressure settings at the
different flow rates in each case.

Figure 3 and Figure 4 respectively illustrate the energy consumptions and cooling duties
per tonne of CO2-rich fluid transported in each case, as a function of the flow rate from
the power stations. As can be seen in Figure 4, in cases 1 and 2 the cooling duties per
ton of CO2 are the same at each of the three flow rates considered.
Table 3. Pressure settings in difference cases
Flow rate Entry Entry DP of mid-
from Flow rate pressure pressure compressor Pump
Case White from Don at White at Don for Don boosting Arrival
Name Rose Valley Rose Valley Valley pressure pressure
kg/h kg/h bar bar bar bar bar
Case 1a 334,596 791,667 136 35 102.52 26.8 126
Case 1b 205,808 453,283 136 35 102.52 26.8 147
Case 1c 77,020 114,899 136 35 102.52 26.8 157
Case 2a 334,596 791,667 136 35 102.52 26.8 126
Case 2b 205,808 453,283 136 35 102.52 5.9 126
Case 2c 77,020 114,899 136 35 102.52 0 130.3
Case 3a 334,596 791,667 120.5 35 86.92 43.0 126
Case 3b 205,808 453,283 114.9 35 80.12 25.8 126
Case 3c 77,020 114,899 112.4 35 77.23 17.1 126
Process Simulation and Analysis for CO2 Transport Pipeline Design and
Operation – Case Study for the Humber Region in the UK 1637

104 104 104 Case 1

Case 2

Energy consumption ( kMh/t-CO2 )

103 103 103 Case 3

102 102 102

101 101 101

100 100 100

99 99 99

98 98 98

97 97 97

96 96 96
100 200 300 400 0 200 400 600 800 0 250 500 750 10001250
From White Rose From Don Valley Average total
Flow rate of CO2 ( t/h )

Figure 3. Energy consumptions with the variation of the flow rate

Figure 3 and Figure 4 show that the trends of energy consumption and cooling duty are
relatively gradual when the flow rate changes sharply. For all three cases, energy
consumption ranges from 96 to 103 kWh/t-CO2 and cooling duty ranges from 140
to147 Mcal/t-CO2 when the flow rate varies from 190 t/h to 1,250 t/h. This is due to the
relatively high entry pressure (as shown in Table 4) which is required to maintain a
minimum operating pressure of 101 bar in the trunk pipelines regardless of the flow
rate. This also indicates that a large part of the compressor energy is required to
maintain the dense phase flow inside truck pipelines. Additionally the pressure needs to
be sufficient enough to overcome the pressure drop associated with an elevation profile
increase of approximately 140 m along the pipeline route whilst maintaining a minimum
operating pressure of 101 bar.

In this case study, the energy consumption and cooling duty is lowest in Case 3. The
energy consumption per tonne of CO2 in case 3 is about 1.67 kWh less than in case 1 at
the lowest flow rate and 1.16 kWh less than in case 1 at the medium flow rate. With the
industrial electricity price of 0.0847 £/kWh (UK Government, 2013) in 2012 in the UK,
the total energy cost per year in Case 3 is about £514,938 cheaper than in case 1, based
on an average flow rate. Due to its lower energy requirement, the operating strategy
described as Case 3 is the preferred option. However, for determining the best operating
strategy for a real project, additional factors should be considered, such as:

148 148 148 Case 1

Case 2
Case 3
Cooling duty ( Mcal/t-CO2 )

146 146 146

144 144 144

142 142 142

140 140 140

100 200 300 400 0 200 400 600 800 0 250 500 750 10001250
From White Rose From Don Valley Average total
Flow rate of CO2 ( t/h )

Figure 4. Cooling duties with the variation of the flow rate

1638 X.Luo et al.

1) The capital investment costs and maintenance costs may be higher for compressors
and pumps with adjustable discharge pressures.
2) From a control philosophy perspective, a stable or fixed operating pressure for the
trunk pipelines may be preferred under normal operating conditions.
5. Conclusions
The physical characteristics of a potential pipeline network for CO2 transportation, in
the Humber area have been described. An example pipeline network model was
developed in Aspen HYSYS® and simulations were performed for different operating
strategies over a wide range of flow rates of the CO 2-rich stream. For all three operating
strategies, simulation results show that the energy consumption ranges from 96 to
103 kWh/t-CO2 and the cooling duty ranges from 140 to 147 Mcal/t-CO2. The preferred
operating strategy is to adjust both the entry pressure and pump boosting pressure as this
requires the lowest energy consumption and cooling duty compared to the other
strategies. However determining the strategy to be adopted in a real system may be
more complicated as the costs of capital investment and maintenance, along with other
factors, must be taken into account.

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