CO2 purity and the EC IMPACTS Project - Andy Brown at the UKCCSRC Biannual Meeting, Cambridge April 2014

Progressive EnergyCONFIDENTIAL
Progressive energy
“CCS in the bigger picture”
UKCCSRC Biannual Conference
Queens College, Cambridge
3rd April 2014
CO2 purity and the EC IMPACTS Project
Andy Brown, Engineering Director, Progressive Energy

 Project Development Company, established in 1997
 Developing technology for removing CO2 from BFG and
BOS gas
 Working to develop a CCS cluster on Teesside, including
collection from steel and chemicals processing industries
 Chosen as one of the four entrants in HM Government’s
CCS Commercialisation Programme, on the “reserve list”.
 Technological expertise in many aspects of CCS
 Working with NET Power to develop a semi-closed Brayton
Cycle design using Supercritical CO2 (Allam Cycle)
 Active in renewable technologies
Progressive Energy

 Introduction to the IMPACTS Project
 Legal requirements for CO2 quality
 CCS Clusters
 Potential CO2 impurities
 Impact of potential CO2 impurities
 Designing for CCS
 Conclusion
Main points:

Introduction to the IMPACTS project
The goal of the IMPACTS project is to close knowledge
gaps related to transport and storage of CO2-rich
mixtures from various CO2 sources, to enable realisation
of safer and more cost-efficient solutions for CCS.

The main problems of impurities in CO2 transport and
storage are stated as:
 Lack of experimental data and verified property models for
mixtures of CO2 and impurities related to CO2 capture
 Understanding the effect of impurities on materials,
equipment, processes, operation and safety procedures
 Understanding how impurities will affect the storage
integrity
Introduction to the IMPACTS project

What is stored should be “overwhelmingly” CO2. It may
contain incidental associated substances from the source
material and CCS processes used, but no wastes or other
matter may be added.
London Convention and Protocol
OSPAR Treaty
 (No storage in water columns)
 Consequences for marine environment, human health
 Risk Assessment and Management required
 Drive a Quality Assurance specification for acceptable
levels of impurity within the CO2
Legal Instruments

 Requires monitoring to include ETS
 Imposes “limits on the composition of the CO2 stream”
 Requires “that the best available techniques to
improve the composition of the CO2 have been
established and applied”
 Requires that “pipelines for CO2 transport should,
where possible, be designed so as to facilitate access
of CO2 streams meeting reasonable minimum
composition thresholds”
Directive 2009/31/EC
Legal Instruments

CO2 sink
Power Station
M
Steelworks, Cement works, Glassworks, Refinery,
Requirements:
• OSPAR & London treaties
• Health (escape, blowdown)
• Impact on properties of CO2
• Impact on pipeline materials
• Geological impacts
• Oilfield impact (EOR)
CCS Clusters

Potential CO2 impurities
CO2 sink
Steelworks, Cement works, Glassworks, Refinery,
CO2, N2, Ar, H2, CH4, O2,
H2S, CO, H2O, SOx, NOx
Ash, NH3, Cl-, SO3, HCN,
HF, Hg, As, Se, Be, Cd, V,
CS2, NH4Cl, Sb, Dioxins, Furans, PAH, VOCs
Power Station
MeOH, Amine, NH3, DMEPEG

Establish the “red lines”
 Water
Impact of CO2 impurities
o SISCC
o HISCC
o Corrosion (avoidance of ‘free water’)
o Hydrate formation
SISCC HISCC CO2 hydrate

 Water
 Oxygen
Stimulates the formation of Sulphur Reducing Bacteria:
o Sours otherwise ‘sweet’ oilfields (eg. Thistle field)
o Leads to pore blockage (eg. Katzin aquifer pilot)

Crack propogation rate
 Water
 Oxygen
 Nitrogen

Crack travels along pipeline at up
to the speed of sound in steel, Vs
Pressure front travels along
CO2 at decompression
velocity, Vco2
Vs < Vco2, decaying pressure at crack tip
Vs > Vco2, full pressure at crack tip – greater risk with more N2

Result:

 Water
 Oxygen
 Nitrogen
 Hydrogen
Lowers the bubble point in the
CO2, increases the potential for
pump cavitation and the
introduction of two-phase flow

 Water
 Oxygen
 Nitrogen
 Hydrogen
 NOx and SOx
Lacq basin CCS Pilot plant
(Oxycombustion of gas).
 Compressor impellor rotted out in 3 weeks.
4NO2+2H2O +O2→4NHO3
2SO2+2H2O+O2→2H2SO4

 Water
 Oxygen
 Nitrogen
 Hydrogen
 NOx and SOx
4NO2+2H2O +O2→4NHO3
2SO2+2H2O+2O2→H2SO4

 Water
 Oxygen
 Nitrogen
 Hydrogen
 NOx and SOx
 H2S
Sulphuric acid
Damp sulphur pH=1.0
Photograph: Arne Dugstad,
Institute for Energy
Technology Kjeller, Norway.
In addition to being a toxic gas, the
presence of H2S can lead to the
deposition of elemental sulphur:
2H2S+O2→Sx+2H2O

 Technology is available to remove CO2 from a number
of different sources
 The purity of the CO2 that is captured is not necessarily
immediately suitable for transport and storage
 Need to get it right (capex, opex, impact on efficiency)
 Additional processing may be required, but to what
standard?
Designing for CCS

CO2 source Issues where additional processing may be
required
Coal/gas oxyfuel Oxygen, moisture content, SOx, NOx
Coal/gas post-combustion Oxygen
Coal/gas pre-combustion Water, hydrogen, (nitrogen)
Steelworks: BFG Nitrogen, particulate, hydrogen
Steelworks: BOS gas Nitrogen, particulate, oxygen
Steelworks: COG Nitrogen, C2+, SO2, water, particulate
Refinery stack Oxygen, C2+, nitrogen
Cement Plant Various: may result in some fuels being
inadmissible
Designing for CCS

Designing for CCS
The IMPACTS study aims to answer some of these questions:
 What are the critical issues?
 What are the limits of impurities in the CO2?
 What interactions exist within the impurities (eg. H2 and O2)?
 Where are the “red lines”?
 Is there a ‘commercial’ balance to be struck?
 What ‘specification’ for CO2 is required, particularly in a
cluster situation?
 What liaison can be established to bridge some of the
knowledge gaps by liaising with academia?

1. Legal obligations exist that require control to be exercised
over the quality of CO2 stored in the North Sea and
elsewhere, but there are other, engineering, reasons to
assure the quality of the CO2
2. There are “red line” issues that limit the amount of some
of the impurities present in the CO2
3. Additional processing is likely to be needed to achieve
compliance
4. The challenges are both technical and commercial, but
not unassailable: knowledge of impure CO2 is expanding
and the EC IMPACTS programme is a part of this.
Conclusions

Thank you. Questions?
Progressive Energy

Oxygen: Background
Subsea formations contain both anaerobic and
aerobic bacteria in relatively small numbers.
Oxygen allows the aerobic bacteria to reproduce
rapidly.
Aerobic bacteria + Oxygen = More aerobic bacteria
Reservoir waters
Injected sea water
O2 in CO2

Oxygen: Background
Aerobic bacterial action degrades the oil, and
produces organic acids.
Aerobic bacteria + Oil = Organic Acids
Oil

Oxygen: Formation of SRB
The presence of organic acids causes the Sulphate
Reducing Bacteria from within the anaerobic
population to multiply rapidly.
SRB in anaerobic
Bacteria + Organic Acids = more SRB

SRB = trouble
Sulphate Reducing Bacteria reduces sulphate from
the rock matrix to form H2S.
H2S in hydrocarbon wells can sour the product, increase
corrosion rates and reduce porosity by FeS deposition.
The Tartan and Thistle fields in the UK have already
become soured as a result of SRB.
SRB + Sulphate = H2S

CO2 purity and the EC IMPACTS Project - Andy Brown at the UKCCSRC Biannual Meeting, Cambridge April 2014

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CO2 purity and the EC IMPACTS Project - Andy Brown at the UKCCSRC Biannual Meeting, Cambridge April 2014