Can Producing Oil Store Carbon? Greenhouse Gas Footprint of CO<sub>2</sub>EOR, Offshore North Sea

Stewart, Robert; Haszeldine, R. Stuart

doi:10.1021/es504600q

Cited by 31 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(54 reference statements)

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“…Conventionally, operators aim to maximize both the amount of oil recovered and the amount of CO 2 recovered (rather than CO 2 stored) per tonne of CO 2 injected; between 1.1 and 3.3 barrels (bbl) of oil can be produced per tonne of CO 2 injected under conventional operation and within the constraints of natural reservoir heterogeneity 49 . However, in principle-and depending on operating conditions and project type-CO 2 -EOR can be operated such that, on a life-cycle basis, more CO 2 is injected than is produced upon consumption of the final oil product 50 .…”

Section: Conventional Utilization Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

The technological and economic prospects for CO2 utilization and removal

Hepburn

Adlen

Beddington

et al. 2019

Nature

1,557

813

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processes. Biological or land-based forms of CO 2 utilization can generate economic value in the form of, for example, wood products for buildings, increased plant yields from enhanced soil carbon uptake, and even the production of biofuel and bio-derived chemicals. We use this broader definition deliberately; by thinking functionally, rather than narrowly about specific processes, we hope to promote dialogue across scientific fields, compare costs and benefits across pathways, and consider common techno-economic characteristics across pathways that could potentially assist in the identification of routes towards the mitigation of climate change. In this Perspective, we consider a non-exhaustive selection of ten CO 2 utilization pathways and provide a transparent assessment of the potential scale and cost for each one. The ten pathways are as follows: (1) CO 2-based chemical products, including polymers; (2) CO 2-based fuels; (3) microalgae fuels and other microalgae products; (4) concrete building materials; (5) CO 2 enhanced oil recovery (CO 2-EOR); (6) bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS); (7) enhanced weathering; (8) forestry techniques, including afforestation/reforestation, forest management and wood products; (9) land management via soil carbon sequestration techniques; and (10) biochar. These ten CO 2 utilization pathways can also be characterized as 'cycling', 'closed' and 'open' utilization pathways (Fig. 1, Table 1, Supplementary Materials). For instance, many (but not all) conventional industrial utilization pathways-such as CO 2-based fuels and chemicals-tend to be 'cycling': they move carbon through industrial systems over timescales of days, weeks or months. Such pathways do not provide net CO 2 removal from the atmosphere, but they can reduce emissions via industrial CO 2 capture that displaces fossil fuel use. By contrast, 'closed' pathways involve utilization and nearpermanent CO 2 storage, such as in the lithosphere (via CO 2-EOR or BECCS), in the deep ocean (via terrestrial enhanced weathering) or in mineralized carbon in the built and natural environments. Finally, 'open' pathways tend to be based in biological systems,

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Section: Conventional Utilization Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

The technological and economic prospects for CO2 utilization and removal

Hepburn

Adlen

Beddington

et al. 2019

Nature

1,557

813

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…As EOR can provide important stimulation for CCS deployment by reducing the overall costs of CO 2 capture and transport, thereby reducing the investment risk [41], it is critical to attract this EOR market with a low CO 2 price [29]. Although CO 2 -EOR oshore has yet to be done in the North Sea, studies have shown the feasibility and benets that could be brought on by its deployment [42,43,44,45].…”

Section: An Investment Decisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of CO 2 purification and transport networks in carbon capture and storage cost reduction

Kolster

Mechleri

Krevor

et al. 2017

International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

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A number of Carbon Capture and Storage projects (CCS) are under way around the world, but the technology's high capital and operational costs act as a disincentive to large-scale deployment. In the case of both oxycombustion and post-combustion CO 2 capture, the CO 2 compression and purication units (CO 2 CPU) are vital, but costly, process elements needed to bring the raw CO 2 product to a quality that is adequate for transport and storage. Four variants of the CO 2 CPU were modelled in Aspen HYSYS each of which provide dierent CO 2 product purities at dierent capital and operating costs. For each unit, a price of CO 2 is calculated by assuming that it is an independent entity in which to invest and the internal rate of return (IRR) must be greater or equal to the minimum rate of return on investment. In this study, we test the hypothesis that, owing to the fact that CO 2 will likely be transported in multi-source networks, not all CO 2 streams will need to be of high purity, and that it may be possible to combine several sources of varying purity to obtain an end-product that is suitable for storage. We nd that, when considering study generated costs for an example network in the UK, optimally combining these dierent sources into one multi-source transport network subject to a minimum CO 2 purity of 96% can reduce the price of captured CO 2 by 17%.

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“…The term negative emissions is also sometimes used to refer to CCS applied to fossil fuels, particularly in papers within the field of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). 28,29,30 In EOR, CO 2 is used to extract otherwise unrecoverable oil from otherwise depleted oil fields. Some EOR studies label the balance of CO 2 (CO 2 trapped in the geological formation minus CO 2 released when oil is combusted) negative emissions, regardless of the origin of the CO 2 , which, in most cases, is either extracted from natural formations or from the flue gas from the combustion of fossil fuels.…”

Section: Avoided Emissions and Enhanced Oil Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%