Work-shop 21. June: NCCS deployment cases – measures for directing, aligning and communicating research in NCCS

Bloggers: Grethe Tangen & Partow P. Henriksen, NCCS Deployment case leaders.

On 21^st June 2017, the NCCS Operation Center, task leaders and key researchers came together to discuss feedback from industry partners on the deployment cases and their further development.

The Norwegian CCS Research Centre (NCCS) addresses knowledge gaps along the whole CO₂ chain. To ensure focus on the main barriers for fast-track CCS deployment, NCCS organises the research around selected deployment cases (DCs).

Each deployment case should envisage possible future CCS chains, reflecting critical challenges identified in demonstration and industry projects.

Some of the advantages of using deployment cases for guidance are that they

• Reflect cost drivers and risk elements in all parts of the chain, essential for identifying critical barriers and assessing the greatest potentials for innovation, value creation and cost reduction through development of new products and services.
• Ensure that all participants have an understanding of all steps of the chain (capture, transport and storage) and stimulates exploring the interfaces between these steps.
• Serve as the basis for defining goals and research tasks that impacts the overall Chain

Finally, yet importantly, the deployment cases are excellent for communication within the centre to enable interdisciplinary collaboration across the tasks, with NCCS industry partners, and with private as well as public stakeholders outside the centre.

For the first phase of NCCS, two deployment cases are defined:

• CCS for Norwegian industry (DC1): Capturing and collecting CO₂ from Norwegian point-sources, transport, and storage in the North sea Basin. The amount of CO₂ in this case is limited to 1-5 Mt/a.

• Storing Europe’s CO₂ in the North Sea Basin (DC2): Capturing and collecting large amounts of CO₂ (10-100Mt/a) from Europe, transport to and storage in the North Sea Basin. Enhanced Oil Recovery as well as H₂ production and combustion are part of this case study.

Should be relevant to the Norwegian full-scale CCS project

In the discussion, many emphasised the importance of DC1 being relevant for the Norwegian full- scale CCS project. To release the full potential, close interaction between the centre, Gassnova (as the leader of the Norwegian full-scale project), and the industry is essential. DC1 is instrumental to assure the dialog with Gassnova and Norwegian full-scale project.

Alternative CCS chains

The discussion on DC2 suggested that some alternative CCS chains for north/west Europe could be outlined both to reflect technology routes and to highlight opportunities for strengthening the CCS business case when large amounts of CO₂ becomes available, e.g. CO₂ EOR and H₂.

Such chains can also be subject to detailed quantitative analyses in NCCS Task 1 “CO₂ value chain and legal aspects”. As a starting point, NCCS will review the available information on location of main European CO₂ sources (power and industry), amount of CO₂, location of storage sites with capacity to receive large amounts of CO₂ and possible infrastructure.

In full operation

During 2017, 12 NCCS research tasks covering capture, transport, storage and CCS chain has come into full operation. By addressing knowledge gaps in both DC1 and DC2, NCCS is eager to provide research-based support to fast-track CCS deployment in Norway, Europe, and the world!