CO2FFER – Data and models to optimise maritime CO₂ transport and offshore injection

By 2030, a system of large-scale, flexible and cost-effective logistics chains will need to have been developed, which will enable the collection, transport, injection and safe storage of several tens of millions of tonnes of CO₂ per year. CO2FFER will support the development of concepts needed to handle CO₂ from a variety of sources around the North Sea, all with different qualities.

By 2030, we will need to have developed a system of large-scale, flexible and cost-effective logistics that enable the collection, transport, injection and safe storage of millions of tonnes of CO₂ per year. This could be part of the Longship project or a separate initiative. For example, Stella Maris CCS envisages handling CO₂ of different qualities from a variety of sources around the North Sea. As a major cost-saving concept, the CO₂ will be transported by ship and directly offloaded offshore, heated through exchange with seawater and injected into saline aquifers.

However, large-scale maritime CO₂ transport and offshore offloading and injection has yet to be implemented, and there are several knowledge gaps that need to be filled. CO₂FFER will address the most urgent ones by providing key models and experimental data to support the deployment and further development of safe and cost-efficient concepts for both CO₂ transport by ship and offshore CO₂ injection.

CO₂ ship transport

CO₂FFER will conduct thermodynamic analyses to quantify the effect of impurities on CO₂ processing, liquefaction and ship transport, which will reduce the need for costly purification and dehydration of CO₂ prior to liquefaction. In addition, the project will reveal the potential of solid CO₂ formation (as dry ice) and the consequences of this, in order to increase operability and safety at optimal transport conditions close to the triple point of CO₂.

Offshore CO₂ injection

CO₂FFER will perform simulations and experiments on vertical CO₂ flow, well integrity and injectivity that will quantify the effect of varying or intermittent injections of possibly cold CO₂ on well materials and injectivity. This will be used to provide guidance on the operation and for-purpose construction of CO₂ injection wells. Furthermore, the project will describe the effect of various geological settings on the optimal operation mode for direct CO₂ injection from ships, thereby maximising practical storage capacity and minimising containment integrity problems.

Overall, CO₂FFER will significantly contribute to the realisation and future extension of the Longship project, and to the future use of CCS technology in other offshore projects both in Norway and elsewhere.