Transport Costs Have CCS Projects Thinking Location, Location, Location

One way to decrease the costs and development time for carbon capture projects is to eliminate the need for long distance CO₂ transportation. By locating a utilization or storage site near a capture facility, project developers can avoid building lengthy CO₂ pipeline infrastructure that could ultimately increase project costs and lead to potential regulatory headaches associated with pipeline siting and construction. In this Energy Market Insight, we explore potential locations for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects that could take advantage of proximate emissions and geologic storage sites to reduce CO₂ transportation needs.

Regional geologic CO₂ storage sites exist throughout the U.S., with the largest onshore storage capacities located in Alaska and along the Gulf Coast. Projects that aim to capture the 45Q tax credit via EOR or geologic sequestration are already taking place at sites in Wyoming, North Dakota, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Michigan; and pending Class VI well permits, if approved, could bring CO₂ storage projects to an additional seven states.

While there are various factors that make certain storage sites more advantageous than others, e.g., existing well infrastructure or favorable geology, having nearby emissions sources to provide captured CO₂ is an important consideration for potential storage sites. Of all the regional geologic storage sites, the U.S. Gulf Coast has far and away the largest volume of emissions, with nearly 545 Mt of CO₂e in 2021. Most of the emissions in this region, or 316 Mt/y, come from a diverse mix of industrial sources, including refineries, petroleum and natural gas systems, and the chemicals industry. This variety of emissions sources allows for different capture techniques and technologies to be deployed across various sectors, including some applications which may be especially economic. Favorable emissions sources, along with existing CO₂ pipeline infrastructure, helps to explain why this region recently became the focus of numerous CCS projects. In total, the U.S. Gulf Coast region has 41 projects under development, creating a combined capture capacity of 101 Mt/y. The largest portion of this is attached to industrial facilities.

Other regions that have sizeable emissions volumes but have received less attention are the Appalachian, Illinois, Michigan, and South Florida Basins. Although the Appalachian Basin has the second highest emissions volume of the regional storage sites, it currently has only one CCS project in development and one pending Class VI well permit. Unlike the Gulf Coast, power plants in the Appalachian Basin contribute the majority of emissions in the region, with industry only emitting 69 Mt/y CO₂e. Industry emissions are even smaller in the Illinois, Michigan, and South Florida Basins, where they account for a combined 64 Mt/y CO₂e.

Generally, CCUS projects at coal and natural gas power plants are considered more costly than some industrial applications of carbon capture because power plant flue gas has a relatively low pressure and CO₂ concentration. Carbon capture capacity under development in the U.S. leans towards industrial sources rather than power plants, due in part to this economic advantage. In fact, capacity under development at industrial sites is more than double that under development at power plants in the U.S., with industrial corridors along the Gulf Coast being the site of many of these projects.

Despite the advantages of locating capture facilities near storage sites, some developers have opted to pursue projects that do involve long-distance CO₂ transportation. Most notably, Summit Carbon Solutions, Navigator CO₂, and Wolf Carbon Solutions have proposed projects that involve capturing CO₂ at numerous ethanol plants in the Midwest and transporting it to designated storage sites via hundreds of miles of new pipelines. Projects of this kind benefit from having low-cost CO₂ capture sites and aggregating large CO₂ quantities that can lead to economies of scale. This development model suggests that while carbon capture projects located within geologic storage sites inherently yield lower CO₂ transportation costs, there are opportunities for projects that exist outside of storage areas if they can successfully pool CO₂ into pipeline corridors and centralized hubs.  

Interested in BTU Analytics’ CCUS Projects Database? Email info@btuanalytics.com with the subject line “Energy Transition”.

BTU Analytics is a FactSet Company. This article was originally published on the BTU Analytics website.

This blog post is for informational purposes only. The information contained in this blog post is not legal, tax, or investment advice. FactSet does not endorse or recommend any investments and assumes no liability for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction taken based on the information contained in this article.