Pipeline will help cut carbon capture costs: study

Published Date: 31 March 2010
By Bob Rae
A pipeline network, capable of carrying up to 40 million tonnes of CO2 a year from major Yorkshire manufacturers to storage sites under the North Sea, is being hailed as the most cost effective way to implement ambitious Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) plans for the region.
A new study commissioned by local industry and CO2Sense Yorkshire, the organisation that helps businesses developing technologies to combat climate change, reckons the network could lop £250 million off the £900 million cost of laying individual pipes from companies to a central facility.Researchers say investing in additional pipeline capacity in the initial phase of CCS development in the region would be cost effective even if subsequent developers do not join the network for up to 11 years.It would also minimise the planning, environmental and technical impact of the network and operational costs may fall as each new capture project sends CO2 into the pipeline.Stephen Brown director of carbon capture and storage at CO2Sense Yorkshire, said: "Commercial scale CO2 capture projects in the region are likely to be developed gradually over a 15 to 20 year period."Constructing a high capacity CO2 pipeline in the early years will enable industry to invest in CO2 capture projects with the confidence of knowing that transportation and storage was available to them more cheaply than if they built and operated their own pipeline and store."Securing this new infrastructure for the region with the right level of capacity will be crucial in enabling existing power stations and heavy industry to invest in CO2 capture technology with confidence."