Climate Footprint on Transportation and Storage of Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Abstract: In order to combat climate change there is a need to achieve negative emissions. Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a promising technology that offers the possibility to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the atmosphere. However, this also implies that the BECCS process needs to store more CO2 than it emits. The purpose of this study is to examine the liquefaction, intermediate storage, transportation and long term storage of CO2 and evaluate the climate impact of the energy use and the leakage of CO2. This thesis is based on data collected through an extensive literature study and several interviews that were performed with relevant actors and informants. A key finding in this thesis is that the energy use through the examined steps of BECCS is responsible for the bulk of the CO2 emissions. Liquefaction and the transportation plays an essential role as it has the highest energy usage. Unfortunately the energy use of injecting CO2 into the geological formation remains unknown because of lack of data. The leakages found throughout the process were often negligible or even zero. However the leakages from injecting CO2 through pipeline and the CO2 leakage from long term storage was found to be of some significance. The total BECCS related carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions, are summarised in three scenarios ranging from approximately 49-58 kg CO2e per stored tonne of CO2. In these scenario calculations, some assumptions have had to be made. In order to evaluate the true and total environmental impact of BECCS, further research will be needed.
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