Report says industry CCS “clusters” are key to cutting costs of climate action

An analysis of “clusters” of industrial facilities in Scotland has been published by Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage. The study supports the advice of the UK government to share transport and storage infrastructure. It suggests re-using natural gas pipelines to reduce the transporting of captured carbon dioxide to geological storage sites already identified offshore.

The UK’s Committee on Climate Change has a fresh approach to CCS. It has recommended a focus initially on one or two clusters in the industry. In addition they call for investment in transport and storage infrastructure. The report makes the following recommendations:

1. Scotland’s legacy of gas pipelines offer a method of reducing capital costs of carbon dioxide transport from clusters of large point sources, such as power plants and cement manufacturers.

2. The Feeder 10 gas line in particular could collect and transport between 3.5 million tonnes per year of carbon dioxide at minimum and 10 million tonnes per year at maximum.

3. Approximately 80% of Scotland’s large point sources of carbon dioxide emissions are within 40km of the Feeder 10 pipeline. By re-using this pipeline there could be a saving of one half of the capital cost of transporting the carbon dioxide volumes from Central Scotland to St Fergus for connection to offshore storage facilities.