Carbon Sequestration and CTL Technology in West Virginia

West Virginia GIS Technical CenterEvan Fedorko

Outline

• Fischer-Tropsch CTL• Spatial data development• Sequestration inquiry tool development• http://www.WVCarb.org• Site Rating Model development

Fischer-Tropsch CTL

• Aka, coal liquefaction, coal to liquids, CTL synfuels, etc. Two primary methods:

ONE:TWO:

Data Development

• Infrastructure Data• Sequestration Data– Source: WVGES

• Sequestration potential per unit area• Will be implemented into NatCarb.org

CTL Infrastructure Requirements

• Standard stuff: electricity, roads, coal supply, etc.

• Water, water, water! $$$ to move!• Carbon sequestration proximity. $$$ to move!• Existing pipelines.

Natural Gas Sequestration

Deep Coal Sequestration

Sequestration Per Unit Area

• Source data: shapefile polygons – blobs with a number attribute of capacity

• At a specific point…• How much carbon dioxide

can be sequestered within X distance?

• Problems!

Sequestration Per Unit Area

• To develop this tool, we must undergo raster conversion.

• Total sequestration (metric tons) must be converted to:

• Metric tons PER 90m pixel• S per 90m = sequestration/(area sq. m/8100)• 90 meter pixels result in values within ~2% of

actual.

Tool Development

• Data development has been driven by the need to answer this question:

• “How much carbon can we put in the ground within 10 miles of THIS point?”

Sequestration Explorer

Website Development

http://www.wvcarb.org

Ratings Development

• Goal: To rate (1-100) sites in West Virginia for their suitability to host a CTL facility.

• Model will be scripted, repeatable, and variables can vary as necessary.

• Model is constructed around weighted distance decay functions.– Carbon sequestration decays by distance, volume

and economic value.– Infrastructure decays by distance and cost.

Ratings Development

• Rating sequestration “neighborhoods”• Option 1: given a need for a predetermined amount of sequestration, what size neighborhood do we need?• Use radius in a distance decay function• Difficult to calculate• Statistically over-values sequestration variables

Radius = ?

Radius = ?

• Option 2: given a need for a predetermined amount of sequestration (10 years of CTL production), and several neighborhood sizes (1, 5, 10, 20 miles), which sites offer the MOST sequestration in the SMALLEST neighborhood?

R = 1, 5, 10, 20 miles

Q = ?

Ratings Development

• Sequestration

• can be retrieved with an existing GIS function, neighborhood analysis, focal statistics. Calculates a sum within a neighborhood.– Somewhat resource intensive to calculate

X = cost per mileZ = oil > coal > gas

• Infrastructure

• Sequestration

X = cost per mileZ = oil > coal > gas

Ratings Development

Ratings Development

• Final ratings equation, sum of all weights:

D-R-A-F-T

Future Work

• Inclusion of a “click and rate” tool for potential CTL sites

• Model refinement• New research into distance metrics for

sequestration• “New energy economy” data clearinghouse

Summary

• We discussed:– Spatial data development– Sequestration inquiry tool development– http://www.WVCarb.org – Site Rating Model development

Questions?