Clean Energy from Hydrocarbons: Opportunities and

Challenges for Carbon Capture and Storage

Yousef M. Alshammari, PhD & DIC

University of Vienna

Group of Expert on Cleaner Production of Electricity from Fossil Fuels

Oct 26th, 2017 | United Nations | Geneva

20% CO2

cut of

World

emissions

Why?• Cleaner if coupled with CCS

• More efficient

• Potential replacement for NG

• Flexibility of feedstock

• Capability of producing

massive H2

Routes:• Post-Combustion

• Pre-combustion

Challenges!• Feedstock price

• Access to capital

investment

Haszeldine, R.S., 2009. Carbon capture and storage: how green can black be?. Science, 325(5948), pp.1647-1652.

Hydrocarbons Geo, Solar,

Wind…etcCoal Nuclear Biomass

Electrolysis Thermochemical

cycles

Gasification

Bio

methanol

CCS

H2 Network

IGCC

Electricity

Network

The H2 Economy in 20XX

Carbon

Capture &

Storage

Industry Residential/Commercial Transport

H2

Reforming

H2

H2

Heat Heat

• G. Marbán, T. Valdés-Solís. (2007) ‘Towards the Hydrogen Economy’ , International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 32, 1625 – 1637

Air Separation Haber Process Water Gas ShiftH2N2 H2O

O2

Steam

Production Wells

CO2

For sequestration

NH3 / H2

H2, CO, CO2, CH4, H2S

Above Surface Gas Processing Plant

Depth

1,000+ m

Injection

Well

Ground

Hydrocarbon Resources

Pressure;

Hydrostatic Pressure

Temperature;

Steam/Oxygen or geothermal

temperature

Catalyst Placement;

Water Soluble, Dispersed

nanoparticles

H2 from Downhole Gasification

Processing Consideration:

• Shafirovich, E. and A. Varma, Underground coal gasification: a brief review of current status. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 2009. 48(17):

p. 7865- 7875.

Carbon Engineering air capture process

KOH

K2CO3

CaCO3

CaOCa(OH)2

http://carbonengineering.com/

Squamish demo plant site construction

Running 2015, ~500 tCO2/yr scale

Design for 'slab' air contactor

100,000tCO2/yr scale

NATURAL GAS - 2.8 MWh/tCO2 from air

@Jon Gibbins, 2015

Time to commercialization

Co

st r

edu

ctio

n b

enef

its

Amine solvent

Physical solvent

Cryogenic oxygen

Advanced physical solvents

Advanced Amine solvents

Cryogenic oxygen

Solid sorbents

Membrane systems

Ionic liquids

Enzymatic membranes

Technological updates

Chemical looping

Biological processes

Figueroa et al (2008). Advances in CO2 capture technology, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

Saudi Arabia is currently implementing a pilot project to reduce carbon emissions

in conjunction with “CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery” project aiming to reduce CO2

emissions by 800,000 tons per year.

CCS for EOR

Achieving 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Saudi Arabia under low and medium oil prices Y.M. Alshammari , 2016

CCS-EOR: What oil price is needed?

0.00

20.00

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80.00

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120.00

2020 2025 2030 2035 2040

46%-GHG - Crude Price 46%-GHG - Avoidance Cost

Cru

de

Oil

Bre

ak

even

Pri

ce [

$/b

bl]

CO

2A

vo

ida

nce

Cost

[$

/To

n ]

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

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60.00

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2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045

80%-GHG - Crude Price 80%-GHG - Avoidance Cost

Cru

de

Oil

Bre

ak

even

Pri

ce [

$/b

bl]

CO

2A

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ida

nce

Cost

[$

/To

n ]

It is found that the breakeven price of

crude oil is less than the CO2

avoidance costs between 2020 and

2030 after which it overshoots to be

higher than $100/bbl between 2035

and 2040, under the 46%-GHG

scenario.

This happens as a result of the

decrease in the amounts of CO2

captured that minimise the rate of

enhanced oil recovery.

This requires a higher breakeven price

of crude oil to compensate for the

costs of CCS-EOR.

The breakeven price under the 80%-

GHG scenario, Figure (9), shows a

different regime compared with the

46%-GHG scenario, Figure (8).

It is found that the breakeven price

becomes larger than the CO2

avoidance costs when the amounts of

CO2 captured decreases.

Important questions forward

Due to the scale and rate of CO2 production compared to its utilization rate,

it is highly likely that a scaled-up enhanced oil recovery (EOR)-CCS

industry will only account for 4–8%. This includes CO2 conversion which

may not exceed 1%.

Hence, without a major breakthrough, CO2-EOR may be an important

economic incentive for some early CCS projects, compared with CCU

which may prove to be costly and less financially and politically attractive

In addition, it is important to determine what synergies exist between CCS

and renewables in the transition for the low carbon targets.

• At what cost?

• At what scale?

• At what time?

• At what rate?

Mac Dowell, N., Fennell, P.S., Shah, N. and Maitland, G.C., 2017. The role of CO2 capture and utilization in mitigating climate

change. Nature Climate Change, 7(4), pp.243-249.

Haszeldine, R.S., 2009. Carbon capture and storage: how green can black be?. Science, 325(5948), pp.1647-1652.

The CO2 capture Car, an Initiative by Saudi Aramco