Environmental Protection:

Life cycle assessment of CO2 capture and storage

The debate surrounding the capture, transport and storage of CO2 has been mainly focused on technology and economy, and a complete environmental analysis for a Norwegian case has not been available. This is why Statoil decided to make a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a future Tjeldbergodden gas power plant, to include CO2 capture, transport and storage.
Statoil has for many years been working on the development of technology and processes to meet the climate challenge in connection with the extraction and use of fossil-based energy carriers. The Statoil project ‘A CO2 free gas power plant at Tjeldbergodden’ has been widely covered in the media in recent years. The debate surrounding CO2 capture, transport and storage has been mainly focused on technology and economy, and a complete environmental analysis for a Norwegian case has not been available. This is why Statoil decided to make a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a future Tjeldbergodden gas power plant, to include CO2 capture, transport and storage.


Tjeldbergodden. Foto: Statoil

A ‘CO2 free’ gas power plant at Tjeldbergodden can have several functions:

• The production of X TWh electricity
• The storage of Y mill tonne CO2
• Z mill tonnes enhanced oil recovery

The first step is to carry out an LCA of a simplified system of CO2 capture and storage, but without enhanced oil recovery-effects. Natural gas from the Heidrun field will be used in a combined cycle process and the CO2 capture process will be based on postcombustion decarbonisation using MEA (monoethanolamine) absorption. After the capture process, the CO2 will be transported in a 150 km pipeline to storage at the Draugen field. The results will be compared to a similar case without CO2 capture, and the chemicals used in the capture process will be analysed in respect to the new regulations following the REACH directive in EU.

The study will be structured to make it easy to extend and create different scenarios. The study will be an important basis for future strategic choices in Statoil.