Challenges in CO₂ transportation: Trends and perspectives

Transportation of CO2 is essential for multiple applications in Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), e.g., for utilisation in methanol production, enhanced oil recovery, or permanent storage. Currently, the CCUS industry is still in its fancy, and the transportation regulation is still defined from project to project, where the existing quality specifications are tailored to the specific storage or utilisation site. It is estimated that transportation accounts for 25% of the total costs of a CCUS project, and commercialisation cannot be achieved with an infrastructure of high-grade steel together with high purity CO2. The current transportation infrastructure is based on point-to-point transport, where it is believed that it will be challenging to upscale CCUS without a common quality standard. This leaves a knowledge gap in the design, operation, and investment of CO2 transportation. This study includes an evaluation of the challenges that halt the progression in CO2 transportation based on a survey of the literature. Analysing the benefit of establishing an international quality standard for CO2 transportation for CCUS to become a global industry. A detailed description of the initiative policies within CCUS along with the challenges associated with designing the CO2 transportation infrastructure, which arises when chemical reactions form corrosive or scaling compounds. As a result, this study proposes a future action plan to make CO2 transport more feasible by forming a common CO2 quality specification and a material selection based on CO2 quality.