Reuse of Existing CO2 Pipeline and Pipeline Rights-Of-Way for Large-Scale CCS Deployments

Abstract Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an important technology to mitigate climate change and the proper design of CCS infrastructure is essential for large-scale CCS deployments. However, constructing new CCS transport infrastructure is expensive, requiring substantial investments and extensive negotiations with various landowners. Given that many pipeline infrastructures, such as pipelines and pipeline rights-of-way (ROWs), are available, it is anticipated that converting these existing infrastructures for transportation would be beneficial for CCS deployments. Therefore, this work is focused on reusing existing infrastructures to reduce the overall costs and accelerating CCS deployments. To reuse existing CO2 pipelines and ROWs, we first obtained and analyzed various data on CO2 pipelines and ROWs. Next, we integrated the existing pipeline route data into a generated candidate pipeline network for optimization. For the existing pipeline ROWs, we generated an updated cost weight surface map based on various Geographic Information System (GIS) information, which was then utilized to the subsequent pipeline network optimization. We tested the newly developed computational capabilities on CO2 pipeline infrastructure design projects in the Intermountain West (I-West) region of the United States, where multiple existing CO2 pipelines and ROWs of pipelines (e.g., natural gas and crude oil pipelines) are available. The results show that the reutilization of existing infrastructure impacts the optimal CCS pipeline network, including pipeline routes and overall transport costs. Specifically, if the existing CO2 pipelines meet the transport requirements, they can potentially be used without constructing new ones. On the other hand, if the existing CO2 pipeline is not available, new pipelines can potentially be built utilizing existing pipeline ROWs to reduce the costs associated with obtaining new ROWs. Given that there are over thousands of miles of existing CO2 pipelines and millions of miles of natural gas pipelines in the United States, the new modeling capabilities developed in this work will play a key role in accelerating large-scale CCS deployment.