Optimising Carbon Capture and Storage Supply Chains for the European Industry

Abstract Carbon capture and storage is considered of fundamental importance to achieve a remarkable decarbonisation of steel, cement and refining sectors. To operate carbon capture and storage at scale and address its inherent complexity, mathematical programming techniques can be exploited to optimise such systems. This contribution proposes a Europe-wide, spatially-explicit, time-dependent, carbon capture and storage chains optimisation, based on mixed integer linear programming architecture. Capture plants can be installed in all significant industrial CO2 emitters, which comprise 25 steel mills, 111 cement plants and 59 refineries. A techno-economic description of capture plants is provided, based on scale effects and different options. Transport can be operated through pipelines and offshore storage is taken into account in the North Sea and Adriatic area. The analysis allows identifying the most promising sectors and optimal specific plants where capture should be operated, and the evolution of the system throughout the time horizon. Considering a time-varying carbon reduction target, the avoidance cost is 75.6 €/t of CO2 for a North Sea targeted network, and decreases by 1.9% when sequestration in the Adriatic Sea is also taken into account.