Phased Regional CCUS System Planning—A Study Based on Global Cases

Abstract There are numerous types of CO2 capture, utilization, and storage technologies, with significant disparities in maturity and applicability, posing challenges to regional carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) system planning. This article first reviews the technologies and typical CCUS project cases worldwide and concludes that the involved CO2 sources are mainly present in natural gas processing and chemical industries, where CO2 capture costs are offset by end-product sales. CO2 utilization and storage primarily hinge on the economically viable CO2-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) activities. By analyzing the development trends of global CCUS projects, it is proposed that matching of source and sink elements and phased implementation are the two fundamental principles in regional CCUS system planning. The elements on both sides of the source and the sink are summarized, elucidating the characteristics of source elements, including CO2 concentration, capture cost and capture scale on the source side, and sink elements, including CO2 concentration, product revenue, and storage capacity. The phased regional CCUS system planning methodology is proposed as: individual CCUS opportunities can be established by matching elements of CO2 concentration, cost-revenue, scale and geographical location of the source and sink sides; these CCUS opportunities can be divided into different priority tiers based on their technical feasibility and benefit; and the phased regional CCUS system is suggested to be implemented according to the order of priority tiers. Capacity calculation for each priority tier is also proposed. Finally, using Guizhou Province, China, as a case study, a phased regional CCUS system planning is discussed.