Technical and Legal aspects of CO2 transport by ship and implementation of the CO2 flow monitoring by Joost de Wolff and Thomas Mikunda

The CCS chain leads from the CO2 source to the permanent CO2 sink. The starting point and final destination are reasonably well defined, but the chain elements in between might vary. For practical purposes the capture or purification unit will be in close vicinity to the CO2-source, as is the compression or liquefaction unit. The distance to the sink however, can be considerable which creates the necessity for a transport system. For large scale, long term operations transport by a dedicated pipeline is the intuitive choice. However, in the initial stages of CCS development in Europe, the relative flexibility of shipping CO2 both in terms of capacity and destination can offer a economically attractive solution. For example, the use of ships may be suitable for smaller amounts of CO2 to be transported over long distances to multiple small storage sites which are to be used for a limited period of time. A network of transport pipes might become available at a later stage once the technology is proven at large scale and a large transport capacity is required to accommodate multiple sources.