Optimizing large-scale CO2 pipeline networks using a geospatial splitting approach

Abstract

CO₂ transport infrastructure is the backbone of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology for the mitigation of carbon emissions and project deployment viability. In conventional large-scale CO₂ pipeline network designs, the storage sites are generally assumed as the centroids of the major geologic basins, however, this approach might provide suboptimal solutions since the large extension of some storage formations significantly increases the length of the CO₂ transportation networks. To address this situation and obtain optimal pipeline routes, we present a novel geospatial splitting framework that partitions large basins into multiple sub-sinks. In our approach, we used a large number of reservoir models varying petrophysical properties and CO₂ injection rates to compute pressure plumes through numerical simulations, leading to the calculation of the number of subregions for each basin as a function of the extension of pressure interference areas and boundaries. Finally, we applied K-means clustering and Voronoi polygon algorithms to partition large basins into subregions and obtain their sink coordinates. To demonstrate the capability of the developed workflow, we investigated two CO₂ pipeline network modeling case studies using our splitting approach: one regional case study focusing on the Intermountain West (I-West) region and one nationwide case study covering the lower 48 states in the U.S. In both case studies, we compared the optimal pipeline routes using the original and new storage locations and examined the major differences. The use of the developed geospatial approach resulted in both cases in a shortening of the total pipeline network length by 13% and 10%, compared to the pipeline modeling with the original basins, leading to cost reductions of 25% and 17%, respectively, demonstrating that the location of point sinks has a critical impact on the length and expenses of pipelines to efficiently transport CO₂ to distant storage sites. Therefore, the workflow presented here contributes to the proper and realistic modeling of case studies that support decision-making in CCS deployment.

Keywords: CO(2) pipelines; Carbon capture and storage; Geospatial basin splitting; Large-scale deployment; Network optimization.