Techno-economic assessment of carbon capture, utilization and storage from Tangga Barat natural gas field

• Main Author: Norhasyima binti Rahmad Sukor
• Format: text::Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2023

Rising concern on global warming directly related to CO₂ emissions is steering the advancement of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. However, due to high cost and uncertainties in long term geological storage, there is a growing inclination to include utilization, which could re-use the CO₂, hence carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS). Additionally, it is expected to generate income to offset the initial costs. With Malaysia having an estimated 37 Tscfd of natural gas remains undeveloped in natural gas field with CO₂, there is a need to assess the viability of CCUS. Malaysia is recognizing that CCUS pathway may be a feasible option to address the CO₂ emission increase. This study presents the analysis of new CO₂ utilization technologies via patent search which has potential application for CCUS. CO₂ utilization into polymer, methanol, cement and microalgae was found to have high potential for CCUS as they are not location dependent. This study also develops a new techno-economic assessment fit for CCUS at an offshore natural gas field in Malaysia. This assessment framework includes a gas field model, revenue model and cost model. A techno-economic spreadsheet consisting of Net Present Value (NPV), Payback Period (PBP) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is developed over the gas field’s production life of 15 years for four distinctive CO₂ capture technologies which are membrane, chemical absorption, physical absorption and cryogenics with CO₂ utilization into polymer, methanol, cement and microalgae. Results shows that through CCUS using physical absorption solvent (Selexol) as CO₂ capture technology and CO₂ utilization into polymer is the most feasible with NPV of USD 4080 Million, IRR of 43% and PBP of 3.55 years. The output from techno-economic model and associated risks of the CCUS project are quantified by employing sensitivity analysis (SA) which indicated that the project NPV is exceptionally most sensitive to tax. On this basis, the economic performance of the project is reliant on tax, which is dictated by country policy and government decisions. Applying the cost reductions achievable through utilization technologies reduces the capture cost to a level less than the carbon price, making CCUS an attractive mitigation option. The techno-economic model established in this study can be replicated and applied at other natural gas fields containing CO₂. Hence, techno-economically viable CCUS project will lead to the unlocking and development of natural gas field containing CO₂ while minimizing CO₂ emission into atmosphere.