Economic analysis for the transport and storage of captured carbon dioxide in South Korea

The continuous rise of CO₂ emissions is a major cause of global climate change. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is widely seen as a practical technology for reducing CO₂ emissions. CCS mainly consists of capturing CO₂ from large emitting sources and its transportation to a sequestration site where it can be stored safely for a long period of time. The average CO₂ emission growth rate of Korea is 1.0% which is the second highest among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. It becomes even more challenging when CO₂ is transported to an offshore storage since there is little experience with subsea pipelines for CO₂ transportation. In this study, a plausible transport and storage model scheme has been developed and then employed to study different offshore CO₂ transportation cases for South Korea as: CO₂ transport in liquid phase (Temperature= -20°C, Pressure= 6.50 MPa); CO₂ transport in liquid phase (Temperature= 5°C, Pressure= 9.30 MPa); CO₂ transport in supercritical phase (Temperature= 40°C, Pressure= 15.00 MPa). CO₂ storage capacity in sedimentary basins of Korea is evaluated between 19 and 27.2 Gt (giga-ton) of CO ₂. Finally, this paper explores the costs associated with transport and geologic sequestration of CO₂. Transport cost varies from 10.9 to 15.5 US$/tCO₂ while the storage cost ranges from 20.8 to 21.3 US$/tCO₂ depending on the specific scenario and depth at which CO₂ is stored. Sensitivity analysis showed a decrease in storage cost of 62.4% and 93.6% in 2030 and 2050 respectively for projected CO₂ volumes in Korea.