Integration and Technology Options for Implementing CO2 Capture and Storage in Oil Sands Operations

1
Integration and Technology Options for
Implementing CO2 Capture and Storage in Oil Sands
Operations

• Guillermo Ordorica-Garcia, Ph.D., AITF M. Carbo,
  Ph.D., ECN, M. Nikoo, MASc, AITF, I. Bolea, CIRCE

CURIPC 2010 ConferenceCalgary, Alberta, Canada,
October 19-21, 2010
2
Outline

• Introduction
• CO2 Capture Overview
• Pre-combustion
• Post-combustion
• Oxyfuel combustion
• Chemical Looping combustion
• Integration options for oil sands
• Mining
• SAGD
• Upgrading
• Conclusions

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Introduction

• Carbon capture RD has focused mostly on power
  generation applications
• Our focus is on stationary fossil energy supply
  processes in oil sands
• Objectives of the paper
• Overview of current CO2 capture landscape
• Highlight opportunities and challenges of
  implementing capture in oil sands operations
• Discuss the comparative suitability of CO2
  capture technologies for carbon mitigation in oil
  sands

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Overview of CO2 capture

• Capture is only one link in the CCS chain
• Four leading technologies
• Pre-combustion
• Post-combustion
• Oxyfuel combustion
• Chemical Looping combustion

Flue gas
LPCO2
HP CO2
Energy conversion
Carbon capture
CO2 compression
CO2 transport
CO2 storage
Monitoring Measuring Verification
Fuel
5
Pre-combustion capture
CO2 purity 95
Physical absorption of CO2 using a solvent
Solvent regeneration by pressure difference
High pressure operation
Source Strömberg, 2005
H2-rich syngas combustion
O2 for partial oxidation
CO to CO2 and H2 via water-gas shift
6
Post-combustion capture
CO2 purity gt99
Large flue gas volumes with low CO2 content
Solvent regeneration requires application of heat
Atmospheric pressure operation
Source Strömberg, 2005
Air-fired N2 in flue gas
Chemical absorption of CO2 using a solvent
7
Oxyfuel combustion capture
Flue gas cleanup (ash,sulphur, etc.)
CO2 purity 85
Atmospheric pressure operation
Water separation by condensation
Source Strömberg, 2005
Flue gas recycle to moderate boiler temperature
O2 for combustion
8
Chemical looping combustion (CLC)
Metal oxide regeneration 4Me 2O2 ?4MeO Heat
CO2 purity ??
Water separation by condensation
Fluidised bed reactor
Metal oxide reduction 4MeO CH4 ? 4?Me CO2
2H2O
Low-cost O2 separation
9
Integration options for oil sands
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Energy demands and CO2

• CO2 sources are a function of energy demands and
  oil sands process

Mobile sources
Mining
Upgrading
SAGD
Source Ordorica-Garcia et.al., 2007
11
Mining operations

• Energy demands are largely hot water and power
• Comparison of capture technologies

12
Mining Post-combustion

• The bulk of the CO2 can be recovered

Hydrotransport
Oil sand
Slurry
CO2 to storage
?
Captureplant
Diluent
CO2
Hot water
Diluted bitumen
Hot water extraction
Boiler
Fossil fuel
Steam
Steam
CO2
Electricityto process
Steam
Hot water
Co-gen plant
Talings to storageponds
Oil sand
Conditioning
Slurry
?
Fossil fuel
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Mining Post-combustion

• The bulk of the CO2 can be recovered
• Retrofit with minimal disruption
• Large energy demands for solvent regen.
• Additional steam capacity may be required
• Cost of new steam capacity - co-generation?
• Land requirements
• Large absorption columns required to handle
  large volumes of diluted CO2 flue gas

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Mining Pre-combustion

• Gasification would produce large amounts of
  low-grade heat, useful in mining
• Less attractive than post-combustion
• Significant added cost and complexity
• Gasifier and oxygen plant
• Hot water and power are the main products
• Preferable only if natural gas is much more
  expensive than gasification fuels

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Mining Oxyfuel and CLC

• Possible to retrofit air-fired boiler to oxyfuel
• Less attractive than post-combustion
• Significant added cost and complexity
• Oxygen plant
• Hot water and power are the main products
• Preferable if excess power and/or steam could be
  sold to nearby users
• Power transmission infrastructure?

16
SAGD operations

• Energy demands are mostly steam
• OTSG tech. is widely used in the industry
• Comparison of capture technologies

17
SAGD Oxyfuel combustion

• Possible to retrofit air-fired boiler to oxyfuel
• Net production of water

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SAGD CLC vs Oxyfuel

• Elimination of Oxygen plant
• Less complexity and lower costs

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SAGD CLC vs Oxyfuel

• Elimination of Oxygen plant
• Less complexity and lower costs
• CLC attractive for smaller scale operations

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SAGD Post-combustion

• Retrofit with minimal disruption
• Large energy demands for solvent regeneration
  steam for SAGD
• Additional steam capacity may be required
• Cost of new steam capacity - co-generation?
• Increased water demands
• Land requirements
• Large absorption columns required to handle
  large volumes of diluted CO2 flue gas

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SAGD Pre-combustion

• Less attractive than Oxyfuel
• Separation of combustion and capture processes
• Significant added cost and complexity
• Gasifier and oxygen plant
• Steam is the main product
• Limited to Greenfield SAGD plants
• Could be used to produce low-CO2, H2-rich syngas
  for distributed steam generation

22
Upgrading operations

• Energy demands are mostly H2 and steam
• Comparison of capture technologies

23
Upgrading Pre-combustion

• Capture the bulk of CO2 from H2 production
• Gasification of bitumen residues/coal/blends

Nitrogen
O2 to gasifiers
Air
ASU
Steam to process
Co-gen plant
Hydrogen
Fuel gas
Electricity
Electricityto process
Sulphur recovery
CO2 to storage
Sulphur
Syngas to process
Gasifier 2
Diluent
Synthetic Crude Oil
CO2
Diluted bitumen
Hydrotreating
Atmospheric distillation
O2 from ASU
Coal
CO2
CO2 to storage
Syngas fuel
Hydrogen
CO2
CO2
Vacuum distillation
Hydrocracking
Solvent deasphalting
Gasifier 1
Coking
?
Petcoke
Asphaltene
?
Coal
Hydrogen
O2 from ASU
Syngas fuel
Syngas fuel
Syngas fuel
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Upgrading Pre-combustion

• Capture the bulk of CO2 from H2 production
• Gasification of bitumen residues/coal/blends
• Steam, power, and H2 co-production fully
  supply energy demands with reduced CO2
• The main CO2 source is the H2 plant
• Large capital costs
• Does little to address CO2 emissions from
  furnaces (coker, distillation columns, etc.)

25
Upgrading Post-combustion

• The main CO2 source is the H2 plant
• High CO2 concentration in flue gas
  pre-combustion (physical absorption) is better
• Multiple distributed CO2 sources (furnaces)
• Extensive ducting of large, diluted-CO2 flue
  gases high cost and energy for transport
• Large centralised absorbers required
• Additional steam capacity reqd high cost
• Large space requirements for the above

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Upgrading Oxyfuel combustion

• The main CO2 source is the H2 plant
• Oxyfuel cannot be integrated with H2 production
• Retrofit furnaces for oxyfuel operation
• Could use O2 from ASU
• Concentrated CO2 flue gases
• Lower space requirements than post-combustion
• Extensive ducting of flue gases required high
  cost/energy for transport
• Unclear whether the incremental CO2 capture from
  oxyfuel makes economic sense

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Upgrading CLC

• The main CO2 source is the H2 plant
• Capture the bulk of CO2 from H2 production
• Chemical Looping Reforming (CLR)
• Hydrocarbon gasification or reforming H2
  production
• Inherent CO2 separation without an O2 plant
  lower costs
• CLR is in a very early stage of development
• Does little to address CO2 emissions from
  furnaces (coker, distillation columns, etc.)

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Conclusions

• More detailed assessments of CCS integration
  options for oil sands operations are needed
• The choice of capture technology is a strong
  function of the type of energy for each process
• Post combustion is the best fit for mining
• Oxyfuel is ideal for SAGD CLC may surpass it in
  the future (CLC does not require an O2 plant)
• Pre-combustion is the best for upgrading CLR may
  be a viable future H2 production option oxyfuel
  may be useful in upgrading (furnaces)

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Integration and Technology Options for
Implementing CO2 Capture and Storage in Oil Sands
Operations

• Guillermo Ordorica-Garcia, Ph.D.,
  ordorica_at_albertainnovates.ca

CURIPC 2010 ConferenceCalgary, Alberta, Canada,
October 19-21, 2010