Leader: ETH-SED

Participants: ETH-SED, ETH-SPL, ETH-EPSE, Neustark, SBB Cargo, EPFL-LMS, University of Geneva, Salzmann AG Transporte, Carbfix, ISOR

The objectives of this work package are:

• Demonstrate the feasibility of the full supply chain with CO₂ liquefaction at a Swiss industrial emitter, transport, and geological storage abroad, for an overall amount of ca. 1000 tons CO₂ in the course of 12 months.
• Demonstrate for the first time the injection and mineralization of CO₂ dissolved in seawater in basalt reservoirs at the pilot scale.
• Assess the overall techno-economic and environmental (including life-cycle assessment) performance of the full supply chain and identify barriers and challenges to the implementation of future CO₂ value chains.

The overall purpose of this WP is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the full supply chain with CO₂ liquefaction at a Swiss industrial emitter and international transport, and geological storage abroad. The industrial emitter is the Ara Region Bern (Bern) wastewater treatment plant, which will provide a high purity biogenic CO₂ feedstock resulting from the upgrading of the biogas produced from wastewater, as illustrated in task description of WP 2.
Neustark and Ara Region Bern will manage and operate the liquefaction unit installed at the emitter’s facilities and will take care of loading the CO₂ onto dedicated isotainers for transport. SBB Cargo will operate the transport of the CO₂ isotainers from the emitter’s site to Rotterdam and back. The isotainers will be transported by truck to the Weil-am-Rhein train station, and from there by rail to the port of Rotterdam. Sea freight from the port of Rotterdam to Reykjavik will be managed by Carbfix. The storage of the CO₂ at a geological site and the monitoring of the site will be addressed and investigated in the linked project DemoUpStorage.
The partners of DemoUpStorage will be in charge of the technical and geological characterisation of the demonstration site (i.e., field characterisation, injection system design and set-up, reservoir fluid sampling and characterisation), of the construction of the injection system, and of the field demonstration (i.e., CO₂ injection, chemical monitoring, CO₂ flux monitoring). A more detailed description of the work packages of DemoUpStorage can be found here.
Upon its implementation, the performance of the CO₂ supply chain will be assessed based on defined key-performance indicators (KPIs) relative to technical, operational, economic, and environmental aspects. This work will (i) provide a blueprint design for CO₂ value chains that will be developed in the future, (ii) will prove the feasibility of such chains, and (iii) will allow an early identification of techno-economic, regulatory, and environmental gaps that should be addressed prior to scale-up and further development of CO₂ value chains.

Task 3.1:
Development, technical design, and planning of CO2 supply chain from the Swiss emitter to the geological storage site in Iceland via a truck-, train-, and ship-based solution and definition of KPIs
(ETH-SPL, all WP partners) (Month 1-6)

Task 3.2:
Pre-, during-, and post-injection CO2 monitoring
(ETH-SED, UniGeneva, EPFL-LMS, Carbfix, ISOR)
(Month 1-24)

Task 3.3:
Demonstration of the CO2 supply chain and monitoring of KPIs
(ETH-SPL, all WP partners)
(Month 8-19)

Task 3.4:
Life Cycle Assessment – Evaluation of the environmental performance of the overall value chain
(ETH-EPSE, all WP partners)
(Month 3-24)

Task 3.5:
End-of-demonstration evaluation of the overall value chain
(ETH-SPL, all WP partners)
(Month 20-24)