Decarbonisation Technology - May 2023 Issue

will be achieved in the next 15-20 years. In the meantime, decarbonised hydrogen provides an interim solution to help build the necessary infrastructure while reducing emissions. As the economic drivers boost the hydrogen demand across the globe, new value chains for both commercial and domestic use are being developed. The concept of industrial clusters (shown at the bottom of Figure 4) is becoming increasingly important as it enables heavy-industry emitters to develop collective, cost-effective hydrogen production pathways. Rather than establishing dedicated decarbonised hydrogen production for each emitter, clusters can benefit from a single centralised hydrogen production unit that supplies all the users. CCS value chain According to the IEA, CCUS is one of the most cost-effective solutions available to reduce emissions from some industrial and fuel transformation processes. Government mandates in some countries are driving projects forward, whereas other regions are closely monitoring the situation. At Shell Catalysts & Technologies, we have found that the pipeline of opportunities has so far been doubling roughly every 18 months. While CO 2 collection and transport via pipeline

into established storage locations is mature, more complex value chains, including ship transport for storage and utilisation, are in development. We are very active in this sector, licensing our pre-combustion technology, ADIP Ultra, and our post-combustion technology, the Cansolv CO 2 Capture System. Shell’s ambition is to store more than 25 Mt of CO 2 annually by 2035, which will involve multiple CCS projects across the globe and enable the decarbonisation of multiple value chains. As an example, the Quest facility in Canada uses ADIP-X, an earlier iteration of ADIP Ultra, to capture 1 million tonnes per annum of CO 2 from three hydrogen manufacturing units. This project has been highly successful, with more than 6 Mt of CO 2 captured, transported, and permanently stored two kilometres underground. The project has achieved better than projected reliability, cost and storage performance, with more than 99% uptime and an operating cost of approximately $25 per tonne of CO 2 . Furthermore, Shell could now reduce the cost of such a project by 30%. To further improve the affordability of CCS, Shell Catalysts & Technologies has an alliance with Technip Energies that is focused on driving down the cost of carbon capture. This combines both companies’ extensive technology and

Pipeline gas

Decarbonised hydrogen

Low-carbon products

Oil, chemicals and gas industries

Rening, Petchem, LNG

SBHP

Excess decarbonised hydrogen to other industries

Fuel gas

Decarbonised ammonia (for export)

Pipeline gas

Low-carbon ammonia

Natural gas industr y

Natural gas

SBHP

Pipeline gas

Low-carbon electricity Low-carbon products

Power industry

Power

SBHP

Consortiums of industries (clusters)

Pipeline gas

Steel

Power

Cement

Paper

Rening

SBHP

Decarbonised hydrogen

Figure 4 Integration of SBHP into the production of low-carbon chemicals, ammonia, electricity, and consumer goods