UK carbon technology provider Carbon Clean has been picked to carry out initial engineering for the Acorn project's carbon capture plant at the St Fergus gas terminal in Scotland.
Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) — a venture between UK firms Storegga, Shell and Harbour Energy — is one of the most advanced CCS and hydrogen projects in the UK and is currently in the detailed engineering and design phase. Carbon Clean will work with UK oil services firm Wood Group on engineering, process design and construction planning for the carbon capture process unit.
The Acorn project aims to re-purpose existing gas pipelines to transport CO2 to a storage site in the North Sea 100km off the northeast coast of Scotland. Acorn aims to be operational by the mid-2020s and would capture 300,000t of CO2/yr in its first phase.
"By reusing existing gas pipelines, Acorn will transport the captured CO2 from the gas terminal stacks, into well-understood CO2 storage sites," the firms said. The project will initially use the Goldeneye pipeline — one of the three existing pipelines identified as being suitable for CO2 transportation, according to Storegga's subsidiary Pale Blue Dot Energy.
The project could then be scaled up to meet demand for carbon storage from other emitters, in order to capture between 5mn-10mn t CO2/yr by 2030, according to the firm.
"The CCS network created through the Acorn Project has the potential to be one of the largest operating CCS projects in the world, transporting and storing captured CO2 from emitters across Scotland, the UK and Europe," the Acorn partners said.
The Acorn project will be crucial in meeting UK and Scottish emissions targets. Scotland has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2045, which is five years earlier than the target recommended for the whole of the UK by government advisory body the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). Acorn, if fully realised, could remove at least half the CO2 emissions set out in the UK government's Ten Point Plan by 2030, according to the partners.
Acorn could play an instrumental role in decarbonising Scotland's industry, including in Aberdeen, Fife and Grangemouth, on the east coast, with the partners in the project looking into transportation and storage solutions for the industrial clusters. Storegga signed a preliminary agreement last week with Ineos and Petroineos at Grangemouth to link that site with St Fergus. Ineos is the operator of the Forties Pipeline System (FPS), and UK-Chinese venture Petroineos operates the 210,000 b/d Grangemouth refining and petrochemicals complex.
"This initiative will cover their entire Grangemouth site and will enable the capture and storage of approximately 1mn t/yr of CO2 by 2027, with the scope to capture further significant volumes beyond this date," Storegga said.
The Scottish North East Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage Alliance (Neccus) — an industry decarbonisation group — has identified that 80pc of Scotland's industrial emissions come from the east coast of Scotland and amount to 9mn t/yr of CO2.
The Acorn project also includes plans for a 200MW blue hydrogen plant at St Fergus by 2025. The plant could be scaled up to produce around 1GW by 2030, and its location offers potential to blend hydrogen into the national transmission system (NTS), according to Pale Blue Dot Energy. About 35pc of natural gas used in the UK is processed at St Fergus, making it a strategic location for blue hydrogen production, the partners said.
