06/30/2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
The long-distance gas network operator Bayernets is examining the conditions for a CO2 network in southern Germany. A feasibility study is to help.
On paper, the CO2 start-up network is already in place. It is to run from Rosenheim to the Upper Bavarian chemical triangle to Burghausen and then further to Austria towards Linz. Almost 250 kilometers of pipeline would have to be built. But who needs a CO2 network? "Industry," says Richard Unterseer, head of Bayernets' grid management division, in an interview with the editorial team.
In 2045, Germany wants to operate in a climate-neutral manner, and the state of Bavaria even from 2040. But even after that, so-called unavoidable CO2 emissions will occur. "Particularly in the production of lime and cement, process-related CO2 emissions are released," Unterseer said. The chemical industry and waste incineration plants (MVA) also produce unavoidable CO2 emissions. This is where Bayernets' concept comes in. It wants to point thereby the entrance into a future CO2 cycle economy.
The resulting CO2 is not to arrive after all into the atmosphere. One option is to store the CO2 in underground reservoirs after capture (carbon capture and storage, CCS). An even more sustainable option is to use it as a raw material in industry after capture (carbon capture and utilization, CCU). In both cases, the CO2 usually has to be transported to the storage facility or to the industrial plant. This requires pipelines.
With the cement manufacturer Rohrdorfer, Bayernets is therefore examining the construction of a pipeline to transport carbon dioxide in southern Bavaria. In a feasibility study, the two partners want to determine what it would take to connect the cement plant at the Rohrdorf site near Rosenheim with potential CO2 users in the Bavarian chemical triangle in Burghausen. The distance between the two sites is around 80 kilometers.
With a CO2 network, new ground is being broken
This is breaking absolutely new ground, Unterseer said. The feasibility study is to clarify a lot of technical and regulatory questions:
- What quality or purity should or must the CO2 have for transport?
- Which materials are used in pipeline construction?
- Where can the gas be stored temporarily?
- Where are possible customers ready?
- What about the legal framework of a CO2 pipeline in Germany as in Austria?
"Due to existing pipeline routes and the operational organization, gas network operators are ideal partners for the development of a CO2 transport network," Bayernets Managing Director Matthias Jenn is quoted in a statement. The planned CO2 pipeline would be a new construction along existing routes, where Bayernets could draw on existing infrastructure, according to the plan.
Bayernets, as the network company of Bayerngas, which in turn is majority-owned by Stadtwerke München, would also like to deliberately bring the issue to the public's attention via the feasibility study. "We have already held some talks with stakeholders," Unterseer said. These include the Austrian gas grid operators and the responsible ministries of economics and the environment in Bavaria and Austria. He added that the company is also in contact with trade associations. The interest is great, Unterseer said.
If you look at the map again, you can see that the planned CO2 network is to run in a further stage westward past Munich and Augsburg to Ulm. Another strand could go from Ingolstadt to Regensburg.
In northern Germany, the transmission system operator Open Grid Europe (OGE) is also planning a CO2 network. There, too, it is a completely independent transport network. Initially, a total length of 1,000 kilometers is planned.
OGE would like to use the Wilhelmshaven site as a CO2 hub. From there, the CO2 could be transported and injected into depleted natural gas fields in the North Sea.
The possibility of connecting the Bavarian CO2 network there would lend itself to "A connection to a national CO2 backbone as well as international expansion routes enable supra-regional linking with other places where CO2 is produced and used as well as potential permanent storage sites," Bayernets says.
Author: Stefan Sagmeister
Accessibility
Language